What Would You Do For Money?
We all have our own physical and ethical boundaries when it comes to money. Check out the results of a survey CNN Money carried out asking adults what they would and wouldn’t do. It covers the usual issues like lending money, keeping money if you find it and stealing.
There are ethical concerns when it comes to making money, specifically. There are so many ways to make money now, especially online, but not all of them are respectable.
Consider these ‘make you go hmm’ questions:
- Would you recommend a product you either haven’t tried or don’t like?
- Would you link from your site to someone or something you don’t respect?
- Would you manipulate your audience (by lying, exaggerating, false linking etc) to increase your revenue?
- Would you make yourself appear ridiculous for money? This isn’t unethical but it sure is uncomfortable!
- Would you be kind to someone (a boss, for example) even if they weren’t kind to you, out of fear of losing your job?
I have probably been guilty of some of these at some stage, particularly when I was a poor student willing to take on any odd jobs for extra cash - once I wore a fruit costume to hand out muesli bars - or work in low-level service jobs with sadistic managers/chefs who delighted in tormenting the staff.
These days I’m rather less willing to dress up or be whacked with wooden spoons, because there are better ways I can make money. But I still try and keep ethics in mind if signing up for the latest ‘make money fast’ scheme.
What about you? What random things have you done for money, and what questions do you ask yourself before you promote a product or take on a job?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Posted
on
Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
under
Please tell me you have a picture of you dressed up as fruit, that would be great!
I’ve done a few things for money that I look back and laugh at. When I was fresh out of high school, I fell for about every sales scam job that was in the paper. I sold some pretty crazy and ridiculous items for minimal cash.
One thing I sold that I wasn’t proud of is automobiles. I was pretty much trained at that time to rip people off as much as I could, all for a little extra cash. It’s a vicious business, and I’m glad I got out of it…
Your article raises some good questions. I would like to hear other peoples experiences. Any strippers out there?????
June 7th, 2007 at 9:26 pmNo pictures exist, thank god! At least I hope not.
If I do have any stripper readers they seem to be keeping quiet. Come on people, don’t lurk, speak up!
June 7th, 2007 at 9:46 pmI think it is a very interesting study- what people will do for money is directly in proportion to how desperate they feel. I may have to blog about that…
June 8th, 2007 at 12:44 amYes, exactly. But I think it’s also related to experience. Maybe as you get older you think more about whether you’re comfortable with a particular scheme. Like Ryan says, he’s not proud of the automobile job he had, and I feel the same about a marketing job I had once. It was lucrative but I didn’t believe in what I was promoting.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:06 amHow about being nice to rich relatives who tell you they’re thinking of leaving you some money in their will?
June 21st, 2007 at 8:07 pmMy hunch (based on experience, unfortunately) is that relatives who dangle such a promise over you are manipulative and unlikely to follow through. If you like them, or otherwise have reason to be nice to them, great. But don’t be surprised when the money doesn’t come through!
Hi MoneyChangesThings. I don’t have any rich relatives so there’s no point in being nice.
Seriously though, relatives who promise money and don’t come through - that’s pretty low! I guess you never know so can’t rely on inheritances.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:31 pm