Posted on 01/16/2024 5:44:17 PM PST by anthropocene_x
China's youth came of age during a time of huge economic growth. But now, a sense of gloom is hanging around them as the country's economy plateaus.
China's slower-than-usual economic growth has put pressure on the country's millennials and Generation Z. Reared by a generation of Chinese who made their wealth during nearly four uninterrupted decades of explosive economic growth, they face much lower expectations for economic dynamism and their own prospects going forward.
"China's golden years, the two decades or so after our country's reform and opening-up policies, are over. There's nothing I can do about this. I can only accept it," says 20-year-old Jeffrey An, who is starting a master's degree.
An saw his parents rise from rural poverty to urban wealth, in part by investing in a fast-growing property market: one of the reasons why China grew so quickly in the last four decades.
But for himself, he sees no similar opportunities today. Some of the country's biggest property developers have defaulted and are facing bankruptcy; others have been hobbled by policies that make it harder for them to borrow money.
Thirty-four-year-old Zhao Wei is one of those laid off by a tech company in Beijing last year. Until recent weeks, to avoid the embarrassment of telling her live-in mother-in-law she's unemployed, she went to cafes and libraries, pretending she had a job while trying not to spend too much money.
Dropping out of the formal economy is now common enough that there's a popular term for it: lying flat, or tangping, in Chinese.
China communist party spent their future on paleces for themselves and swindled the economic outlook of generations.
Not surpprising
They should invest in real estate. That NEVER goes down ;-)
At all.
Historical solution?
Pillage and plunder
Have to have a military capable of doing that. When was thelast time China been in a serious shooting war?
They don’t operate that way.
I expect they will will be very effective
Foreign businesses and investors had an unquenchable thirst for China - until General Secretary Xi scared them away.
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