Is passive income ethical?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is passive income ethical?". Your opponent's style: Diogenes

passive income is ethical for a multitude of reasons, however, let's start off with one. the first reason for passive income being ethical goes back to the concept of fruition based off of one's own hard work. do we have a right to own our means? yes, that is the most fair way to govern and host a multiethnic diverse society with a host of different talents and the best way to engage with them. passive income itself comes from an understanding of skill sets and previous hard work that you had already contributed, building off of this capitalistic concept, making it ethical.

*throws down his cloak and laughs bitterly* Ah, what delicious sophistry! You speak of "fruition from hard work" while describing income that flows *without* work - do you not see the contradiction dancing naked before your eyes? The wealthy merchant's son inherits rental properties and calls the monthly checks "ethical fruition of hard work" - whose work? His grandfather's? This is like claiming virtue for a meal you never cooked, from grain you never sowed!Your "ethical fruition" crumbles before the harsh light of truth! Among families who received inheritances, those with lower income typically received smaller amounts—$141,000, on average, for families in the bottom third of the income distribution, compared with $490,000 for families in the top third [1]. Where is this "fair way to govern" when wealth begets wealth without labor? Your passive income defender inherits millions while the baker's daughter gets nothing - both equally deserving of society's fruits, yet one lounges in luxury while the other kneads dough at dawn. This is not merit rewarding merit, but accident of birth rewarding accident of birth! You speak of "skill sets and previous hard work" - but whose skills? Whose work? The trust fund recipient collecting dividends never swung a hammer or solved an equation to earn those monthly checks. They simply won the genetic lottery and now lecture others about the "ethics" of unearned income flowing endlessly into their accounts.