10/01/24 - Without exception, not one among my three friends was willing to sell the stocks they had.
“First time seeing my boyfriend’s family, I wanted to bring some gifts. I already picked them out, and i asked his opinion while picking these gifts out. And after working my ass off to get something nice for everyone, he went and asked his family what they wanted and told me to return all the stuff I’d already gotten. I felt really disrespected and had a fight with him. I don’t want to keep going anymore. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong at all, and thinks I’m the one getting hung up over nothing.”
BF: “XD My sister wants shoes. My mom says she already has plenty of earrings. She doesn’t have rings, though. You can just get something cheap. My dad wants shoes too. My grandma just wants a silver ring.”
OP: “T_T Why do I have to get new things again? Did I just waste my time picking things out the first time round?”
Comments say, “Wow, they’re picky.”
“Then don’t go.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of demanding gifts from a girl you’re meeting for the first time. I bet this guy’s family think they’re being nice too, not demanding anything too unreasonable.”
“I have a friend in my hometown, the kind who’s real wise without showing it. In 2020, back when small towns had the highest real estate prices, he told two houses and put all 2 million in cash he got into the stock market.
He said he just bought indexes and not individual stocks. He was absolutely certain that the stock market is going to warm up again.
At the lowest point, he lost 500K. Now, he’s happy every day. Not only did he get his money back, but he made quite a lot too.
Now, he’s thinking about quitting his small town government worker job and wants to buy a Chinese-made electric car. The Luxeed R7 sounds nice.”
Comments say, “Getting two birds with one stone.”
“Yes! All government workers need to quit so I can pass the test!”
“This is the shittiest written ad I’ve seen yet.”
“My worst fear happened.”
OP attaches screenshots of a gondola accident. “I was just watching along on a certain video platform when it suddenly vanished.”
And shows people talking in the comment section of the video: “It was car no.1 that fell. We were on car no.2. It was pretty windy at the time, and the gondolas were swinging around when suddenly, there was a loud clang and I saw the door of car 1 open and a woman fell out. Her kid kept crying that his mom had fallen down and he needed help. And my family of four and a couple other tourists just about died of fright in the second gondola. By the time the firemen got us down to the ground, I couldn’t even walk with how shaky I was. I was so lucky. I really thought my whole family was going to die there. I’m gonna be scared the rest of my life after this single moment of bravery now. I’m never going to touch anything like this again.”
“The accident happened around 5:30. When we wanted to go back at 6, we had to walk all the way down. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances were all there. One woman got driven away on an ambulance. It was so scary. I feel like I just barely got away with my life.”
“I saw the weakness of human nature in my three friends after the stock market rocketed up.
The first friend has been investing in stocks for 7 years and has lost a total of about 300K. She throws any money she manages to save every month into the stock market. After seeing the stock market rise, her first reaction wasn’t to sell everything and get her money back. It’s to borrow money from all her relatives and friends to keep buying in. After all, “The horses trot quickly in the bloom of spring.” This is a once in a millennia opportunity.
The second friend has been investing in stocks for 3 years, with a total of about 30K in losses. Honestly, it’s not that much. After seeing the stock market rise and seeing that he’s got all his money back and a couple grand extra, it was enough to give him the courage to make an appointment to buy more stocks.
The third friend has been investing in stocks for 6 months, spent a couple thousand on it. He’s basically just playing around and hardly lost any money at all. After seeing the stock market rise, he’s preparing to buy in real big. He thinks that if he sells after the stock market reaches a certain point, he’s guaranteed to make bank.
Without exception, not one among my three friends was willing to sell the stocks they had. It’s hard to suppress your excitement in the face of such temptation and such insanity.
Greed is a part of human nature. Either they’re going to the moon, or they’re going to lose everything.”
Comments say, “If you’re not greedy, you wouldn’t be in the stock market to begin with. Your three friends are at least better off than you.”
“However many geniuses there are, there are just as many idiots. However many lucky people there are, there are just as many unlucky bastards.”
“Why are middle-class families in Beijing so stressed out?
My ex was a kid from a typical middle-class Beijing family. His parents made 2 million+ per year, with 20 million in family assets. They have two houses in Beijing, and have two mansions and two condos in other first line cities.
From an outsider’s point of view, they have their houses and cars paid off and they have money and hukou, they should be living happy and carefree. But in actuality, their life is filled with deep anxiety and fear.
Because the biggest difference between the middle-class and the rich is that the middle-class doesn’t own any means of production. If the children of a middle-class family can’t exceed their parents, then they’ll lose their social status and be reshuffled back into society.
My ex went to international school from childhood, and tuition every year cost 300K-500K. He went to uni and got his postgrad degree overseas. His parent spent over 10 million on just his education alone. And yet, the kid that they invested so much in can only find a job that pays 8K a month in society.
But his dad came first place in the Gaokao and bought a house in Beijing in the 90s. His mom made eight figures just by investing in real estate and stocks. These are all successes that he cannot possibly replicate.
In his words, “My parents are awesome. I’m not going to accomplish 1/10th what they did in my whole life. I’m grateful if I can just find a job and make a little bit of spending money.”
His parent’s high-pressure education and high expectations from childhood never turned him into an involuter. It just caused him to become the sort of person who can’t persist at anything. His mom had to cuss him out every day that he was a useless piece of trash if he can’t get a driver’s license for him to finally grit his teeth and get his license.
Middle class families fear kids laying flat the most. And middle class families are the most obsessed with pushing their kids. Because they know that they don’t actually have any real assets to give to their kids. If their kids don’t work hard, then their assets won’t be able to help out their grandkids, who’ll have to start over from square zero.
So long as you’re willing to work hard in a poor family, you’re guaranteed to at least do better than your parents. So long as you don’t make wrong investments or start a new business, you’ll never run out of money in a rich family.
But kids from middle class families are stuck in the middle. It’s too hard to exceed their parents, but if they can’t manage at least that, then they can’t provide the safe comfortable lifestyle for their kids.
So they’re stressed because they understand very clearly that all of their wealth is just a product of the times. It’s the times that created all their success. And yet they don’t have the capability to withstand the changing of the times either, nor can they pass on any means of production to their children. So they have to put all their hopes into pushing their kids, so their kids can be someone who owns the means of production.
Basically, on the one hand, the road to climb up is getting narrower and narrower, and on the other hand, the slightest mistake could cause you to slip in socioeconomic class. Uncertainty about the future is the source of all stress.”
Comments say, “Why do you have such shitty commenters?”
“This is why middle class people shouldn’t have kids.”
“Just saw the announcement that some guy stabbed 18 people in Shanghai because he was unhappy with his life, causing three deaths.
In Water Margins, the character I hate the most if Liu Kui. This meathead has nothing but brute strength. His brains are made from paper mache. He doesn’t care at all once he starts killing. He just cuts down whoever is in front of him. What kind of hero murders innocents indiscriminately?
Nowadays, a lot of bastards have perfected Liu Kui’s worst traits. They’re completely worthless, and if they get bullied, they take it out on innocent people, even killing the weak like women and children to vent their rage! This isn’t just a societal problem, this is a problem with our history, our culture, and our education too!
Take justice from those who wronged you, take money from those who owe you. Raising a knife towards the weak, wantonly killing the innocent are some of the worst evils in this world!”
Comments say, “But society is responsible though.”
“This fucker doesn’t even look Chinese!”
“Yeah, go find the people who wronged you! They only know how to stay on their knees and kill their fellow peasants.”
“A postgrad degree costs a million RMB.
Before, I didn’t have much of a concept of tuition. My family’s never given me any reason to worry about my finances. It was only today, when I happened to catch a glance of the total payment, that I was shocked. USC is way too expensive!
Every semester costs over 30K USD. That’s 70K USD per year. Not counting living expenses and shopping and all of that. It’s a minimum of 500K RMB per year. A two year Master’s Degree would be a million RMB.
I feel bad now. Aside from tuition, my living expenses and shopping probably isn’t small either. I get my nails and eyelashes done every month and I eat out all the time, and I buy clothes and shoes and bags and everything. All of a sudden, I just feel like, fuck, it’s so expensive!”
Comments say, “Nails and eyelashes are so much more expensive overseas. OP sure is rich.”
“Why would you go to USC if you don’t have money to spare?”
“And you’ll get 5K a month once you come back to China to work.”