Former Wall Street fund manager's viral article: "The Prison of Financial Mediocrity"

This article quickly surpassed 10 million reads in the English community, not because of its writing style, but because it hits a brutal reality:
When the "normal path to wealth" is closed off to a generation,
speculation is not decadence, but rationality.

The core logic of the article can be broken down into 6 sentences:
1️⃣ Traditional wealth paths are failing
Study → Work → Promotion → Buy a house → Accumulate assets,
This path has been viable over the past few decades,
but for most young people today, it has been blocked.
It's not that they aren't trying,
but effort itself no longer produces compound interest.

2️⃣ Many are trapped in a state of "sustainable but unable to advance"
Wages can keep you alive,
but you will never catch up with housing prices, asset prices, and inflation.
You're not poor,
but you'll never reach the side with "choice."
This is a tormenting state worse than poverty.

3️⃣ AI and social media amplify this despair
AI compresses middle-skill jobs,
social media daily throws "wealth explosion samples" in your face.
On one side is stagnation in reality,
on the other side is the success illusion fed by algorithms.
Psychological tension is infinitely stretched.

4️⃣ High-volatility markets have become the only place "still possible to turn around"
In stocks, crypto, options, gambling,
there is at least one possibility:
One correct choice can change the trajectory.
Even if the probability is low,
it’s more attractive than "staying in place for a lifetime."

5️⃣ This is not ignorance, but rational choice under constrained conditions
When all low-risk paths are blocked,
high risk becomes the only option with positive expected value.
What you see are "gamblers,"
but they see themselves as:
the last door that hasn't been closed yet.

6️⃣ True long-term winners are not gamblers, but the casinos
Most individual participants lose.
But platforms, exchanges, brokers, and house players, always win.
So the real "long position" worth taking,
has never been the players in the game,
but —
the system itself that sells hope in despair.

One sentence summary:
This is not a generation that suddenly became greedy,
but an era
that no longer leaves ordinary people the option to "safely get rich."
When reality doesn't provide answers,
people can only find an outlet in volatility.