The Cult of "Passive Income" | Internet Analysis

The Cult of

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Hello, my dudes! My name is Tiffany, welcome back  to my series, Internet Analysis, where I like to   research and discuss things relevant to social  issues and media. Today's topic is: the cult   of passive income. And no, this is not literally  about a cult, but you know what I mean. Lately,   my TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram have been  flooded with these self-made entrepreneurs   posting their tips on how to make money, be  your own boss, and become financially free.   In this space online, we've seen the promotion of  side hustles for a long time, but now I think the   passive income ploys are the new thing -- well  they're not new, they've been around for a   long time, but in this moment, pretty popular.  Instead of one, or maybe two measly paychecks,   don't you want a dozen or more passive streams of  income? Do you want to make money while you sleep? To begin, why are passive income ideas so popular  right now? I don't think this will be news to any   of you, but people right now are working shitty  jobs for low wages -- wages that are not keeping   up with inflation or the cost of living. I  asked my Patrons about this topic and one said,   "you can't possibly work enough  hours to make up the difference,   so this dream of passive income is the only  hope." We also have an absolute lack of security,  

long or short term; you could be fired,  let go, replaced from your job at any time.   The cost of housing is very high. Many people  have given up on the dream of ever owning a home.   Student debt is a massive crisis,  as is medical debt - here in the US,   especially! For many, the likelihood of ever  being able to retire, let alone comfortably,   seems near impossible. Bottom line, we do not have  a strong social safety net in the United States,   so we feel like we have to save, work, hustle, in  order to secure our own futures. Nobody is going  

to help us do that; our government's not gonna!  So, you put all these factors and others together,   you've got a recipe for desperation. People  just want solutions, we want to be able to hope   for a better future. Whether you are  deeply in debt, broke, middle class,   or rich, the idea of passive income is universally  appealing; it's minimum input for maximum output. So first, I want to start by touching on MLMs. A  lot of the passive income ideas that we're going   to talk about in this video sound a little MLM-y  to me, which I'm sure I will continue mentioning   throughout this video. So for those who don't  know, MLM stands for 'Multi-Level Marketing',  

also known as network marketing, or  dozens of other euphemisms. Basically,   the typical MLM pitch goes like this: "Hey you,  do you need more money? Do you hate your job?   Are you unemployed? You can join this company,  be your own boss! Sell these wonderful products   that are so good, they're not even sold  in stores, you have to buy them through   network marketers like me! And also, you can  recruit people below you to be on your team,   so they'll sell more things, recruit more  people, and put more money in your pocket." MLMs are promoted as a low effort,  easy way to make unlimited money. "You can work from your couch or on the  beach! I've made like $20,000 this month,   just by using Instagram and messaging  some of my friends! I swear, it's true!" I love that one minute they're telling you this  job is effortless, it's so easy! ... and the next,   they're ranting about how hard they work.  "It's not easy, not everyone can do this!"  

Interesting... I made a video  about MLMs a few years back,   and there is an entire anti-MLM community  online, if you're interested in hearing more. Anyway, if you were near the top of a  pyramid-shaped team, with lots of people in your   downline: yes, you would be receiving more or less  passive income. It may seem pretty passive to you,  

but this system requires the exploitation of  lots of people beneath you, and unless you're   at the very tippy-top of an MLM company, guess  what, you are also being exploited! Like 99%   of MLM consultants do not make money, many  actually lose money in this, so don't do it.   And that's what brings me to my point: Many  of these passive income ideas or side hustles   are predatory. They prey on people who are  struggling, vulnerable, looking for a miracle. "Here are my tips for making passive  income. You don't have to do much work,   and you can make up to $50,000  in a day. Watch for part two!" But despite the messaging that emphasizes  how easy and passive this is, the reality   is that trying to pursue passive income  actually requires a lot of time, energy,   and often involves startup costs or investments.  So, for the average working class person who is  

exhausted, broke, and overworked already,  this is not very feasible. In this video,   I'm going to cover some of the most popular,  most recommended passive income ideas promoted   on social media, and try to figure  out, is any of this worth the effort,   or is all of this just a repackaged version of the  classic, hustle culture, get rich quick scheme? Before we continue, this portion of  today's video is sponsored by Skillshare.   As you may know, Skillshare is an online learning  community with thousands of high-quality,   valuable classes. Whether you  want to learn something practical,   maybe improve a skill for work, or something just  for fun, there are endless options to choose from.  

In the spirit of this video, I wanted to  pick some classes that are relevant to my   non-monetized hobbies. First is "creative writing  for all, a 10 day journaling challenge." I haven't   journaled very much in recent years but it is  very important to me. I really love processing   my thoughts and feelings through journaling, and  also documenting all of that for my future self. And my next choice, "plants at home: uplift your  spirit & your space." As many of you can relate,   I'm sure, I really find taking care of my plants  to be a very relaxing and satisfying activity.   I have improved a lot in terms of my knowledge  and my ability to care for my plants,   but of course there's always more to learn! And I  would like to get ahead of any potential problems,   before I'm at the point where I need to google  how to fix them. So this is going to be great!

On this channel we love learning! So if  there's anything you would like to learn   or would like to get inspired about: the  first 1000 of my subscribers to click the   link in the description will get a one month  free trial of Skillshare, so you can start   exploring your creativity today. Thank  you Skillshare, now back into the video. Step one, become a content creator. Almost  every passive income video I've seen recommends:   start a blog, start a YouTube channel, become  a content creator; and this makes sense,   because many of the ideas involve marketing or  selling things, which are obviously a lot easier   if you have a pre-existing audience. And of  course, because we're watching this content   on social media, the successful people telling  us these ideas are themselves influencers and   content creators. They've already done the hard  part of getting a following, now they can tell   you what else to do. I found this video by Ali  Abdaal, 9 Passive Income Ideas - How I Make $27k  

Per Week. First of all, oh my god, at that  amount of money... His channel covers a lot   of these topics: how to be productive, how to  work efficiently, how to earn extra money... "Alright, so when I say "passive income," I  always air-quote it, because there is really   no such thing as passive income, there is no way  to make money without doing anything at all..." Okay, at least he mentions that first thing.

"But when I say passive income,   what I mean is that it's money that  is not directly tied to our time." I appreciate that explanation, because I  think it is honest and straightforward.   Passive income is all about spending an  initial amount of time to work on something,   then continuously earning  revenue from that over time. "So, let's say you were to write a book; if you  write a book, you publish a book, and that book   is now in bookshelves. You've done the work  kind of once, to write and publish the book,  

but now anytime the book sells, you  make money from royalties - that is   passive income. You could literally  be making money while you sleep,   because you've created this thing which is out in  the world, which is generating income for you." So, let's talk about YouTube as a passive income  stream. If I, right now, were to take a month   off of making videos, I would be passively  earning income from work that I already did   a long time ago. But again, the process of  building a YouTube channel up to the point  

where it can be monetized, making lots of  high quality videos and gaining an audience,   that is definitely not passive. Really, you're  going to be making a lot of videos for free,   for potentially years, before you even start  earning pennies. This whole idea of using   YouTube as a passive income source is also  heavily reliant on the almighty algorithm.   As I've seen with my small channel shout-outs,  there are so many great channels out there   making really great content, that have not been  picked up by the algorithm yet. Even if you are  

consistently making really good videos, it can  still be extremely difficult to bring in viewers. And I don't say this to discourage  anyone from pursuing youtube -- just,   if you're *only* looking at  this as a way to make money,   best of luck. BUT if it is a hobby, if  making videos is something you enjoy,   it is worth the effort. and it is possible that  you could earn some income from it eventually. Anyway, the next tip that comes along  with starting a blog or a YouTube channel   is affiliate marketing. Some people claim to earn  hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month   just through sharing affiliate links. I do think  this is a really nice revenue source for creators,  

because often our audiences ask  us where certain things are from.   If a content creator is influencing  a consumer to buy something,   I think they do deserve a cut of that sale; and  this doesn't just apply to like, Instagrammers or   YouTubers -- anyone who is creating content.  but this strategy can definitely go sour. For example, instead of just making  good content that you want to make,   that's valuable to the viewers, maybe  linking your shirt, or the camera you used;   some content is created just for the purpose  of sharing affiliate links. Have you ever read   a blog post that was clearly just a ton  of keywords thrown in for SEO, and then   the promotion of an ad or some affiliate link?  Even worse, I found this TikTok, for example: "best side hustle, if you have no money and no  experience. google affiliate programs for your   topic. all these companies pay you a commission  to promote their products. now go to youtube   and search related videos. download some of  these videos and... create a tiktok account  

like this one. upload the videos you found  and place your affiliate link in the bio." Totally! Gain an audience by reposting other  people's content, and then just direct your   audience toward your affiliate links. Honestly,  this brings up the ethics of monetizing meme   pages, but that's another topic for another time.  Regardless, for most people, you probably won't  

earn a lot of money from affiliate income, unless  you're promoting a lot of links for very in-demand   products. It can take a lot of effort to  create all that initial content, whether   it's blog posts or videos, but I guess once that  is done, the affiliate income is pretty passive. Let's get into classic side hustle or  passive income grinds. Classic side   hustles can provide extra income. join the gig  economy, become a driver or a delivery worker.  

Many people do this as a full-time gig or  to make ends meet, but side hustles like   these are obviously limited by the number  of hours you can spare in order to work.   Even with a nine-to-five job and  a side hustle on the weekends,   it can still be hard to survive. So again, the  appeal of passive income comes from the promise of   less work, less hours, and the potential  for making more money, even while you sleep. To quickly go through some other passive income  hustle ideas that I've seen on a lot of these   videos, one popular idea is to sell digital  art like merch, lightroom presets, templates,   phone backgrounds, many possibilities! One of  my Patrons said, like someone who sells knitting   patterns, or tattoo designs, or other creative  content they've already made two new customers,   their profit directly comes from their labor and  the value they provide. And I think this is great!   It's hard enough for artists to find ways to get  paid; you put in the work to design something,   upload it, then it could, in theory, have  potentially unlimited sales; you can continue   earning income from the same piece of work for a  long time. However, from looking at some of these   TikToks, some of these do feel pretty gimmicky to  me. Like, "just shit out a bunch of designs and  

upload them to a bunch of merch sites!" which, you  know, people buy these things, so I guess, why not   try? But anyway, after designing and uploading  your work, the hardest part is marketing your   items. If you don't have an existing following,  or audience, or people to sell to, it might be   difficult to get any sales at all, especially on  these sites that are flooded with competition. Then we also have the popular method of drop  shipping. Essentially, you buy wholesale products   from sites like Alibaba and sell them online  without any physical inventory or handling   of the products yourself. I did make a video  about Twitter ads, where I talked a lot about   those weird products that are promoted under  viral tweets. Yeah, that's dropshipping. Many   dropshippers, of course, use social media like  Instagram or Facebook to promote their product,   but the most popular platform is Amazon, of  course. Feels very low effort for a decently  

high reward. Honestly, I'm gonna say, because  I'm reminded of all those drop shipping videos I   watched, so much about this makes me mad. The fact  that many of these people openly put in the least   amount of effort as possible, they steal people's  work, they steal people's marketing materials,   they just collect all this information  from different places, they're never   interacting with the product. They use things like  undisclosed Twitter ads to promote their products,   and worst of all, many of these products,  because they're coming from sites like Alibaba,   are extremely cheap and low quality. So then  people, after like six weeks of waiting,  

finally received this stupid item that like,  either doesn't work, or just isn't great.   They probably wasted their money, and now they  have more trash, more waste! if you buy a poor   quality product, it's likely to end up in  a landfill! And these dudes - mostly dudes,   some women, enbies! drop shippers! these people  are making bank off of this, gleefully, and I-   you know, is it perhaps my anti-capitalist  spirit that makes me feel like this is wrong?   Somebody is gonna be like, you can do  whatever you want! Sure, you always can... Continuing on, there is a surplus of investing  advice, including crypto, NFTs, forex trading,   etc. These have been everywhere, they're in the  news, because yes, some people have gotten very,   very rich off of them; but many,  many people have lost a lot of money,   and I think often it is low income or poorer  people who are targeted with these strategies,   especially for any new up-and-coming  crypto coins. Just like an MLM,  

"this is your chance to get in on  the ground floor - you're early!"   Coffeezilla has made some really great videos  about these, and especially the influencers,   who have done some extremely shady shit -  including, ALLEGEDLY: pump and dump schemes. I am personally not interested in crypto or NFT's.  On one hand, it's just too complicated, I do not   care to learn. On the other hand, I have learned  enough, I've heard from knowledgeable people   about how harmful these things are, especially  environmentally - like, the mining of crypto,   the ridiculousness of NFTs. It's just not for me.  And again, I'll probably get some smart investor   in the comments telling me I'm an idiot and I'm  going to lose my chance at a bunch of money. Oh  

well! And then when it comes to forex trading-  again, complicated, not interested. But I have   seen plenty of MLM-type figures promoting this,  claiming to teach people how to be forex traders;   as soon as you're asking people  to join your team, absolutely not. Then for more passive income investing  opportunities, we have micro investing   platforms like Robinhood or Webull. and to  quote all personal finance content online,   "This is not financial advice!" I  personally think individual stock picking   is just too risky. I know some people find  it fun, but it's also extremely stressful to   watch your stocks rise and fall; I personally  prefer contributing to my retirement account,   putting some money in mutual funds - that's it.  The thing about individual stock picking is,  

you are probably not going to discover the next  Apple; so if people are telling you "This stock-   you've got to invest, it's gonna blow up!"  That's just a major risk. If losing that   amount of money is going to harm you, don't do  it. But if you have money you can afford to lose,   I guess just think about it like gambling-  potentially burning money, for fun. Then we have the classic: real estate  investing. I recently made a video about  

dystopian real estate content, and that  was what inspired this video - look at me,   actually making the video I asked if you  guys wanted to see! Me, making a part two   continuation? Rare! For that video, I watched  way too much content, especially on TikTok,   about real estate investing, and it did melt my  brain. They all basically boiled down to either:   1. flipping - which in my opinion, sucks  majorly! Please stop doing these cheap,   low-effort flips! 2. Wholesaling - I gotta be  honest, I still don't really understand this one. "Hey I wanna buy your  property for 90k." "Ok sure."  "Thanks. Hey I wanna sell you a property  for 120k that I have under contract."   "Hmm, it looks like I can fix it up and sell  it for a good profit. Sure I'll buy it!" "Huh,  

so you're buying this property for 90k then  you're assigning it to him for 120k?" "Yep,   it's called wholesaling. I'll be making  30k without risking any of my own money." All I know is that these guys love showing off  the big checks they get from this, from literally   doing nothing but buying and then reselling  a property for a higher price. Love that. "watch me lowball a seller. I do wanna  just be straightforward with you about  

the 30,000 you're looking for, we  probably have to be in the $2500   range. (pause) 'say what?'  That's too low? 'uh yeah.' "Guys, that house that I'm trying to buy,  is worth less than 30,000, fully remodeled.   You guys think I'm lowballing, that's actually a  fair offer. It needs at least 15 - 20,000 in work,   I'm offering 2 - $4500. How am I supposed to  make any money if I don't get it at that price?  

And I'm assigning it to a cash buyer, so where  am I really supposed to make any margin?" Again, the actual numbers don't matter. This guy  is probably buying the property for let's say,   $2500. He sells it to the cash buyer, they  buy it for maybe $10,000. so whatever,   this kid is profiting at least thousands, probably  at least as much or more than the actual seller,   just for wholesaling. Then of course the cash  buyer is going to do some cheap renovations,   flip, and sell for their max profit. so everyone  in this is making more money than the person   originally selling this property. and the whole  crux of this wholesaling thing is that they go  

after run down properties. so most likely, these  sellers that they're targeting and preying on,   are people who couldn't afford  to take care of their properties,   or were struggling financially already, and  are going to accept these deals because they're   desperate for some kind of cash flow. anyway,  all around it's icky. he said it himself,   he said he was lowballing a seller. can you  imagine seeing that on tiktok? I'd be pissed. And 3. Buy a property, rent it out, and become a  landlord! As one of my Patrons pointed out: "Oh,   being a landlord is passive income? So you agree,  you don't do any work?" I love that. But really   though, all of these are so frustrating, because  people do really treat housing as something to   play with, something to make bank off of,  rather than looking at it as an essential   that everyone needs to survive. It's about you  making your passive income, and being a landlord,  

and doing the least amount possible. Investing the  least amount of your money back into the property,   because you want to maximize your profits.  So you end up fucking over your tenants,   who are actually paying your mortgage. And also,  these real estate investing tips are told as if   everyone has an equal opportunity to pursue them,  but you need capital in order to invest at all;   you need a lot of capital in order to invest in  real estate. So really, lower income people tend  

to be exposed to more predatory, risky ideas, like  banking on the latest crypto-coin. While richer   people get to rely on more secure investments,  plus real estate, which is considered one of   the safest investments. Rich people can afford  the long game of waiting for their investments   to slowly ac- accrue value, is that the term? At a  point, if you have a massive portfolio of stocks,   shares, real estate, it can add up to pretty  substantial passive revenue. You can automate and   delegate any work involved, so you're receiving  most of the gains with very little effort.   This is passive income, baby! And no  surprise, it works best for the rich.

With that, I want to get into personal finance  influencers. "I will teach you how to be rich   like me! The financially free lifestyle..."  These creators often start to gain a following   as they earn more money, which helps the cycle-  more viewers, more subscribers, more income,   more videos about how much money they earn- and  how; and it just continues. I recently watched  

this video: The Growing Problem With Personal  Finance YouTuber Influencers, and I think it   summarizes these points pretty well. A lot of  these influencers end up sharing their personal   success stories, which reels in the audience.  They share their reactions to other personal   finance things, they give some predictions about  where you should put your money, yada, yada... These aspiring mentors often hook their audience  by first showing off the wealth that they have.   Look how successful I am, look how much  money I make, look how little I work! I   started from the bottom, I'm just like you!  And then naturally the viewers are intrigued;   maybe they do see a bit of themselves in  that creator. They want that success too,  

they want that money! Easy money? And again,  this is very reminiscent of MLM stuff.   It's the same messaging, you know? They hook  you by talking about how much capitalism is   sucking all of our souls- which, true. Being  a worker is so hard, working so many hours,   I'm tired, I'm not making enough money! But then,  you get into the allure of being an entrepreneur,   being self-employed. Okay, that sounds good.  What can I do? I've definitely seen a crossover   of real estate content and these exploitative,  self-help, 'dude bro' finance channels. They  

pretend they're trying to help you and they want  to give you valuable advice, but they really want   something from you. They target young audiences  and present an alternative to traditional paths,   like going to college or getting a job.  Working for your money? Eww, like the poors?  Instead, this content claims  to teach them how to attain   'financial freedom' and transcend the working  class, by becoming part of the owning class. "I always thought, the way to become rich, and  never worry about money again, was just get a good   job. So I went to college, became a software  engineer, and three weeks into my first job,   my entire perspective changed. They laid off  25 people. There were 50 year old men, walking   out of their offices, crying because they had no  clue where they were going to get the money to pay   their mortgage, or pay for their kids tuition,  because they have no other source of income!" You know, this guy has a point. it is really  horrible that this can happen to people,  

after a lifetime of hard work and dedication.  We really need a social safety net and you know,   universal free public college would  also be great. medicare for all! "So that's when I started learning  about real estate investing." Oh no. you were almost there... When I watch this kind of content, I ask, what do  these creators get out of this? If you are indeed   so rich, so successful, why are you spending  so much time making TikToks? Do you really want   others to follow your tips, do what you did?  Do you want that extra competition? And no,   of course they want a social media following,  because that's valuable. Much of this content  

is not actually informative;  when it's coming from grifters,   it doesn't really teach you what you need to  know, it's just a teaser for what they're trying   to sell you. If you really want to learn,  you're going to have to buy their ebook,   join their courses or coaching seminars. it's  a tale as old as time: rich guys telling you,   "I can tell you how to do it, you can do it if you  just follow these quick and easy steps, and spend   $5,000 on my course!" This YouTube comment  said it pretty well, "Starting to feel like   the only way to make money is to make money  making videos about how to make money." Amen! Courses and coaching. these seem like the ultimate  way to answer the question of 'how did you do it',   while also using your audience to earn a  buck or two. Again, to me this ties back   to something we see often in MLMs, the concept  of pyramid coaching. "I became rich as a coach,  

so I'll teach you how to become a coach and create  your own courses about getting rich." One of my   favorite things about this type of content is that  it tries to strike the impossible balance between   'I am exceptional and aspirational', ala Rachel  Hollis, but also being relatable. 'I was just like   you- if I could do it, anyone can!' Of course, you  need your audience to believe they can do it too,   so that they'll buy your stuff and keep following  you, but you've also got to stroke your own ego   a bit. I mean, you're so successful, how else  would people know? You've got to convince your   audience that they need you as a mentor,  in order for them to become successful. And hold on, I just want to mention that  yes, of course, there are plenty of creators   who do create really good courses, courses that  actually contain a lot of valuable information.  

There are, I'm sure, coaches who are genuinely  good at coaching. I don't want to throw out the   accusation that everyone who has a course, or an  ebook, or is a coach, is a scam artist; I don't   want to say that. But I'm just saying, there  is this pattern, especially within the sphere   of self help, personal finance, where we see  these creators doing a lot of the same things,   and I'm sure some courses are more valuable than  others- and also, probably more cost-effective. Let's talk about F.I.R.E. Now, what is the  ultimate goal of having all of these streams   of passive income? To live the dream of financial  independence, retire early, aka, F.I.R.E. It's   basically a lifestyle that revolves around extreme  frugality, plus extreme saving and investing,   in order to be able to retire early - much  earlier than the standard in the United States.  

Some of these F.I.R.E. followers save more than  50%, 60%, 70%, 80% of their income annually. Now hey, I totally understand wanting to free  yourself from the shackles of capitalism as   soon as possible, or as much as possible. It might  feel like, if we could just survive off of passive   income, or very minimal work, then we are free,  we can pursue whatever we want. But is F.I.R.E.   really feasible for most people? The thing is,  unless you've made it big and you're already   coming from a career where you're a high earner,  most people do not make, or have the ability to   save enough money to have an early retirement. Not  to mention, to start your own F.I.R.E. journey,   it's best to be debt free, have a stable income,  and generally be able-bodied and healthy,   to minimize, you know, emergencies, and that  can feel very impossible with the state of   our higher education and health care systems.  One of my Patrons know noted that their health   struggles have taken away many of their most,  quote-unquote, "productive" working years,   and also the cost of health care has greatly  prevented their ability to save money. These  

are not all my thoughts on F.I.R.E. I'm sure I  could do a whole video on that; but I will say,   for those who don't mind living a super frugal  life forever, basically, I'm glad that people find   comfort and support in the F.I.R.E. community. But  for many, this concept is not even a possibility. Lastly, let's talk about promoting yourself to  the owning class. From what I've seen, another   ultimate goal in a lot of this passive income  content is to stop being a worker, get to a point   where you never have to work a regular job again.  It is true, being an owner is a much more secure,   powerful, and profitable position than being a  worker. But these content creators don't just  

want to, say, own a business- like, be the owner  and the manager, whatever. No, the ideal situation   is just owning the business, and contributing as  little as possible to the everyday operations.   Cue automation, productivity and boss moves.  When I asked about this on Patreon, one of my   Patrons mentioned Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour  Work Week; I'll admit, I have heard about it,   but I haven't read it, so, sorry if any of this  is misleading. From what I've seen, the whole goal   of The 4-Hour Work Week concept isn't to stop  working altogether, but to optimize your time in   order to earn the most money, get the most wealth  out of the least amount of work. This focus on  

efficiency, time management, and outsourcing  your life surrounds the concept that your   labor is high value, and that your time should be  high value as well; and that part sounds great.   Our labor is high value, and time is valuable,  which most people don't have nearly enough of,   because they're not getting paid enough at their  jobs. Doesn't everyone want to escape the rat   race and have more time to enjoy life, but still  make a lot of money? Is it possible? As with all   idealistic concepts, there are some major red  flags, including that point about outsourcing,   specifically. Ferriss suggests that your time as  an entrepreneur is so valuable, that you should  

easily be able to hire someone to weed out the  things you don't want to do or worry about. Just   hire a virtual assistant, someone who works  across the world and earns a much lower wage,   to go through all your emails, do industry  research and schedule your calendar.   then take it a step further, and get all your  groceries delivered, and have your resources come   to you. You don't have time to do unenjoyable  or unprofitable things; your time is valuable. One question though, does that same principle  apply to the gig workers that you're hiring? You   would hope that someone taking advantage of this  4-Hour Work Week thing, and hiring gig workers,   outsourcing their life, would hopefully be  paying those gig workers very fairly, very well.   But, with an idea so obsessed with  efficiency and increasing profits,   I doubt it. This passive income realm  is very closely tied to productivity,  

hustle culture, side hustles.  'Work smarter, not harder!   I'm not going to be a dumb little worker, earning  nothing! I'm going to be a boss- a girl boss!' Anyway, on TikTok, I have seen a couple of  interesting examples of becoming your own boss,   like a 22 year-old who bought a carwash!  There's a whole genre of this like,   vending machine businesses; I see your  fat stacks of cash and I raise you   buckets of quarters! They typically act like  all you have to do is go collect your sweet,   sweet profits, but of course, these businesses do  require labor and expenses. But again, it's easy!   Just go buy a business, hire people to do the  labor- boom, you're making passive income! Go,   literally collect your coin. Now, if you ask  me how did, say, a 22 year-old afford to buy a   car wash? Shhh! That's not the point, just- just  like, hustle and work hard, believe in yourself! Final thoughts; I don't blame anyone for wanting  to pursue passive income. We feel the need for   having these backup plans because we don't have  that social safety net. If you lose your job,  

how are you going to pay your bills?  You're going to lose your health insurance,   what are you going to do then? So, this  idea to have multiple streams of income,   is supposed to provide that individual  safety net, for you and your family,   your loved ones. If shit ever hits the fan,  and one stream of your income ends or slows,   you have other ways of bringing in money, that's  a comforting thought. Basically, I get the appeal,   but I wouldn't recommend listening to these  people online who promise you that they can   make you rich, with three easy steps, just buy  their course on crypto investing... No! No!

now I wanna give a thank you to my Patrons! if  you wanna look at some bonus video content, polls,   monthly livestreams, that's all on patreon! and  extra thank yous to my executive producer tier:   we have uwu face, Abby Hayden, Geoff,  Jaden, kaesi luck, Mardi Schmeichel,   and VivianOlodun.com. thank you all for being  patrons and thank you for watching this video. once again if you're interested in trying  out Skillshare, learning something new,   click the link in my description, first  1000 people will get a free 1 month trial! hope you guys enjoyed this  one. Stay tuned for future   Internet Analysis videos. Okay, thanks, bye!

2022-02-13 03:40

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