Ask a question—why do so many people think that 1 million isn't a big deal?

Honestly, it's confusing asset current value with actual cash flow.

Are Chinese people really that wealthy? Not necessarily. But in various jokes and stories, it seems like all wealthy families have assets worth tens of millions. What's going on? Because real estate is included in those assets. That's the normal way ordinary people calculate: monthly income of 5000, bank savings of 50,000, a house worth 6 million, so this guy's "assets are over 6 million."

But all of this is an illusion created by the real estate bubble.

"Shanghai families have an average asset of 10 million," "Sell all your Beijing properties and you could buy the entire United States"—these kinds of jokes are everywhere. Then everyone defaults to thinking "wealthy people are those who own multiple properties." The problem is, the numbers on paper and the actual money in the bank are two completely different things.

The principle is simple: social mobility is limited. If you're selling bottled water at school, 100 bottles, the total cash across the whole school is only 200 yuan. No matter how thirsty everyone is, you can't sell more than 200 yuan worth—because there isn't that much money.

Previously, it seemed like everyone was extremely wealthy because banks were flooding the market with money. Banks can "create money," but as soon as credit expansion stops, real estate transactions freeze immediately, and prices collapse accordingly. So, some people can get rich quickly through real estate, but not everyone can become wealthy at once. Behind every person who gets rich, there's always a sucker who takes the loss.

This logic also applies to crypto assets—true market liquidity is the key to pricing power, not just the numbers on paper.