Real work for pretend wages

6 posts / 0 new

Sun, 2010-08-22 15:40

Doug

Last year, Tina Wang, 55, started doing online work, judging search results for eBay, to kill boredom as she recovered from back surgery. An hour's work would earn her about 66 Swag Bucks, a virtual currency that can be redeemed for real items from participating merchants.

A $5 gift card from Amazon.com costs Wang 450 Swag Bucks, or almost seven hours of work. She's earned enough to buy her grandchildren an $80 rocket ship and a doll house. For Wang, the work is hardly about a paycheck.

"People don't do Swag Bucks really to earn money," said Wang, who lives in Alpine, Utah. "I started out just doing it for fun. But then I started getting enough Swag Bucks that I could get Amazon gift cards."

I hope others are as underwhelmed by this prospect as I am.

Sun, 2010-08-22 18:01

bruce_the_vii

People do the strangest things with their spare time. One popular past time is crossword puzzels. People will work the crossword daily. I don't get it myself. I actually like to worry about world problems in my spare time although it's not too productive. The story is sort of innocent.

Sun, 2010-08-22 18:22

absentia

When someone does a crossword puzzle, the only one who benefits is the doer. When people do real work for pretend pay, an employer benefits. Whether the worker feels exploited or not, she is, and somebody else who actually needs paid work doean't get the job, because this fool does it for practically nothing.

Sun, 2010-08-22 19:08

bruce_the_vii

Way too sharp a pencil. May I suggest a crossword puzzel instead.

Sun, 2010-08-22 19:52

Fidel

Where are the cyber feds upholding ether-laws? It's ridiculous. We need cyber unions.

Mon, 2010-08-23 10:48

Snert

I remember my grandparents, years ago, being randomly selected to fill out a television survey -- what did you watch, on what channel, and when, for two weeks -- and receiving for their troubles a shiny silver dollar.

Srsly. What's the issue here? Is this woman being forced into this situation out of a desperate need for imaginary money that she can exchange for a Google hat?? This sounds pretty voluntary to me.