The Chain of Contempt and Cash Flow

I drink Maotai, smoke Huazi cigarettes, drive BBA cars, and live in a big house. I look down on you for drinking Erguotou, smoking Hongshuangxi, driving a Wuling Hongguang, and living in a small house.

This isn't really about the hierarchy of consumption itself, but about people trying to impose a hierarchy on each other.

If you can't afford Maotai, Huazi, BBA, or a big house, what happens? You go into debt. And as long as I can force your cash flow to dry up, I can trap you—so from then on, your remaining life is entirely mine to control, right?

This is the essence of cash flow.

My cash flow must never break. As long as it doesn't, I keep my freedom, and I never need to "sell myself." But your cash flow—no matter what it takes, I'll find a way to cut it off, whether by luring you with status-tiered consumption or by playing with the rise-and-fall cycles of investment products. The goal is always the same: make you break.

Once broken, you lose your freedom. Your later life won't be yours to decide—you'll end up like Xiren, selling yourself into the Jia mansion.

Even if you don't play with Maotai, Huazi, or big houses, you'll still fall for blind boxes, IPs, anime, or some other trap. There's always a scheme tailored to you.

As long as my cash flow never breaks, I'm free forever. But if your cash flow breaks just once, you have to sell your freedom for the rest of your life.

If you want to be an investor, here's the playbook:

Keep your own cash-flow business running steadily, so it keeps producing cash indefinitely—that way you're always free. Then, use the milk from those cows to play the rising-and-falling markets, to try to sever other people's cash flows so they're forced to hand over the most precious thing in their lives.