"Earn."

Some years ago I wrote about the use of the word "deserve"--the way its extreme overuse obscures what may or may not be right or fair with moral-sounding claims, generally in such a way as to shut down any thinking about life's inequities, propping up the position of the best-off, and undermine the claims of the disadvantaged for consideration.

So does it go with the word "earn." To say that one came by a given amount of money--"made" that money--is relatively neutral. To say that one "earned" the money is to insist on the money as a dessert, due compensation for "hard work," once again sanctifying outcomes that may or may have nothing to do with morality.