Morgan Housel

And so that's always the case that luxury becomes necessity very, very quickly.

It's always been the case that there's no definition of wealth.

There's no objective definition of wealth.

The only definition that makes sense to people is relative to other people.

And so it doesn't matter how much money that I have.

All that matters is that I have more than you.

That's always been the case.

It is a hundred times more potent now because of social media.

So what he just said was true 100 years ago, was true 1,000 years ago.

You judge yourself relative to other people.

But your comparison group now that you're comparing yourself to is a curated algorithmic highlighted reel of the top 1% of moments, of the top 1% of people's lives.

Yes, globally.

And so it's created this idea.

Look, as an iron rule of math,

half the population has to be below the median.

That's just how it works.

Half the population has to be below average.

And when everybody, though, is being almost force-fed the top 1% of moments of the top 1% of people's lives, you create the situation where a lot of people are living good lives by any historical standard, but we've created a world where I think most people expect what is effectively a top 1% outcome.

And you see this a lot with college students, where a lot of people think that the baseline norm of what they want in life is a bachelor's degree from a flagship university, a corporate job that pays low six figures to begin with, great health insurance, great retirement, a 3,000 square foot house with two SUVs.

That's become their baseline norm of like, that's just what I expect.