Growth of negative‑sum assets

New products and rebrandings (for example startups relabeling as 'AI' plays) plus experience/vice markets (sports gambling, novelty medical/consumption behavior) are creating more opportunities to spend discretionary wealth on activities that, in aggregate, destroy more value than they create. As real incomes and generational wealth rise, entrepreneurs fill demand with exotic, attention‑grabbing ways to 'consume' gains, lowering the marginal cost of wasteful spending. — If negative‑sum assets are proliferating, regulators, consumer‑protection advocates, and fiscal policymakers will need new tools to protect vulnerable groups and to understand how status consumption reshapes inequality and economic resilience.