Money is a spiritual thing, and to different castes of people it is a completely different thing. Strivers, the new money, don't see this. They grow up in these bubbles of ambition and hustle, surrounded by millionaires, safety nets. They think risk is simply a math calculation. 10k here 10k there. If they lose it, ouch, but they swag on, they're fine. They can always pull on friends, networks, nepotism, insider knowledge. Luck snowballs. The more you win, the harder it is to lose everything. And even if you do lose everything you can bounce back quick so long as your spirit ain't gone. Pepperoni plane type shit, you only hear the stories of the winner, never the losers. Normal people do not have the allowance to live like this. They live in a world where one mistake ruins their whole fucking life. Your car breaks down, you get fired, you miss rent, your life is ruined. Not because you're dumb, but you simply have no buffer, risk eats you alive, it is completely intolerable. Even the 'comfortable' middle class feels this. People who make 60-120k, paying 2k+ a month for rent. On paper they're super comfortable, and they probably feel quite comfortable too. Yet saving something like 10k+ often can take years. To risk that money, that buffer, even on a 90% chance to win, to watch it vanish in a single dice role? Unthinkable. That is worse than gambling, your life is fucking over. Compare that to the new money striver. Ten thousand is a week's income, it disappears and they shrug, what hurts is not existential but egoic. They talk about money in the same dollar amounts as everyone else, but the spiritual weight is completely different, it is simply pocket change to them. For the lower and middle class they must hedge everything. Strivers see this as stupidity or meekness, but its really very wise like, it is calculated, it is tradition, they know that luck doesn't forgive, and failure is forever. Even some upper middle class people This is why the fucking STUPIDEST people in the world so often get rich, especially these days. The guy who blows his whole life savings into crypto, the one who quits his job to join some insane start-up that is clearly doomed to fail but somehow succeeds due to cheer luck via an acquisition. They are reckless because they have nothing to lose, if you're fucking broke you're weighing risk more similar to a poor people than someone on the straight & narrow, you're rolling cus fuck it who gives a shit. When you get snake eyes everyone calls you a genius, but most of the time it doesn't, then everyone calls you a fucking moron, and your life is over. When the rich act careless it looks brave, but it is simply a difference in caste. When the poor act careful it looks cowardly, but truly it is wise. This is why I say that the way so many of you new money folk act about money is so deeply unbecoming of your caste. Money is not money. It is supernatural. It is luck. The Chinese were right about this, Americans would be well good to learn it too.