This actually made something click for me, I had been observing a lot of drama recently related to one of my hobbies and i was confused by the "energy level" of racist people. Seemed hard to believe people were actually truly this upset over something so trivial. Your comment helped me realize it's actually about self gratification, the underlying issue barely matters

The quote “Play wealth games, not status games.” comes to mind.

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103627387813888

> You must own equity - a piece of a business - to gain your financial freedom.

But, unless you already have wealth, you need social status to get to a place of owning significant equity.

You need peers willing to work with you as co-founders on a new venture.

You need to impress investors, unless you're self sustaining from the start.

Once you start to grow, your business needs to be a place employees want to work.

Especially early on, your connection with customers and gaining their trust and enthusiasm will be a big part of convincing them to buy your product.

Reputation for good customer service and quality products is also an aspect of social status.

In other words, you need some forms of social status to bootstrap wealth accumulation.