‘Letting It Rot’In China, young people are abandoning the the idea that they can get ahead by hard work. A record number play the lottery as their only dream to success.They use the expression instead of quiet quitting.
China’s ruling Communist Party wants the country’s young people to be ambitious, work hard and prepare for adversity. Li Jiajia just wants to win the lottery.
The ever-present role of the state in daily life is stultifying, she said. Though she wanted to be a journalist in high school, she gave up when she realized how heavily the government censors the media.
“I want to leave here and live the life I want,” Li said. “It won’t happen overnight, but for now, the thrill of scratching lottery tickets gives me a little break.”
More than two years of harsh government Covid controls left some pondering the role of the Communist Party and other sources of authority in their lives, or even the meaning of life and who they aspire to be—questions many had never contemplated before.
Many are quitting their jobs and turning to meditation and other forms of spirituality. Some are moving far from China’s megacities to start lives anew in places like Dali, a southwestern city famous within China as a hub for digital nomads and dropouts.
Others are flooding fortune-teller stands and Buddhist temples in mountainous areas, or exploring Chinese and Western philosophers and writers from Laozi to Hermann Hesse. Some are throwing “quitting parties” with banners celebrating their newfound freedom.
Playing the lottery has become especially trendy for 20- and 30-somethings, whose purchases of lottery tickets helped push sales to $67 billion from January to October, a 53% jump from the previous year and averaging $48 per person in China.
Many employers that young people gravitated to, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, have been shedding staff amid weak growth and government clampdowns on the private sector. Tech salaries have declined in the past three years, according to Maimai, and opportunities for initial public offering payouts have faded, leaving many who used to work “996” schedules—9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—wondering what the point was.
China’s Catch Phrase Evolution
Not Allowed to Talk About It
Communist Party leaders have long worried young people could stir unrest, as they did in 1989. The party needs young people to get on board with Beijing’s priorities, not just to keep the economy humming and avoid instability, but to help make China stronger in an era of great-power competition with the U.S.
In a 2021 article published in the top party journal Qiushi, he specifically warned against “lying flat.” Discussions of the phenomenon have often triggered censorship online.
Quiet QuittingFor the US version of “Lying Flat” please see Also see Cracking Down on DissentChina does what it does best, crack down on dissent. But cracking down on lying flat or retting it rot is much harder.The savings of many have been wiped out in property scams and youth unemployment is about 21 percent according to official numbers, and likely much higher in practice.China’s Securities Regulator Warns Companies to Increase Dividends and Buy BacksYesterday, I wrote
Hoping to boost stock market prices, China mandates more dividends and buybacks.
I see it as a foolish mandate and an act of desperation. If the debt is not serviceable by profits, it will weaken the corporations. How can that rebalance anything?
Everything You Think Do and SayChina tries to control everything you think, do, and say. Someone writing this post in China would find themselves in prison for years.Instead of working 996, Chinese zoomers lie flat, let it rot, and turn to dreams of winning the lottery.Demise of the DollarFor two decades I had people telling me China would rule the world, the yuan would replace the dollar, and China would soon eclipse the US in GDP.None of it happened nor will it happen as long as China squashes dissent, squashes capitalism, and relies on state planning for everything.Yet, the demise of the US predictions contiue with China the alleged beneficiary.Most of the recent nonsense has been about a BRICS currency, the petroyuan theory, or a gold backed-yuan.Gold-Backed Petro-Yuan Silliness
In 2017, I wrote about
Yuan pricing and clearing of crude oil futures is the “beginning” of a broader strategic push “to support yuan pricing and clearing in commodities futures trading,” Pan Gongsheng, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said last month.
To support the new benchmark, China has opened more than 6,000 trading accounts for the crude futures contract, Reuters reported in July.
“Yawn”That was my comment in the above post. Six years later, people are still predicting the same silly things.The idea of using yuan futures to trade oil when the yuan does not even float is downright idiotic but that does not stop the stupidity.Also the irony is staggering. The US is nearly energy independent, no longer needing to import oil form the Mideast.The Petroyuan theory, if it meant anything at all (it doesn’t), would be a US success story, not a demise of the dollar tale.The Dating Game: Michael Pettis Challenges The Economist to a Bet on ChinaGoing back even further, on March 30, 2012 I wrote Michael Pettis made a bet with the Economist on when China would pass the US in GDP. The Economist said by 2018. Pettis and I said even 2030 was optimistic.The Economist paid off.Recent No Details Hype Headlines
The above reports all have several things in common. They are all proposals, they are mostly to totally sensational hype, and not a one of them have any meaningful details.
HUGE
It’s Official
RT (Russia sponsored TV) says the new BRICS-currency will be gold backed pic.twitter.com/YIjKwPTiTw
— Willem Middelkoop (@wmiddelkoop) July 7, 2023
There are literally hundreds of similar reports all speculating on the quick demise of the dollar. And they have been saying so since I started blogging in 2003.More Gold Backed BRIC Currency Silliness on Dethroning the Dollar
BREAKING: The gold standard could be back!
Russia Today just announced that the planned new BIRCS currency will be backed by gold.
We await further information and will be following and live updating on events relating to this. pic.twitter.com/LTs6a3leLu
— In Gold We Trust (@IGWTreport) July 7, 2023
On July 7, 2023, I noted
Echo Chamber
My first thought was the announcement was just more bullsheet. My second thought was the same.
My third, fourth, fifth and perpetual comment is still the same. The BRICS are not going to have a freely floating currency backed by gold.Hell, they are highly unlikely to even have a freely floating currency. China does not even have a freely floating currency.What Would it Take for a BRIC-Based Currency to Succeed?Missing in all of the ridiculous headline hype is a simple question I come up with six conditions none of which is met. The yuan, in and of itself fails. China has no international bond market. The BRICS have no bond market at all.The BRICS idea has no chance of competing with the dollar or even the Euro on a meaningful percentage of trade basis.However, a BRICS currency could play a role in sanction avoidance. See the above link for discussion.The US vs. ChinaWake me up when China floats the yuan, allows freedom of speech, respects property rights, gives up export mercantilism that hurts itself, adopts capitalism and stops its government-dictated command economy.Many companies exist in the US because this is the only place they can exist.In the name of fairness and competition, the EU would have broken up Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple before they even got big. China would have killed them via state controls and mandates.More By This Author:
