Comment by hbsbsbsndk

Contrary to people's expectations, it's not actually possible for "number go up" to continue forever. Privileged people have extracted value from marginalized people, the global south, the environment, and increasingly just domestic wealth inequality. There are fewer and fewer externalities you can profit from.

Not to sound Malthusian, but it was never going to happen that 9 billion people on the planet could live with a North American standard of life, and we stop global warming, and deforestation. It would be a sort of heat death for capitalism with no gradient of inequality left to extract value from.

Financialization is the last gasp attempt to make something from nothing. You're just betting on taking money from another person who is betting on taking money from you. The memeification of retail investing and the entire crypto market are the most naked version where there is simply no relation to any real resources.