What characteristics do children from the bottom of Chinese society usually have?

Because they have never seen large sums of money growing up, let alone witnessed firsthand how others make a fortune from start to finish, it’s hard for them to understand that every penny carries its own karmic consequences. Money earned one way and money earned another may look the same, but they are fundamentally different. When they grow up, they are prone to making major mistakes in this regard.

Simply put, with a million dollars: Is it earned through honest work, or from investing principal? Is it from a joint business venture, or from gray-area operations? Is it from corruption, bribery, or illegal activities, or simply from luck—like compensation for demolishing an old family house?

When earning that money, did you owe anyone a favor? Did you use connections to land a project? Did you borrow money with a guarantor? Did someone have leverage over you, forcing you to offer a "pledge of loyalty"? Did you become tied to others like grasshoppers on the same string?

Earning that money—did you offend anyone? Harm anyone? Did you split the profits fairly with your partners? Are your subordinates truly satisfied with you? Does anyone hold a grudge against you?

Did you keep a low profile and enjoy your fortune quietly, or did relatives, in-laws, and old classmates come sniffing around to congratulate you?

Did you operate as a digital nomad, pocketing all the money yourself, or did you have a team of over a dozen people, waking up every day to rent, utilities, and payroll?

To make that money, did you ruin your health? Tear your family apart? Did your children go astray from lack of supervision? Were you too busy to see your parents even once a year?

And for instance, did you earn that money in your energetic twenties or thirties, or when you're old and frail, unable to walk or eat much?

In each of the above scenarios, it’s still the same million dollars, but its significance to you is vastly different. That’s why you often see comments under flashy wealth posts online: "If I had that much money, if I owned that villa, I can’t imagine how happy I’d be." But that’s not really the case.

You think you’d be happy because you’re projecting the idea of "being rich" onto your current life—where your medical checkup results are still normal, your relationships are simple, and you haven’t gotten into any trouble.

But the reality is that most wealthy people, while accumulating money, also accumulate a bunch of messy karmic consequences beyond their control. Combined, these often offset a large portion of the benefits that money brings.

So, what money is okay to earn, what money should be avoided, how to make trade-offs, how to weigh gains and costs in major decisions—only those who have truly experienced it or at least seen it firsthand can figure it out quickly.

It’s very hard to learn to discern and judge simply through reasoning.