I am having a moral dilemma that I hesitate to talk about, because it seems ridiculous. I keep telling myself that there is no dilemma; yet I can’t seem to make myself believe it. It’s concerning something that I am planning to do in my working life. Something entirely unremarkable; in fact, something that would be almost expected of anyone doing business in my position.

So why do I have this gnawing feeling that it is wrong?

Let me explain. I work as a freelancer and I run my own business, designing software for my clients. Sometimes I take a job that is too large for me to handle myself; what I do in those cases is that I call on someone in my network of friends and ex-colleagues to help me out, and we do the project together. I get my subcontractors to invoice me and I then consolidate those charges into a single invoice for my client without adding a markup. So although I benefit from my subcontractors’ work – in the sense that I need their skills to complete “my” project - I don’t make any money from them. I get paid for my work and they get paid for theirs.

Lately, though, I’ve had the chance to quote on a job using an hourly rate instead of a flat fee, something I rarely do. For argument’s sake, let’s say it is $100 per hour. The job has grown larger with time, so that I am now forced to take on sub-contractors to finish it. The sub-contractor this time is a younger guy who is charging me much less than $100 – say $70 per hour. My client is quite happy to pay me $100 an hour. So now, without designing it that way, I have fallen into the position where I could be potentially making money from my subcontractor. For every hour he works, I pay him $70, but I charge my client $100 – leaving $30 for myself.

This is my dilemma – I can’t convince myself that it is right for me to take that $30. It just doesn’t seem right. Why should I get paid for every hour that someone else works? What right do I have to the fruits of someone else’s labour? Is he now my personal billing machine, making money with every keystroke? If he stays up all night and bills an extra eight hours, why should I get $240 for sleeping? How is it morally acceptable to make money without doing work?

Didn’t Gandhi say that reward without work is a sin?

Someone told me - that $30 is for your management of the project. But that doesn’t make sense; management takes time, so I can just bill that as my own time instead. Someone else said – that’s your fee for “finding” the work. That at least has some logic to it. But that could be a valid excuse for being paid a one-off fee, not an hourly amount. If my “finding” the work is worth a reward, then why should it be rewarded again and again, multiplied by the labour of someone else?

Now you know what I mean by ridiculous. I have an issue with making money without doing work, and our whole freakin’ system is based on making money without doing work. Making money without doing work is the whole point of it all. Making money without doing work is the holy grail of investment seminars and self-help books and Anthony Robbins and Money magazine and franchise fairs and negative gearing and shares and property and super and financial planning and every other goddamn thing I’ve ever heard or learned about finance.

So why am I, a balding 34 year old father of two, sitting in my office, misquoting Gandhi and wrestling with my conscience instead of making money? What the hell is wrong with me? I live in Balwyn and I have a Mac computer. I am not a freakin’ Communist. I should be making $30 an hour in my sleep. Convince me I am wrong, please!