Who are you supporting?

A wise person once said that if you are in a big city, haven't bought a house, and spend all your money on buying bags and clothes, leaving the big city with nothing, in this case, you are the consumable of the big city.

Cities, like people, are "negative entropy entities." What is this thing?

First of all, everyone needs to know what "entropy increase" is. Entropy increase is "falling into a pit." According to the second law of thermodynamics, everything in this world has a tendency to fall into a pit. Charcoal on fire will go out, fresh beef will rot, beautiful women will age, houses will decay if no one takes care of them, stars will collapse, even black holes have a lifespan. If you are unlucky, you will perish, and you will increase entropy.

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Entropy increase is the devil in the universe, just like the grim reaper, who is immortal and always waiting to harvest beef, beautiful women, and everything.

However, some things do not increase entropy for a period of time, such as life, cities, economies, companies, etc. It should be that these things will become dregs, but these things not only do not fall into a pit for a period of time, but also grow against the pressure of entropy increase. What's going on?

Yes, it makes others increase entropy, or it makes others unlucky.

That is to say, life and cities, like people, consume other things to achieve their own "negative entropy" and growth.

People need to eat, absorb the energy of the steak, people become strong, and the steak accelerates into dregs.A house requires the continuous expenditure of time and effort by the people living within it to maintain it from falling into disrepair, and even after renovation, it can shine with brilliance.

The same applies to a city. For a city to function, it requires a large amount of electricity and even more manpower. The city rises from the ground, consuming electricity and the youth of others.

Here lies a problem, known as the "question of who bears the cost."

In theory, every person in the city bears the cost, but each person bears a different amount.

It's a bit like what the blogger said before: you go to work to earn money, and your salary is ten thousand, but you only get eight thousand. If you have elderly family members receiving government pensions, your two thousand is essentially a cycle back to your home. But if you don't have such elderly family members, it's as if you're supporting someone else's father.

The logic we're talking about today is the same. Everyone is a consumer of the city, but some people are also beneficiaries of the city. It's a bit like the saying, "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

For example, everyone works together to make the city more beautiful. But if you own a house and a company, the beautiful city has increased the value of your house and improved the business environment, so your efforts have been returned to you to some extent through the house and company, as if the taxes you paid were earned back by your father.

Or the government builds a subway station right under your house. This is created by government taxes, but the value of your house rises immediately. Or if you have a fruit stand, the nearby subway station brings in a huge influx of traffic, and you have to expand your scale.

But if you don't own a house, don't have assets, and don't have a fruit stand, then your contributions have become an increase in someone else's assets, supporting someone else's father. Isn't that a surprise?Of course, the blogger is not advising everyone to rush out and buy a house, that would be too narrow-minded. Instead, the blogger is saying that whatever we do, we should analyze the pros and cons, and see which actions are supporting others' parents, and which are supporting our own.

Consumerism is just such a pit, advocating for the pursuit of short-term pleasure, feeling that we are enjoying ourselves in the moment, but in reality, we are supporting others' parents without even knowing it, and we are still quite happy.

Have your thoughts been washed today?

If I were to list the top three great things created by human imagination in history, I would list the following three:

Diamonds;

1982 Lafite;

Hermès.

Of course, the blogger is only providing a perspective, and everyone can think for themselves about what is the most impressive thing, there is no uniform answer. The intrinsic value of the three items we mentioned above is very hard to say, how should we understand it?

Firstly, diamonds are a scam of the century, they have no practical use at all, and their divisibility is extremely poor, they cannot be used as currency, and their reserves are incredibly high. They maintain high prices through brainwashing advertising and monopolistic supply. In fact, if you buy a diamond ring from a jewelry store and sell it on the second-hand market, that is the real price of the diamond. You can go and see how much it is really worth.

If you have a brand new excavator in front of you, you wouldn't think it's worthless, right?Or perhaps there is such an object placed:

Even if you have no idea what this thing is for, you still know it must be quite expensive.

But if you have a bottle of 1982 Lafite in front of you, can you confirm how much the price is? Because you can't tell whether this thing is true or false, in fact, you may never know what is in this bottle of wine in your life.

Moreover, the output of 1982 Lafite is 200,000 bottles, and then every year sells 200,000 bottles, I don't know what most people drink is what.

Abroad, almost every year there is a blind test of red wine, you can Google to see, the blogger pasted a paragraph of content written by others:

A psychologist Richard Wiseman did another red wine evaluation experiment, he chose three types of red wine, white wine and champagne, each category chose a bottle of expensive and a bottle of cheap, and then let the volunteers guess, which one is the expensive one? The results of the experiment were also surprising: 53% of the tasters could successfully choose the more expensive wine, but you have to know that the success rate of flipping a coin is 50%, the performance of the tasters is only slightly better than flipping a coin. What's more, in the category of red wine, the success rate of the tasters is only 39%, in other words, most people think that the cheap wine is better to drink.

In addition, there is the famous Yangxun Lake hairy crab, Weibo had someone organized a challenge before, the blogger who boasted that he could taste the Yangxun Lake hairy crab was slapped in the face on the spot, and no one dared to boast again.By this point, everyone should understand that the value of many things is not affected by changing environments, but there are also many things that can see a drastic drop in value just by changing their packaging, because the product itself is decoupled from the price.

As for Hermès bags, it's even more so. Once you take it out of the store and try to resell it, you might never be able to sell it at the original price again. Especially when you can't prove whether it's genuine or not, the question is, does an excavator need to prove it's genuine?

The most obvious example is the hotly speculated shoes recently. This morning I checked, and a pair of shoes that originally cost 2,000 yuan was speculated to 15,000 yuan, and then the price fell back in the past two days. That is to say, the story imposed on the shoes was once worth 13,000 yuan, and now that the story is questioned, the shoe price has quickly collapsed. As for Hermès and 1982 Lafite, because the producers have always been restrained and the routine is appropriate, their story can still be played for many years.

That is to say, the value of an excavator is solidified in the product itself, while the value essence of the things we mentioned above is all about the story. Once the story is stripped away, the thing itself is worthless. Telling you a story and you pay a high premium, there may be nothing more cost-effective in the world.

Of course, it's a bit excessive to tell a story to make you buy, and it needs to be combined with other routines.

Let's talk about another thing, if you are interested, you can also go and see it. I often travel to international airports, and every time I see a group of people from a distance, they are all Asian faces. I can tell where they come from without even hearing them speak.

For example, if everyone has an exaggerated smile, it's basically determined that this group of people is Japanese.

If a group of people's voices are louder than the airport loudspeakers, they are basically Koreans.

If that group of people seem to come from the countryside, they are all fat and rustic, then they are almost certainly from the United States.This is not to take the opportunity to despise Americans, but to say that the United States entered the consumer era much earlier than China. They have already changed their ways of playing. Among all the foreigners I have met, the most indifferent to brands and the most casual in dress should be the Americans. For example, in the American TV series "Billions," Bobby and his wife are extremely wealthy, but they dress like migrant workers in their daily lives.

In the past, the Japanese used to buy and sell spring bags, but I don't know the situation in recent years. However, the overall materialistic temperament has gradually dissipated, and they are about to get out of the pit, while the Chinese have just entered the pit.

So the question arises, what kind of pit are we in now?

We can tentatively consider it as "upper class access delusion," or in fashionable words, "your consumption is yourself."

By buying clothes, bags, and cars, a person may have the illusion of "climbing to a class that does not belong to themselves." Through consumption, they make themselves feel different, achieving a sublimation on a spiritual level.

This is because the first thing the market economy does is to classify users, stratifying them according to their consumption capacity and dividing them into several layers.

First, it meets basic needs. For example, when buying a car, a Honda Fit for 80,000 yuan can basically solve 90% of the problems, and it's also easy to park, but it's too low-key.

Then, it provides high-quality products, such as the Magotan for about 200,000 yuan. It's not about showing off, but it can go a step further in terms of functionality.

As you go higher, it starts to become more intangible because many people's requirements for cars are no longer just for transportation. They have special needs like picking up girls, discussing business, or simply having too much money and not wanting to be the same as others.Against this backdrop, tiered consumption has created a tiered population, with consumer goods serving as labels for people.

Inevitably, over time, people come to believe that by gritting their teeth and purchasing a high-end consumer good, their social status will rise. This is why they engage in consumption under tremendous pressure, even resorting to excessive consumption. Businesses also cater to this consumer demand by lowering their standards and promoting "light luxury" products. What is light luxury? It's something like e-cigarettes, which can alleviate the desire for luxury goods to a certain extent, but ultimately cannot replace them. This has led to an addiction to light luxury.

Of course, not everyone thinks this way, but mass psychology studies groups rather than individuals. It's like when advertisers post a billboard on a street corner; everyone thinks they won't be fooled, but for the advertisers, there's a 12.4% chance that you will be hooked. If you don't fall for it, someone else will.

Moreover, many consumer concepts are repeatedly instilled into your mind, such as the following trendy sayings:

Only those who can spend money can make money;

The rich make money through connections, while the poor rely on physical labor. To become rich, one must first cultivate connections;

Smart women are willing to spend money on themselves;

Money is not saved, but earned.

The biggest problem with these concepts is that they are specious.For instance, money is indeed made, but if you spend all the money you earn and fail to accumulate capital, no matter how much you earn, you are still a "moonlight clan" (a term used in China for people who earn money but spend it all). When a real big opportunity comes, you can only watch helplessly.

Take networking for another example; it's the most absurd notion. Where does a poor person get connections? The few times a poor person is helped by a wealthy one are usually not through their own management but because they are being their true selves, and someone else wants to help them out of the blue, perhaps seeing them as a hidden dragon, or having potential, or simply finding them endearingly naive. For the poor to turn things around, it generally relies on taking risks and a long, arduous accumulation. Once you rise, connections come with it, and there are some kinds of money that you simply cannot earn until you reach a certain level.

As for the saying, "Only those who know how to spend money can make money," there is no real connection between spending and earning. Forcing them together is a mistake. If you find that statement reasonable, it's likely your mind has been brainwashed.

Moreover, there has been a misleading argument in recent years advocating for renting for life, claiming it's more popular in the West. Please, this is more common among black people in the West. If you're going to learn from someone, don't learn from the black community!

Black people generally don't have fathers, should we also follow that example?

In fact, in almost all cultures, settling down, raising children, and having a stable family are the mainstream and core values. Non-mainstream and marginal voices may be loud, but in the long run, whoever believes in them will be unfortunate.

However, these strange concepts about consumption may have been carefully considered and evolved over time, and they may conform to some of the underlying hardware of human nature, so everyone learns them quickly. After all, everyone has a tendency to fall into the pit. You can see why most people have fallen into the pit in the blogger's article.

In recent years, various consumer loans, combined with these bad ideas, have been played with great vigor. I know a girl who was quite clever, and she changed significantly around the time of her university graduation. She came from an ordinary family but indulged in various entertainments and showed off her travels across Europe. As expected, she ended up owing hundreds of thousands in consumer loans, and I don't know how they plan to solve it. Upon further investigation, this situation is everywhere, and it has now become a new trend.Why Do People Die?

The title says "Consumerism Kills," but so far, it hasn't explained what "consumerism" is.

Whenever the word "ism" is added, it essentially means "center" or "supreme." Capitalism is centered on capital appreciation, while socialism is centered on the overall welfare of society (from this, we can also see that socialism and capitalism are not opposites; they are unrelated, and the opposite of socialism is liberalism). In addition, there are nationalism (centered on one's own nation), imperialism (centered on the expansion of empire, oppression, and exploitation of colonies and border regions), and so on.

Having said that, everyone should understand that consumerism emphasizes that the core of life is consumption, spending money is the happiest thing, and the goal of life is to pursue the pleasure of consumption. Of course, it is estimated that those who have consumed in advance up to 2022 may not even admit that their life goal is "to enjoy the happiness of consumption." In other words, you may be doing it, but you may not necessarily admit that you think this way. You need to engage in a serious self-criticism to uncover the true thoughts in your heart.

We previously discussed in this article about bloodthirsty capitalism that capitalism and consumerism are two sides of the same coin. The core of the former is "don't spend the money you earn, or spend a very small part of it, and invest the rest in capital appreciation." This capital appreciation can be opening a business, investing, or even usury.

The core of consumerism, which is opposed to capitalism, is to buy, buy, buy, to purchase all the products produced by the former or to take all the high-interest loans offered by the former.

Only when they exist simultaneously can the economy function.

At the beginning, the production side is painful, but gradually, as the scale of capital grows larger, even a small part of it is not enough to spend.

On the consumption side, it starts off as enjoyable, but the more it goes on, the more passive it becomes. In the end, it falls into a pit. When the labor force that can be sold gradually loses value, it naturally cannot maintain the previous consumption ability, and life becomes more and more difficult.Is there hope?

In fact, the key lies in establishing the correct core values and continuously reinforcing them in practice.

There is a phenomenon in our area. The wealthy families in the northern part of Shanxi started as prominent families during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Later, they were revolutionized by our party. For example, there is a wealthy family in our area. Since the Ming Dynasty, their family has been transporting grain to the border army of the Ming Dynasty with the salt license issued by the court. In the Qing Dynasty, they became a branch of one of the eight imperial merchants. Although they declined to some extent during the Republic of China, they were still an important supporter of Yan Xishan's Jin Army. There were dozens of their family members serving as officers in the Jin Army. The Taiyuan Battle was a turning point for their family, and they were suddenly reduced to their original form, back to 700 years ago.

To add more, yesterday was the anniversary of the death of the chairman. Most people don't realize how much impact the chairman had on this country. Without his bold actions to plow through China, China would probably be similar to India now, with a top layer of beneficiaries who have been solidified for hundreds of years, and ordinary people just get by, talking about the gossip of the wealthy families like Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin every day.

However, it is interesting to note that these wealthy families have quickly risen to a certain extent after the reform and opening up. The family I just mentioned is still far from their peak, but now they are a prominent local family, with significant progress in college entrance examinations and business. Later, it was found that this situation also appeared in the Jiangnan area. It is a bit like this picture in "1942":

I thought about it for a long time, and then I understood. In fact, the key is the inculcation of some core values. For example, truly wise families will instill concepts about assets, consumption, costs, and reading in advance. These are all thresholds, and only a few people understand these things. Most people not only don't understand but also find it difficult to learn.

In "Breaking Bad," the big drug lord said to the protagonist, Old Bai, that the poor don't need to learn, as anyone can be poor. He didn't say that the rich need to learn. Without mastering great wealth and experiencing the rise from scratch to the promotion of the wealthy family, with several ups and downs in the middle, many things will not be understood, and most people cannot grasp the essence of wealth. Just like you can't learn how to manage software projects without following the project manager for a dozen projects.

Some families still don't understand these things to this day, and they are insincere. Even if what they say is close to the top, what they do is completely in the opposite direction. For example, some parents know that it's not good for children to watch TV, as it can be brain-damaging. They don't let their children watch, but they sit in front of the TV every night, enjoying themselves very much. There are also many families that tell their children to read every day, but they themselves have never read a book. If what you say and do are inconsistent, children are prone to mental splitting. In the end, they find that their parents are fools and have a sense of disillusionment. No matter what parents say, they don't take it seriously, just as if they didn't hear it.Yes, in fact, the vast majority of parents are actually unqualified. There are physical examinations for joining the military, college entrance exams for attending university, national exams for becoming a civil servant, and interviews for entering a company. However, there is almost no threshold for such a significant role as being a parent. There is no need to be implicit about this; the vast majority of grassroots children's success mainly depends on their own efforts, and parents have not been of much help, even though they have tried their best. Trying their best does not mean they have done a good job.

But in recent years, the new generation of college students has had children, and they know how to learn, how to solve complex problems, and how to set an example for their children. For other children whose parents are confused, this is a dimensional strike.

Back to our topic, the topics of education, consumption, accumulation, and investment are actually very complex, so much so that it takes one or two generations to slowly ponder and come up with some basic concepts.

For example, the Chinese people already pay a lot of attention to education worldwide, but when I chatted with a Jewish colleague, he said that their German Jews are famous for valuing education. The most obvious operation is that parents read many more books than their children. In this way, even if parents do not mention reading, children will spontaneously read more. Children will naturally think that what their parents do is right. I have mentioned before that there are many branches of Jews, and the ones with high achievements are mainly German Jews. I think the problem lies here, and there is no racial talent or strict sense of bloodline theory. Jews and Arabs share the same bloodline, and few people say that Arabs are smart, right?

The same is true for consumption concepts. Any family that has been wealthy before knows that the vast majority of income should be invested in productive resources, and a small part should be used for consumption. Assets can bring passive income to people, which means that your father is supported by others. This logic itself is very simple, but it is very difficult to do, and it requires parents to instill it for more than a decade, and you have to practice it yourself to solidify it into your own concept.

Moreover, the key is not to save money but to save assets. We have seen many people who live frugally but have no money, and a big reason is that they only know how to save money but do not know what the purpose of saving money is. The vast majority of people cannot even distinguish between assets and consumption. For example, a few decades ago, income was low, but housing was also cheap, and no one competed with you, and everyone was confused. However, the problem is that 99% of people are that "everyone." In recent years, people have finally reacted, but they only chase the rise and kill the fall.

The essence of most things on this planet is accumulation and outbreak.

Accumulation is something everyone can control. If you save less money, buy a small asset; if you save more, buy a big one, and then climb up through a wave of replacement after another. If you can take risks, bet at the right time. There is a small wave every five or six years, a big wave every ten or so years, and a huge wave every twenty years. When the big wave comes, seize the opportunity to climb up, and you will turn over. However, the premise is that you must have capital.Moreover, being a reliable person, the reputation of being "reliable" itself is an asset, just like "credit", which can be of great help at critical moments.

In addition, output more, for example, the blogger writes every day, has been writing for many years, and gradually accumulates some links. As for the final outbreak, it depends on the person and fate, but without accumulation, there will definitely be no outbreak, this must not be doubted.

At the end of the article, I will answer a question that is often asked by everyone. Many people say, if you, as a blogger, share this kind of thing, if everyone does it, isn't it equivalent to no one doing it.

In fact, it's overthinking. This article has more than six thousand words, and now WeChat public accounts generally won't exceed three thousand words. Why? Three thousand words is the limit of reading. Beyond this limit, 90% of readers will give up. The problem is that there are not many people reading articles now, and most of them are watching those short videos that directly stimulate the brain's pleasure circuit, that is to say, there are not many people watching, and even fewer people can finish watching.

Secondly, for the vast majority of people, reading the article is of no use. They should do what they should do. As we said above, many things require parents to set an example for you for more than a decade, and you solidify them in practice. In the end, the article can really affect a few people.