One Obscure Word Captures Urban China’s Unhappiness
It is not just in China. It is a valid term to describe whenever the system expectations and signaling&#x2F;competition create a perverse setup that crush all hope for a change by dissipating away all the effort from the individual people work: they find themselves stuck in a dynamic equilibrium that seems to move, but never changes.<p>An example in the west is having kids: it puts you on the hook for money, legal issues etc. You can forget entertaining the idea of stopping work to live a vagrant lifestyle (Kerouac style) as it will land you in jail due to child services and other &quot;needs&quot; invented by society.<p>Another example is Europe and the tech scene: I see many europeans here complaining from high taxes, low pay, and lack of unicorns. This is all tied together: if a european is a 100x engineer, they will barely get a 1.5 salary increase if they stay there - and even that 1.5 figure may be stretching truth, because they will be reminded by their boss that they salary must remain close to their co workers and below their boss. Tall poppy syndrome, society cohesion etc. all act in synergy to cause the end result that describe the European tech scene.<p>Likewise for healthcare in the US - you can only throw gasoline on the fire.<p>Involution is when change within the system is not possible unless a revolution happens - and you know it, but you are afraid of it, because the system is &quot;good enough&quot; as is, and change is dangerous, and most people are risk averse. It creates a special kind of apathy.<p>Most europeans like their safety net and free healthcare, and will not immigrate. Most americans like to think they can get the best healthcare money can with their large deductible, even if they could travel to Asia and get better quality care when they need it by paying out-of-pocket for less than a fraction of their fixed expenses. Most parents would never say they would prefer to be without kids, yet silently rejoice when the kids finally leave the home and they are free again - in their own home, 20 years after a bad decision.<p>At least China now correctly perceives the problem, which gives some hope it may be solved.