Happy Thursday! 

If you missed my primer on today’s newsletter, I’ll re-up it here. On Monday, I shared the links to all of the content that made me think about financial nihilism and high risk activities today. Subscribe to the Yapper tier for the full newsletter. 

I, like many members of Gen Z, have fallen into financial nihilism at some point, taking money and debt quite lightly during my early 20s (okay, sometimes even now). In the first few years of the decade, we saw growing credit card debt and rising interest in buy now, pay later apps, signaling a willingness for young people to go into debt—not only to achieve the lifestyle they want—but to simply live. 

But as we’ve entered the midpoint of the 2020s, high risk (and presumably, high reward) sources of income have become increasingly in vogue, offering a small sliver of hope for young people who see few opportunities for advancement. 

While this is a topic that has been frequently discussed in recent months, there are a couple reasons why I’m thinking about this now. 

The first is that I’ve been stuck on these pieces of media I saw last week: Chloe Cherry, an adult performer-turned-TV-actress, commenting on the new Euphoria OnlyFans storyline and Ben McKenzie (yes, Ryan from The OC) discussing his new crypto documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money with Hasan Minhaj. While these might seem like disparate things, I think both of their criticisms boil down to one thing: People are convinced that gambling—whether that be with your image or money—is a promising way out of financial insecurity.

Secondly, I recently chatted with someone who proposed a connection between the appeal of prediction markets and the creator economy among young people. In these online opportunities—whether it’s OnlyFans (or even the lower risk SFW creator economy), crypto, or prediction markets—everyone is sold on the idea that they can strike it rich quick and become successful overnight. 

Often, these avenues are framed as empowering methods of moneymaking, allowing people to capitalize on their expertise or talents without going through traditional institutions. Yet, the lack of regulation and protections within these alternative income streams puts participants at a high risk of bust too. 

You can’t blame people for wanting to try these things or believing that they might work. Many people cannot see a way forward through traditional avenues or careers, especially with a floundering job market with few entry-level opportunities.