there are two broad categories of "passive income" that people often talk about, with differing effects on society.
1. You have a product that takes little effort for you to maintain, but people find it valuable and pay for its use. In HN terms, this might be a small software project that can be maintained with just a couple hours each month. This is not bad for society- you are offering something that people find valuable, and you get lucky because it's easy for you! A key point is that you are not exploiting people to make this income. We all have varying skills and we make gains from trade. If you are good at programming and I am not, I can pay you to do something that is easy for you but would have been hard for me. This is how we increase our productivity as a society- let each person focus on the things they are good at and avoid the things that are hard. So this type of passive income is okay. We'll probably never see a society where every need is met through people's low effort projects (nobody has a side project that builds major roads or infrastructure), but you aren't harming society by doing it.
2. You have a product that you charge for and you add no value, but for some reason people have to buy from you. In economic terms, we are talking about rent-seeking. Imagine if, right before a hurricane came through, you bought every single 2x4 from all the Home Depots and Lowes' stores in the local area, and sold them to people at twice the original price trying to repair their houses after the hurricane. You did not improve the value of the 2x4s and if not for you, people could have bought them for less money. You exploited the limited local supply of 2x4s and added nothing, but extracted money from people who had no other choice. This is bad for society.
1. You have a product that takes little effort for you to maintain, but people find it valuable and pay for its use. In HN terms, this might be a small software project that can be maintained with just a couple hours each month. This is not bad for society- you are offering something that people find valuable, and you get lucky because it's easy for you! A key point is that you are not exploiting people to make this income. We all have varying skills and we make gains from trade. If you are good at programming and I am not, I can pay you to do something that is easy for you but would have been hard for me. This is how we increase our productivity as a society- let each person focus on the things they are good at and avoid the things that are hard. So this type of passive income is okay. We'll probably never see a society where every need is met through people's low effort projects (nobody has a side project that builds major roads or infrastructure), but you aren't harming society by doing it.
2. You have a product that you charge for and you add no value, but for some reason people have to buy from you. In economic terms, we are talking about rent-seeking. Imagine if, right before a hurricane came through, you bought every single 2x4 from all the Home Depots and Lowes' stores in the local area, and sold them to people at twice the original price trying to repair their houses after the hurricane. You did not improve the value of the 2x4s and if not for you, people could have bought them for less money. You exploited the limited local supply of 2x4s and added nothing, but extracted money from people who had no other choice. This is bad for society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking