because everyone says

世の中で事実とされていることは、反証されていない仮説の集まりに過ぎない。
What are regarded as facts in this world are merely a collection of hypothesises that haven't been proved wrong.


When I was a child, I used to use the word "everyone" to explain a lot of things: "Because everyone has it."  "Because everyone says so."  "Because everyone's going."  Every time, my mother asked me who "everyone" was, why "everyone" mattered so much, and finally, not what "everyone" thought but what I thought.

When I met up with my best friend O from high school on Christmas Day, we took a couple of pictures in front of some pretty decorations.  O led me to a popular shooting spot where we found many people standing in line.  I chose a decorated tree right next to us instead and said it looked pretty enough for a picture.  After we were done with our selfie, O asked if I really didn't care for a shot at the popular shooting spot.  I said I didn't want a picture that so many people had.  "Everyone has it; look at that line."

"You're going to be a difficult customer if you ever came to our store."  O sells TVs as a living (though her dream is to work with people in the screens).  She explained that there was a line that worked magic when she said it at the right timing, namely when a customer was just one step away from deciding to actually buy the product.  "Everyone buys this."

I looked around at the people swarming on the streets and at the department store we went into.  The Japanese economy is surely on the rise but I assumed that some of the people shopping there probably hadn't gotten a raise themselves but shopped nonetheless just because "everyone" shopped.

Because everyone's wallet was getting heavier, so were theirs.  Because everyone wants it, so do they.  It's the same with stocks; "everyone" buys and then everyone buys.  Until the bubble pops.