Today I look at how the phenomenon of how young professionals are ditching "prestige" jobs for manual labour for reasons of meaning, motivation and (now with AI coming for "inessential" luxury work, money too!). And how, now, critically, the pattern has progressed from Europe to Asia.
This trend obviously maps onto similar trends including the (again, Asian) "lying down flat" movement, where young people are either refusing to participate in the economy at all, or are only putting in the absolute minimum effort required for a minimum standard of living - a form of quiet protest against, well, everything current society stands for and the "life audit" awakening that lead to the "great resignation".
From my perspective, it is pretty sensible to chose a hands on trade when the half life of white-collar desk jobs drops with every passing day and every new Midjourney and ChatGPT upgrade. (Somehow, at some level, it’s like we know that what is real, what can be held and touched and seen and heard as it grows is what we want and is somehow more important to us than digital screens and scoreboard as physical beings with metaphysical needs….)
What do you think?
Is there room for more of us in the hands-on-economy? Or do all roads lead to necessary UBI and forced unemployment?
Have you noticed a downturn in motivation to participate in climbing the social ladder?
Is "burnout" or fear of failure a bigger driver behind these trends? or is it as simple as wanting to feel like your day to day life creates something of meaning more than mere money?
Let me know….
Read more:
Opting off the treadmill : https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/world/asia/china-youth-employment.html
Lying down flat : https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/the-lying-flat-movement-standing-in-the-way-of-chinas-innovation-drive/
Back to the past : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/world/europe/italy-farms-coronavirus.html
Want a life audit? : https://www.fluxtrends.com/the-lockdown-life-audit-private-salon/
Who dreams of golden handshakes anymore?