Author Topic: "Great Resignation" labor movement and strikes  (Read 488 times)

Zea_mays

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Re: "Great Resignation" labor movement and strikes
« on: January 11, 2022, 11:53:53 am »
Another Wall Street article linking Lying Flat and Antiwork.

Will China embrace this and win the culture war? The US Antiwork "movement" doesn't have any big picture goals besides "have tolerable work conditions", whereas the Lying Flat movement is an entire worldview which is anti-consumerist.

Quote
‘Lying Flat,’ ‘Antiwork’ And The ‘Great Resignation’ Spreads Worldwide As Young People Protest Against System

There’s a growing worldwide movement led by young people. Weighed down with overwhelming college debt, unable to find decent paying jobs (leading to the inability to purchase homes), stuck in low paying jobs with no future and being forced into the gig economy made Gen-Zs and Millennials feel misled and betrayed by their elders.

They were told if they went to school, followed all the rules, they’d live the American Dream—a nice large home in the suburbs with a white picket fence, or a cool New York City apartment, couple of kids, pets, fancy vacations and luxury automobiles. For many, this dream never materialized.
[...]
In the Great Resignation trend, roughly 40% of the jobs that people quit were in the restaurant, hotel, travel, bars, warehouses, manufacturing and healthcare sectors. These folks contend with long, constantly changing hours, rude customer behaviors, low wages and high stress. 
[...]
The younger generation may be the first group in modern history that won't do better financially than their parents. With tens or hundreds of thousands in student-loan debt, young adults find it almost impossible to purchase a home, get married and start a family. The debt burden, along with rising home prices and inflation, doesn’t leave them with sufficient funds to afford the lifestyle that Baby Boomers took for granted.

This is happening in China too. Multibillionaire Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, championed the work culture known as "996." This number refers to Ma’s belief that everyone in his company should happily work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. It's equivalent to America’s “hustle- ****,” rise-and-grind culture that resonated in the pre-pandemic time period.
[...]
President Xi Jinping is not too pleased with this trend, stating, “It is necessary to prevent the stagnation of the social class, unblock the channels for upward social mobility, create opportunities for more people to become rich, and form an environment for improvement in which everyone participates, avoiding involution and lying flat.” He is concerned that the lying flat is in direct conflict with the “Chinese Dream” or a “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/12/30/lying-flat-antiwork-and-the-great-resignation-spreads-worldwide-as-young-people-protest-against-system/

Only a traditionalist would reject an idealistic counterculture movement with the energy and promise for a real "national rejuvenation"...