In recent years, Orange Seat has increasingly felt this way, and today it's even stronger; I can't help but say a few words.
Originally, we would say there is an invisible wall between the poor and the rich, such as the crossing of classes and the decrease in social mobility, which are abstract and imperceptible.
But the reality is that this wall truly exists; the rich have chosen the simplest way to physically isolate the poor.
Let me give you a few examples: it's very easy for you to imagine what life is like for a poor family, but can you imagine what life is like for the extremely rich?
The rich will never show their lives to the poor because there's no need; instead, the lower class crazily imitates the aesthetics of the upper class, hoping to create a gap with other poor people.
You can see ordinary people everywhere on public transport; how many wealthy people can you see on public transport?
In terms of transportation, there is already physical isolation; you will never encounter a beautiful rich second-generation girl on the subway and start a passionate romance—stop daydreaming.
The same is true for housing; while the poor are still considering transportation, infrastructure, school districts, cost-effectiveness, etc., they quietly discover that the rich have already moved to the suburbs, or even halfway up the mountain.
Because their wealth no longer requires them to compete with the poor for these low-end resources. The high-end residential areas where the wealthy live are places where the poor can't even enter.
Since there are cheap and convenient ways to physically isolate the poor, why go through so much trouble to play with abstractions?
It's like a cold joke that says, the woodcutter thinks the emperor uses a golden axe to cut wood, not because the emperor can only do this, but because his imagination is capped at this level.
The reason for this exclamation is that this afternoon I arrived in Toledo, the historical capital of Spain; the king's palace is on the mountaintop, and looking down, there is nothing but beautiful scenery, with land and subjects below, a view that is breathtaking.
But in the Middle Ages, the sewage system was not yet perfected; everyone dumped their waste directly onto the streets, so the smell intensified the closer you got to the foot of the mountain. But that doesn't matter; the king can't smell it anyway.
He only needs to quietly live high above, overlooking the beautiful scenery in the distance, basking in the admiration of the people.
Was this trip beautiful? Yes, it was. Was it interesting? Yes, it was.
But it feels like the class structure in Europe is already very solidified, with salaries across various positions in Spain being quite average, totaling just over ten thousand yuan a month.
Everyone sees through it and understands; in the end, it's all just a game for the upper class. We, the lower class, might as well enjoy life and not think about class mobility anymore.
But China is still different. To put it metaphorically, it's like you took two cups of water from the long river of history: one cup is from Europe 100 years ago, and the other is from China 40 years ago.
The cup of water from Europe is already very clear and stable; what's floating on the surface and what's settled at the bottom is obvious.
The cup of water in the country is still chaotic, swirling with mud and sand; everyone wants to seize the opportunity of the era to change their own and their descendants' fate, hoping to achieve class mobility.
Developed countries have their advantages: overall social welfare is high, and the people's lives are secure, but correspondingly, there are far fewer opportunities; the industries you can engage in and the opportunities to change your fate have already been locked down.
Developing countries also have their benefits; at least several generations can seize the opportunity of immense wealth in the tide of the times, but the final outcome of class mobility or decline is still a fluctuation under the opportunities of the era.
Just like with Bitcoin, do you prefer a Bitcoin that fluctuates within a range of $1,000, or one that fluctuates by $10,000? Opportunities arise from fluctuations, and fate is also changed through fluctuations.
Don't despair about the present; true despair isn't when the environment is bad, but when it's like a stagnant pond. I don't know what the future holds, but let's cherish it as we go.
I hope that one day, you too can reach your own peak.
I am Orange Seat, a man focused on recovering cryptocurrency assets, capable of helping you get rich.
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