reddit capitalizes over free mod labour

I was thinking about this yesterday, and I think it's the issue that will end Reddit. Hear me out.

Let's imagine Reddit as a non profit. Admin aren't paid, mods aren't paid, everyone's on the same level. It's fine.

The problem is that this isn't the reality - as we all know.

So now you have a bunch of people working for Reddit for free (mods), a bunch of people working for Reddit for a salary (admins), and a bunch of people sharing the revenue of the site (shareholders). So in a way, Reddit mods are very plainly providing free, quality work for the suited-up shareholders of Reddit Inc.

The lawyers of Reddit and/or its shareholders are awaiting one disaster: the day some mod will sue Reddit with a very simple argument "I worked for you. Give me money". Depending on the country whose law will apply, such a case will have grounds, and the mod in question will receive money, and so opens the door to countless mods waiting to get paid.

But I'm sure Reddit lawyers are more clever than that. I'm sure they have thought of the issue ahead, and I'm sure that... Some mods are already being paid. These power users with 500k+ karma whose usernames are known to a lot of people here, and who mod sometimes over 100 subreddit are without the shaddow of a doubt Reddit employees.

Therefore, the power on this site isn't being distributed between admins, mods and users. It now resides in the hand of the executives who will sculpt, morph and warp the content of this site at their will, from the users up.

The purpose of this site is to create the illusion that it is administered by users, while it is very closely watched by its employees.