There are two phenomena associated with the internet that have always baffled me. One, is the sheer number of people willing to work for free. I'm not talking about labor of love kind of stuff. I am talking about people who will put insane amounts of time and effort into a project so someone else can get rich. For an example, many bloggers and wikipedia drones.
The second, is what we see unfolding here with Aluminum Jeebus. That is, there are scores of people from all economic levels who simply enjoy giving away money, even when it is obvious the person they are giving it to doesn't really "need it." It took the internet to make me realize we live in a world where a guy can ask people to pay for his month long party, and people would actually want to do that. It really is truly fascinating.