In the last few years, the term "sleepers" has become popular in China. They study, get into a good university and get a job in a good company, but they are not rewarded. So these young people stop working and just lie around.
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China has been growing economically for the past two decades. It once had a lower GDP than Japan, but overtook it in the 2010s, It is now an economic powerhouse several times the size of Japan.
But in the 2020s that momentum is coming to a halt. People are leaving urban areas, local government statistics are being adjusted, authorities have started to refrain from releasing economic data. In other words, the upward "success story" is coming to an end.
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But it is not as if other countries can laugh at this situation. Behind the figures are many faceless people. Unemployment is very high, especially among young people, There is a widespread feeling in society as a whole that hard work is not rewarded.
This structure, with advances in AI, is Likely to be replicated worldwide. Those most affected will be young people around the age of 20. In engineering, this is the junior level group. Indeed, their employment is becoming more difficult in many parts of the world.
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We middle-aged engineers are where we are now, I honestly think we middle-aged engineers are where we are today because we were "lucky". We are the generation that lived through the period when the IT industry was on the upswing. But that trend has already started to reverse. AI has brought efficiency, but not happiness, But it hasn't brought happiness.
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China's current situation is no stranger to the world. It may be a "trailer" for the future of other countries. Changing the system is not easy. But the people who live there need not despair completely.
If young Chinese are reading this text, There is no need to start a revolution. But I hope you will continue to question and quietly resist.** I believe that not stopping to think, in itself, is a survival force.
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What I remember as Japanese is the 'ice age generation'. After the bursting of the bubble economy, these people were unable to find work and had to live as irregular workers. They were deprived of opportunities to develop their careers, Many of them were deprived of the opportunity to develop their careers, were left with low incomes and were unable to have families. But now, among that generation, there are survivors, They are now involved in society in a new way.
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So you don't have to give up. AI will only take away some of the jobs, It cannot take away thinking, solidarity and even resistance. In every country, in every age, The value of human beings is not in "efficiency" but in "consciousness".