On Working

Working at a job, whatever it is, is a social obligation as much as an economic one. Don't believe me? How often as a child did you hear someone refer to someone else as a "layabout"; how often were you told of the benefits of hard work; how often have you yourselves done the same thing?

Yes, most of us need to work to stay alive (food, shelter, providing for family, a few pleasures); indeed only the very fortunate do not. And, apropos of that lot, aren't they the "idle rich"? Sure, we envy them, because not many of us actually want to work hard all the time or for too long or at all. But we also despise them for the fact that they haven't earned their good fortune, but married into or inherited it (lucky buggers!). The only people we don't call idlers are those few lucky enough to have won Lotto, which we're all working hard to do, too.

Here's the point though - how many of us, being rich through means not of our own, would have the social temerity not to do something? To just, well, do nothing, at least nothing productive. Great wealth means not only that the possessors of it don't actually work as in earning a living, but they don't do any other work as well which they not only used to do but often enjoyed doing: their own gardens ("Jack's so good, and cheap too!"), washing their cars ("The carwash at the BP is great and so cheap!"), doing their own housework (Trudi's very thorough, and so cheap!") etc.

Do you see the common thread here? Yes, in my experience the very well off not only do less and less other than leisure, which they work hard at, but they become very mindful of the cost of everything. I have a rule of thumb - the richer they get, the meaner (Bill Gates and myriads of others the exception).

However, I digress. It takes a certain courage to thumb your nose at society's expectations, work-wise. It's all very well to be rich as Croesus, but it's not all very well to flaunt the fact.

All of which leads to certain moral ponderings on my part. What would I be like, if I were rich (I wish hard that I was)? And the answer is simple. Poor? Tough. No job? Tough. No new car every year? Tough. (Well, not exactly, I do give and have always given, to charity, and my wife have agreed that when the Lotto fairy touched us on the shoulder, 10% will go to charities). But, regarding everyone else, too bad.

The main problem I have with wealth is that I don't have it. After almost 4 decades of hard work, mostly what I have is an aversion to more of the same! So, I'm working hard to find something I don't have to work hard at. And, even with the great and glorious web, it is damned hard work to find something that produces sufficient income to keep me and my wife in the style to which I would like to become accustomed.

You will have heard the expression, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". As a person who has paid for far too many lunches in his life, I agree while still trying hard to disprove it. The internet is full of get rich schemes, none of which require any capital, experience, education, knowhow or, in some cases, a pulse. I, like many of you, have checked this stuff out, and most of them do require capital, experience, education and knowhow.

I have recently become a fledgling affiliate marketer, and I have had to learn a tremendous amount of things and devote a whole lot of time to even get started. I'm really working hard. Trouble is, because there are millions and millions of internet pages, it is incredibly difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the wine form the water.

I believe I have got a couple of good things now, and have started a Clickbank account (I have not earned enough to pay for a lunch, so I'm going to free ones) and I'm hoping and, in new age parlance, expecting to do real good. After all, if I didn't shouldn't I buy a lawn-mowing round? At least that is outdoor work, healthy and good for you.

But, wouldn't it also be such...hard work?