You figure a flawless run is about 2 hours, and for two of them that is $25 an hour. That actually is not absurd as far as services go. If someone wants a trip to Mercury but does not have the friends and/or skills to do it alone, why not hire professionals. To me, I think hiring people to mow your lawn is absurd and a waste of money.... but that business puts a lot of food on a lot of tables. Making cash from just about anything is the American way. However, I would like to know if they report this income on their 1040 form at the end of the year. They are getting the money via PayPal which is regulated and I think would need to report its transactions for tax purposes ( I could be wrong though, I'm not sure how PayPal operates or what regulations it operates under). I'm sure there is an accountant out there somewhere who could respond to this. I'm kind of interested... does this constitute self-operated business? Are they categorized as consultants? Anyway, if this money is not reported to the IRS, then they could be walking the left hand path as far as tax laws are concerned. Unless they are incorporated and get the checks from PayPal delivered to a po box in the cayman islands or something.