Labored Daze
In the labored daze of AI hype and GDP "growth," few seem to notice the workforce is tired of being exploited as an uncomplaining resource.
"Great Powers" claim their greatness on prestige technologies and military force, but how do they measure up if we change the metrics to how they treat their workforces. How great are they then? China and the U.S. claim the mantles of "Great Powers" but if we look at how well they treat their workforces, both rate poorly.
What matters in assessing the workforce isn't just wages; what matters is the entire quality of life. In this regard, childcare matters, because 1) without children, the "Great Power" has no future, and 2) the lives and budgets of workers with children revolve around the ease or difficulty of caring for their children. The "Great Power" state can either do a lot, do a little, or do nothing to help working parents.
Now that China's birthrate is plummeting, the state has launched a few modest initiatives to help parents with the high costs of raising children. If we consider the cost of childcare to per capita GDP, the cost of childcare and education in China is high. It's also absurdly burdensome in the U.S., which has also left childcare expenses up the parents and market forces, which unsurprisingly have pushed the costs of having a child and childcare to the stratosphere.
China's total fertility rate was 1.1 children per woman in 2024, far below the replacement level of 2.1 children needed to sustain a stable population. America's rate is around 1.6, also below replacement.
Compared to nations that pay for three years of childcare leave so at least one parent can care for the child at home to age 3, the "Great Powers" aren't even close to "great." Abysmal is a better description.
Let's consider another metric: how well do the "Great Powers" treat their small-scale farmers and the people who raise their food? Once again, both "Great Powers" rate poorly. While the financial media focuses breathless attention on AI and measures of consumption, few pundits bother looking at how well the "Great Powers" treat their small-scale farmers and ag workforce. Pensions for low-earning family farmers? Not "great" by any measure.
After all, who needs children or food when you have AI data centers and robots delivering ultra-processed snacks? In both self-proclaimed "Great Powers," the workforce is viewed as 1) a resource to be exploited (China's infamous "996," the grind of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, and America's equally infamous "on call all weekend if the Boss texts you"), or 2) as consumers driving economic "growth" by purchasing more ultra-processed snacks and commoditized experiences.
If life is so great for the "Great Power" workforces, then where did laying flat, let it rot, the garbage time of history and the Five No's come from? The Five No's: no house, no car, no extraneous consumption, no marriage and no children.
Laying flat (tang ping): rejection of the hyper-competitive rat race and diminishing returns for punishing workloads, the desire for a simpler, more satisfying and enjoyable life; disillusionment with the fast-receding "China Dream / American Dream," and the realization that the promise that material abundance would make everyone blissfully happy is false, as manic consumerism doesn't generate fulfillment, meaning, purpose or happiness.
Let it rot (bai lan) summarizes the realization that the present era is the garbage time of history, and the appropriate response is to "actively embrace a deteriorating situation, rather than trying to turn it around."
The entire AI story boils down to reaping billions in profits by replacing the human workforce en masse, another manifestation of exploitation and disregard. The workforce's "job" is to generate and consume declining-quality products and services to generate "growth" and profits, a resource to be exploited that is more or less divided into debt-serfs (bottom 80%) and tax donkeys (top 10%), with the remaining 10% luxuriating in an illusory "middle class" featuring both debt and taxes.
In both "Great Powers," the billionaire and political classes are doing great, the workforce, not so much, as market forces have jacked up the cost of living and the gains of their labor are siphoned off and sluiced into state excess and capital gains, 90% of which are collected by the ownership / shareholder class.
This chart tells the story of the past 50 years: labor's share of the national income has declined, to the benefit of the top few. The garbage time of history, indeed.
In the labored daze of AI hype and GDP "growth," few seem to notice the workforce is tired of being exploited as an uncomplaining resource. Since outright revolt is quickly crushed by state force, the only option is opting out, via financial nihilism, laying flat, the five No's or let it rot, all expressions of the abandonment of false promises and diminishing returns on following orders.
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