The Envy-Industrial Complex
Megapowers have aligned to keep you jealous, angry, and broke.
Some might think this project started last week, specifically on July 14th, 2026. I was offering comments to a financial writer and mentioned how the "envy-industrial complex" was dooming an entire generation by selling them dreams of putting a new Lamborghini in their garages overnight. The method didn’t matter. What mattered was that it was so attainable it seemed common. It could be achieved quickly and easily. Most importantly, you had nobody to blame but yourself if you didn’t have it.
There it was. Within a couple of days, the term "envy-industrial complex" was Googleable. A search turned up more than a handful of references, and the origins of the term pointed back to that single quote. I won’t lie; it felt neat. This is not something that happened last week, however. My passion for that topic may have heated up a few days back, but I started writing about it around a decade ago. The actual problem has roots that go much further back.
In February of 2016, I wrote “The Joneses are Broke” on my personal LinkedIn page. It was a short essay about how "Keeping up with the Joneses" was causing almost half of American households to live on the edge of a personal financial crisis. It was my plea to readers to stop trying to live like the touched-up highlight-reel version of other people’s lives they were seeing online. It pulled back the curtain to reveal that the people being envied very likely could not afford their own lifestyles.
In June of 2022, I wrote a sequel of sorts, titled “Even the Rich are Broke!” in the Upleft Logbook. In this piece, I updated my data set and discovered that a significant portion of Americans earning over $250,000 were living paycheck to paycheck. I ended that item with a few suggestions on realistic places where a person could start saving money to build defenses against financial misfortune.
My next touch on this topic was a 2025 LinkedIn article named “Unsolicited Advice for Next Gens Seeking a Better Life.” This one received a strong reaction online and offered tips, both broad and specific, for younger adults to consider when struggling to find an on-ramp to the good life.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Chapter 10 of my book, Waypoints. In this chapter on finances, I talked about how to get what you want and whom you should turn to for money advice. Most important to today’s topic, I introduced the concept that your wealth is a function of the money that you have not spent. It was a quick chapter, but a critical idea.
The envy-industrial complex has people climbing over one another to show off the money they have spent. They spend it on overpriced cars, meals, and luxury vacations. I see people every day who can proudly say that they enjoy all of these things, and yet they secretly live in shame because of the financial security they have not attained. They talk about their inability to retire when they want to, or the fact that they have borrowed against their home multiple times.
The recent interest in this topic has taught me that my work is far from over. In addition to my past writings, I intend to dig deeper into the causes of this societal crisis, the specific effects it has on us, and what we can do about it. As I do this work, I welcome your ideas, comments, and encouragement. I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to take a great deal of time and effort. Keep an eye out for what comes next.