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FTA: "Faced with a widening wealth gap and the slowest economic growth in more than two decades, millions like Xiong find themselves priced out of the big citie

FTA: "Faced with a widening wealth gap and the slowest economic growth in more than two decades, millions like Xiong find themselves priced out of the big cities and are rejecting the consumer trappings of a modern lifestyle. Instead, they’re embracing the sharing economy to a far greater degree than their Western counterparts." Ah, so rising rent and stagnant wages are causing reduction in lifestyle among the youthful. The article could be shortened to "people have less money, so they are forced to make do with less." There are many discussions about these cultural memes spawned by downward economic trends; some items are useful (sharing a power tool instead of purchasing), but they're the result of funding being constrained and people's expectations adjusting downward as a result. These people are not sworn to poverty, so I doubt they are actually happy to own nothing, so much as grudgingly adapting to owning less than their parents. EDIT: Communes can make a comeback gracefully as part of this economic trend, but it's still important to understand that generations losing wealth isn't a positive thing.

morsch 11y ago
Decoupling personal happiness from accumulation of consumer goods as an end in itself seems like both a positive and a conceivable thing to me, even if it were a cultural meme with roots that are out of people's direct control such as an economic downturn. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
- beatpanda 11y ago
  We're not in an economic downturn, either in the U.S. or China. Workers just aren't seeing the benefits of a return to economic growth.
  - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
    Which, from the workers' POV, is the same as still being in a downturn.
  - dmix 11y ago
    If x age group, social group, or "middle class" is experiencing an economic downturn - but the country as a whole is stable or upward - are they not still in an economic downturn? This is a very common phenomenon with statistics... for example I frequently come across people citing that x time in history had early death rates - so you likely wouldn't have lived past 40 - without explaining the majority of deaths were due to infant death from disease. But if they in fact made it past early childhood then those projected maximum age numbers were not relevant. This is why it's important to not plan based on global averages. One reason why conducting "cohort analysis" is very important in business analytics.
    - beatpanda 11y ago
      Right, but calling it an "economic downturn" confuses the issue in the same way not including infant mortality does. The important thing to realize here is that the economy is growing, i.e. more overall wealth is being generated. That enables you to ask the question -- if there's more wealth being generated but most people in society are seeing their wealth and income stagnate or decrease, what is going on, and why?
      - dmix 11y ago
        Well in that context the next question should be does growth need to be distributed evenly for the economy to be considered 'healthy'. But for individuals such as the person mentioned in the article this is less relevant, they shouldn't make financial decisions or life choices as if everything is good because the macro-level is seeing positive growth.
- guard-of-terra 11y ago
  Decent housing is not "consumer goods". People nowdays can afford to buy a new smartphone every year, but they can only afford to live in a tiny capsule far far away from their work and social life. This is not healthy.
duaneb 11y ago
> it's still important to understand that generations losing wealth isn't a positive thing. I think it's a very positive thing. The idea that you can rely on wealth is rapidly becoming antiquated, and this strikes me as excellent preparation for a lifestyle where you might lose everything.
- posnet 11y ago
  How is younger generations losing wealth a good thing? I would characterise the fact that the current generation growing up will be worse than their parents as the greatest tragedy of the last decade.
  - devonkim 11y ago
    A small consolation of sorts, but if you give a generation or two nothing but positive, record-breaking "middle class" economic growth you wind up with Baby Boomers - years that followed a great war and for Americans the greatest economic surge perhaps on record. This is a generation whose parents were raised through the Great Depression and had every material childhood desire whittled down to stubs in mass poverty. Then you give this same generation an adult livelihood and independence with the mass advertising boom with call to actions revolving around "you deserve <product>" this does not promote the most selfless of actions. Time and time again I've been hearing baby boomers complaining about how young people today aren't "working hard enough" along with them being "so entitled" and pointing to Zuckerberg and random stories about kids selling start-ups for millions as if these are all somehow available to them and that they're being turned stupid by technology instead of "hard work" (this is fairly standard rhetoric not just for conservatives of the generation but even fairly moderate folks in my own experience at least). Then they tend to talk about how hard they worked when they left high school, bought a house, and lived well while saving judiciously similar to the lifestyle choices made in the Millionaire Next Door book. Setting up a generation with unrealistic economic expectations is perhaps one of the biggest double edged swords the US has wielded in its history. Great for positive energy and all, but perhaps it wasn't entirely a net positive across several generations.
- beatpanda 11y ago

morsch 11y ago

Decoupling personal happiness from accumulation of consumer goods as an end in itself seems like both a positive and a conceivable thing to me, even if it were a cultural meme with roots that are out of people's direct control such as an economic downturn. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

beatpanda 11y ago
We're not in an economic downturn, either in the U.S. or China. Workers just aren't seeing the benefits of a return to economic growth.
- AnimalMuppet 11y ago
  Which, from the workers' POV, is the same as still being in a downturn.
- dmix 11y ago
  If x age group, social group, or "middle class" is experiencing an economic downturn - but the country as a whole is stable or upward - are they not still in an economic downturn? This is a very common phenomenon with statistics... for example I frequently come across people citing that x time in history had early death rates - so you likely wouldn't have lived past 40 - without explaining the majority of deaths were due to infant death from disease. But if they in fact made it past early childhood then those projected maximum age numbers were not relevant. This is why it's important to not plan based on global averages. One reason why conducting "cohort analysis" is very important in business analytics.
  - beatpanda 11y ago
    Right, but calling it an "economic downturn" confuses the issue in the same way not including infant mortality does. The important thing to realize here is that the economy is growing, i.e. more overall wealth is being generated. That enables you to ask the question -- if there's more wealth being generated but most people in society are seeing their wealth and income stagnate or decrease, what is going on, and why?
    - dmix 11y ago
      Well in that context the next question should be does growth need to be distributed evenly for the economy to be considered 'healthy'. But for individuals such as the person mentioned in the article this is less relevant, they shouldn't make financial decisions or life choices as if everything is good because the macro-level is seeing positive growth.
guard-of-terra 11y ago
Decent housing is not "consumer goods". People nowdays can afford to buy a new smartphone every year, but they can only afford to live in a tiny capsule far far away from their work and social life. This is not healthy.

duaneb 11y ago

> it's still important to understand that generations losing wealth isn't a positive thing. I think it's a very positive thing. The idea that you can rely on wealth is rapidly becoming antiquated, and this strikes me as excellent preparation for a lifestyle where you might lose everything.

posnet 11y ago
How is younger generations losing wealth a good thing? I would characterise the fact that the current generation growing up will be worse than their parents as the greatest tragedy of the last decade.
- devonkim 11y ago
  A small consolation of sorts, but if you give a generation or two nothing but positive, record-breaking "middle class" economic growth you wind up with Baby Boomers - years that followed a great war and for Americans the greatest economic surge perhaps on record. This is a generation whose parents were raised through the Great Depression and had every material childhood desire whittled down to stubs in mass poverty. Then you give this same generation an adult livelihood and independence with the mass advertising boom with call to actions revolving around "you deserve <product>" this does not promote the most selfless of actions. Time and time again I've been hearing baby boomers complaining about how young people today aren't "working hard enough" along with them being "so entitled" and pointing to Zuckerberg and random stories about kids selling start-ups for millions as if these are all somehow available to them and that they're being turned stupid by technology instead of "hard work" (this is fairly standard rhetoric not just for conservatives of the generation but even fairly moderate folks in my own experience at least). Then they tend to talk about how hard they worked when they left high school, bought a house, and lived well while saving judiciously similar to the lifestyle choices made in the Millionaire Next Door book. Setting up a generation with unrealistic economic expectations is perhaps one of the biggest double edged swords the US has wielded in its history. Great for positive energy and all, but perhaps it wasn't entirely a net positive across several generations.
beatpanda 11y ago