By: Ezra Nadav

There’s a new kind of economy gaining traction—and it’s not built on goods or services, but on ego, aesthetic, and the illusion of mutual benefit.

It starts innocently enough. A DM, sprinkled with emojis and compliments:
“Hey babe! I’m obsessed with your work!”
“Would love to collab—can you send me a gift pack? I’ll tag you!”

You pause. Because you’re running a business, not a fan club. And somewhere between their 200k followers and your unpaid invoices, something doesn’t add up.

Welcome to the Audacity Economy, where the currency is clout, the pitch is charm, and the payment is… well, there isn’t any.

In this new marketplace, the most valuable thing you can give isn’t your time, talent, or product, it’s your willingness to be flattered into exploitation. The transaction goes like this: they ask you to provide goods or services for free (or worse, at a cost to you) in exchange for “exposure.” Meanwhile, their entire platform depends on content, content that you provide, unpaid, to prop up their curated persona of empowerment, lifestyle, and #SupportSmallBusiness (just not with actual money).

It’s not just influencers, either. This logic seeps into creative industries, consulting, even community work. You’ll be told your contribution is “valued,” but not enough to be paid. Your work is “so important,” just not important enough for a budget line.

And often, the people making these asks present themselves as allies—feminist, progressive, anti-capitalist. But they’re perfectly comfortable replicating the very dynamics they claim to oppose: extraction, entitlement, and a hierarchy where visibility justifies devaluing labor.

The new freeloaders don’t wear suits—they show up draped in ring lights and Canva-crafted affirmations. They pitch “collaboration” while quietly handing you the bill. And they get away with it because the ask comes coated in charm, hashtags, and the language of empowerment.

But let’s name it plainly: this is exploitation.
It’s not cute. It’s not “mutually beneficial.” And it’s not something you need to feel bad about declining.

You’re not difficult for asking to be paid. You’re not greedy for refusing to give your work away. You’re not “missing an opportunity” when you say no to someone asking you to subsidize their brand.

Because at the end of the day, exposure isn’t payment.
Clout isn’t compensation.
And no amount of lip gloss can cover the stink of audacity.

---

Ever been on the receiving end of a “collab” that felt more like a con?
Drop it in the comments—no names, just stories.

And if this piece hit a nerve (or saved you from saying yes to a bad deal), hit like, share it with someone who needs it, or DM me with the next thing you’d love me to unpack.
Because the Audacity Economy isn’t going anywhere… and neither am I.

Shalom Aleichem