In the US, if you don't put your money in stocks, society will mock you. In China, if you don't convert your money into a mortgage, your mother-in-law will reject you. During the Qing Dynasty, the acceptance rate for scholars could rival that of Tsinghua and Peking University, yet there were still plenty of old scholars who spent their entire lives studying the classics, like Kong Yiji. This is the value system of "all occupations are base, only book-learning is exalted," forcing the nation's smart people to gamble against the imperial court, the market maker of scholarly honors, by holding a long-term bullish call option on achieving top honors in the imperial examinations.