Is passive income ethical?

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

It is umethical

Wrong. You're confusing *how* people earn passive income with whether earning it is wrong. A landlord collecting rent, a songwriter getting royalties, a retiree living off investments—they all earned that right upfront through labor, capital, or creation. The money's already been made. Now it works for them while they sleep. That's not unethical, that's the reward for playing the game right. What's actually unethical is the *exploitation* hiding inside bad passive income schemes—predatory lending, wage theft dressed up as MLMs. But passive income itself? It's just delayed payment for work already done. You're attacking the symptom, not the disease. What specifically do you think makes it wrong?