It is a common belief that people with nothing to lose are the ones most likely...

It is a common belief that people with nothing to lose are the ones most likely to initiate revolution or major societal change. But in reality, that never happens.

People with nothing to lose also have nothing to protect, nothing to build toward, and no real incentive to act in a coordinated or productive way. They may lash out, they may follow stronger forces, but they never lead. Why? Because they have no skin in the game.

Having skin in the game, meaning personal investment, responsibility, and consequences, is what creates the psychological pressure to act with purpose. Without it, most people default to passivity, nihilism, or aimless destruction.

Major change, especially the kind that builds something rather than just burns things down, is almost always initiated by:

1. People who have something valuable to protect (family, property, legacy, community).

2. People who are competent enough to calculate long-term consequences.

3. People who are already successful or productive within the system, but recognize that the system is turning against them.

These are the people who have agency, vision, and structure. And when they act, they do so not out of desperation, but out of duty and strategic necessity.

The truly dangerous man is not the one with nothing to lose. It is the one who has everything to lose, and the capability to defend it.

Those are the initiators of real change. Everyone else just follows.