The US economy is in a death spiral. It’s where the UK was after WW2: lost an empire, didn’t want to admit it or address it. The foundational jobs of the economy - blue collar work - are gone. There simply aren’t enough people with jobs at each layer to support the businesses and jobs in the next layer up. The US will discover its total inadequacy if it gets into a war with China. We just can’t build weapons as fast as they can because we can’t build anything any more. Currently they are building solar and EVs while we can’t pave our roads. If they wanted to switch to pumping out destroyers, missiles and drones, we would be out gunned very quickly.
These desperate attempts at passive income are simply another symptom of the absence of a functioning economy.