China’s real estate market is in decline. Debt deflation hangs in the air. The country’s workforce is shrinking and GDP growth is trending downwards.
No wonder the International Monetary Fund at its recent shindig in Marrakech warned of slowing economic growth in the People’s Republic, raising the prospect of “Japanisation” – the prolonged economic and financial malaise that afflicted its once high-flying neighbour after an asset bubble imploded three decades ago.
The trouble is that China’s economic imbalances are far worse than Japan’s in 1990. And that’s before considering the ruinous economic consequences of President Xi Jinping’s autocratic rule.
I’ve read these warnings for several years now and I still haven’t made up my mind about whether this is actually a bad thing or not.
If you check the numbers Japan has had economic stagnation, sure, but it’s also a stable, modern country with a high Human Development Index. I’m sure they look back longingly to the economic boom times of the 60s to the 80s but even now it seems like a fine place to live.
Perhaps infinite economic growth is not actually necessary…
To go along with this, neither is constantly climbing the career ladder and going for higher and higher positions. Something I’ve noticed is that older managers, especially at Fortune 500 companies, assume that’s what young people want. How to climb as fast as possible and assuring us that not everyone can be CEO.
A lot of us really don’t care for that. Give me interesting opportunities, and raises commensurate with performance, experience, and inflation, and I’m perfectly content to just be an individual contributor. I have no desire to manage and be an executive.
They think we’re mad we’re not already the CEO at 25. We’re actually mad we can’t affrod to rent an apartment with more bedrooms than roomates on a full time Job’s wage
Hell they can’t fathom the idea that we have things we care about more than work. Like our mental health and peace of mind. Even when they do pay well they have the expectation that you’ll be a neat little corporate drone who asks for nothing they want and happily accepts anything they get.