Quote:
Originally Posted by Kristine  If you are helping someone solve a problem, and they value your solution more than the money they are willing to pay you, how is that wrong? |
My limiting beliefs, or scarcity mindset, or something, enable me to actually answer this question.
I believe that any money you accept from someone else deprives them of whatever else they could have bought with that money. The less money you accept from anyone, the better off those people will probably be. (Unless they're so rich that whatever amount you accept from them is a totally insignificant amount they'll never miss).
If someone doesn't have to pay $20 dollars in order to obtain a piece of software I wrote, that person will have $20 more dollars for food for themselves or their family, or whatever else they need or want.
Sure, perhaps many nice, honest people would actually be happy paying $20 for my software, despite the fact that doing so will leave them less money for food, a place to live, and so forth.
But, someone being willing or even happy to hurt themselves by paying me for something that costs me nothing to give away for free doesn't make accepting their needless sacrifice any more palatable to me.
So, I guess my problem with receiving money stems from looking at the act of accepting money from people as equivalent to hurting them, even if they don't perceive it that way, even if they're actually happy with whatever item or service I'm providing in exchange for their money, and even if it's actually fair for me to be compensated because of how much time, effort, and raw materials went into making whatever I might be selling (or giving away).
I guess that also at least partially explains why even getting donations (instead of payments) for items and services makes me feel a bit guilty, and why I'd feel better about getting a large multitude of tiny donations rather than one big donation (unless whoever gives me a big donation is definitely rich enough to comfortably afford it).
I guess if everyone were assured of food, shelter, and other survival basics regardless of whether or not they have money, I wouldn't feel this way.
If money were something that was only used for obtaining luxuries instead of necessities, then, when I accepted people's money, I'd only feel guilty about decreasing the amount of fun stuff people are able to buy, which wouldn't be as bad as the guilt of decreasing the amount of the necessities of life people are able to buy.
My perspective is probably flawed somehow, but I haven't been able to cleverly rationalize myself out of it yet.
So, I guess I'll just post this and see if anyone else has anything to say about it.
Apollia