Sure. Lumifer’s given a concise summary already, so I’ll zoom in a bit with some specific examples.
If I am (for example) a YouTube poster with no money but a good reputation — i.e. if lots of people follow my account and watch my videos — I can make money by selling merchandise or convincing people to donate, or through YouTube’s official programme for monetizing videos through advertising and paid subscriptions. In the long run I could even use it as a launchpad for getting a TV series or a film.
Alternatively, if I’m rich but don’t have a good reputation, I can pay a PR company to come up with articles that say nice things about me and have them circulated on popular websites, pay an SEO company to help bury embarrassing Google results and promote more PR-friendly stuff, or pay to run a high-quality online magazine or newspaper so I can benefit from the halo effect.
Of course, wealth and trust/prestige don’t have to be positively correlated just because of the above. (Wealth can be used to destroy a reputation, too.) But in practice the two seem positively correlated to me, and mechanisms like those I’ve mentioned are very likely one reason why.
Sure. Lumifer’s given a concise summary already, so I’ll zoom in a bit with some specific examples.
If I am (for example) a YouTube poster with no money but a good reputation — i.e. if lots of people follow my account and watch my videos — I can make money by selling merchandise or convincing people to donate, or through YouTube’s official programme for monetizing videos through advertising and paid subscriptions. In the long run I could even use it as a launchpad for getting a TV series or a film.
Alternatively, if I’m rich but don’t have a good reputation, I can pay a PR company to come up with articles that say nice things about me and have them circulated on popular websites, pay an SEO company to help bury embarrassing Google results and promote more PR-friendly stuff, or pay to run a high-quality online magazine or newspaper so I can benefit from the halo effect.
Of course, wealth and trust/prestige don’t have to be positively correlated just because of the above. (Wealth can be used to destroy a reputation, too.) But in practice the two seem positively correlated to me, and mechanisms like those I’ve mentioned are very likely one reason why.