In China, why do low-priced cigarettes keep getting more expensive? Why do people who smoke cheap cigarettes always find reasons to say they are contributing military expenses to the country? Actually, many of the costs ultimately end up on ordinary people—not necessarily because they are the poorest, but because they are the most numerous, the most dispersed, face the greatest costs and resistance to resisting, and have the weakest bargaining power. As a result, it’s the least resistant path for policy to shift the costs. And people who have long been in environments marked by resource scarcity and low sense of control are prone to developing learned helplessness and self-justification mechanisms, interpreting realities they cannot change as realities they must accept in order to reduce inner conflict. They explain helplessness as responsibility, compromise as dedication, and personal costs as collective honor. So the true situation of a group often depends not only on how much wealth they have, but on how strong their organizational ability, voice power, bargaining power, and choice power are.