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China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

economist.com

81–86 of 86 posts

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#81
post #21

It’s so interesting to see this play out the same in both China and the US; a generation that can’t afford to buy a home, were told higher education would lead to a secure career and it doesn’t, falling fertility rate accordingly, etc. “Eat bitterness” indeed.

Education, however, consistently leads to better outcomes. White collar workers are doing well across the country (US). Forget about tech, accountants, HR professionals, economists, risk analysts, project managers, etc. are all doing well. It's predominantly the un- and under-educated that are being left behind.

>Education, however, consistently leads to better outcomes

So, if everyone had 2 phds ( assuming phds are the pinnacle of educational heights) almost no one (or very few) would be left behind?

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#82
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tested. Firefox, Chrome, Brave for Android and Firefox for Windows - infinite loop Edge for Windows - no captcha

No captcha at all? So you are directly „verified”?

Yes, no captcha at all. On my other laptop, captcha infinite loop for both Firefox and Edge.

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#83
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western teen and millennials are perfectly capable to do that on their own. It was us millennials that elevated grievance politics and cry-bulling into an art form. From the moment I turned 18 it was continuous barrage of news how fucked up everything is.

Yes, as a fellow kid, I can say for certain that it’s a lack of respect for our elders and too many avocado toasts that have placed us in this position. We should have walked in and applied for a job with a firm handshake and maybe then we’d own a house.

>We should have walked in and applied for a job with a firm handshake and maybe then we’d own a house.

Or the fact that people with higher education try to cram themselves into select couple of US, UK and EU cities.

It's notable that the average millennial whiner I encounter on tik tok is not a farmer/sailor/oil rig worker or trucker. But someone with liberal arts or some humanities degree that is mortally offended that the universe refuses to provide them with the lifestyle that they have seen on friends or sex and the city.

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#84
post #49

[flagged]

Young people in the West who are unhappy are mostly mentally ill. It's not the same in China and the article enumerates various concrete reasons why.

> Young people in the West who are unhappy are mostly mentally ill

Dude. Young people in the west have PLENTY to be very unhappy about, without being mentally ill. The completely fucked housing market for example (here in Western Europe at least), or the complete lack of drastic actions to reduce climate change.

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#85
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree with this. A union may not be necessary in many cases, but some sort of organization definitely is. Many of my examples have self-organized, self-regulations associations that manage their own credentials and establish rate guidelines for their services. Other professional pools should learn from this. I've been advocating for guilds for a while. The software industry should learn from the actors. It'…

Email in profile, always open to hearing from like minded folks on the topic of labor rights and organizing.

DM sent.

Re: China’s defeated youth: Young Chinese have little hope for the future

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed. I personally know people (20s to mid 30s) who are simply unhappy that they did everything they were told and couldn't get jobs in their field, and can't afford a house (so they rent one and which pays for somebody else's mortgage).

Myself and everyone that I know in that age range who has followed "the formula" (STEM degree -> workforce) has plenty of money and a house or could buy a house if they wanted to.

My point was you can be unhappy with the system and not be mentally ill.

When I was in school STEM was not considered the only path to success. The oft repeated argument was you're a better candidate for high level jobs with something like an English degree than somebody with no degree at all, which turned out to be pretty terrible advice. I only had one teacher who said that was a terrible idea (he compared it to a degree in underwater basket weaving).

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