Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Click and shift economy.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'll never get rich because I'm unwilling to take part in the "click and shift" economy.

That's what I call it when people make gobs of money off of things like click-through advertisements on their blogs and web sites, when they make money through things like referral services and the selling of mailing lists and -- through clicking and shifting.

I have an overworked sense of what is honest, and for me that means I do not make money off of non-work, non-production, or anything that seems gimmicky. I do not help flood the world with more advertisements. I need to know that the money I have earned is because I worked for it in a very tangible way, either through an actual product made and sold, or through a service for hire in which the end result was measurable.

No referral gimmicks.
No pyramids.
No strategies.
No schemes.
No ads.
No outside pressure.
No traitor-ized email lists.

And hence, no riches.

I want to make sure that if someone gives me money, they get something tangible in return. It's a kind of low-level, unprocessed and raw form of capitalism. Elemental, maybe, or infantile. No doubt laughable to those with an over-developed sense of business acumen who have, or are in, the process of acquiring wealth.

But I don't like "click and shift" for the same reason I hate office jobs that involve shuffling papers and marionetting to the pull of procedural strings: there is a real lack of producing something and adding to the world, with a real danger of doing little more than using up air and taking money for the privilege. It feels like I've accomplished nothing more than taking money from the sucker Barnum supposedly told us about, or a person trying too hard to make money without working.

I don't want money from a sucker. I don't want money from clicks or shuffles or referrals.

And hence, no riches.