The cult of "start investing now" is everywhere, but nobody talks about the deeper tension: the ideology of access versus the reality of inequality. It is fashionable to say anyone can invest, but can we actually be honest about why most do not? It is not just procrastination. I would call it anxiety. Investing means confronting your own future, which is terrifying if you grew up on economic edge. The people with the most to gain are usually those least prepared to stomach risk or ride out downturns

That said, you are not wrong. The only way you can have any chance of agency in the algorithmic marketplace is to put some skin in the game. Even a little. But the story you told about rural land is not just a fluke of luck. It tell a lot about how wealth is a function of timing, local knowledge, and randomness. No investment influencer talks about the years of nothing happening before that government university showed up. If everyone suddenly followed your advice, would there still be outsized returns for anyone? Or does the system need most people to sit out for a few to win big? Wealth is a zero-sum game only in the short term, but the emotional math feels way more brutal than the financial one