k_daily_battle

In any rich or developing country, I think 50% (possibly 70%) of the people struggle, on a monthly if not daily basis, more with financial health (denoted FF) than with physical health (denoted HH). These households could be on cash flow low ground or high ground. See notes below.

Some (lucky) individuals don’t struggle with either. (Let’s not bother to ask why.) They are out of scope, possibly outliers.

— update: 内卷^躺平 discussion seems to exaggerate the cashflow struggle. The Chinese discussion ranges from education to work competition and paints a picture of a generation struggling against crushing competitive pressure to survive and get ahead.

内卷 seems to require young professionals (I will leave out students) to sacrifice wellness for some questionable amount of financial/professional gain. Most young professionals seem to accept the sacrifice.

I believe 躺平 means that livelihood pressure in China is actually not so high. The real priority should be wellness not achievement in career or education.

— Q: what specific “things” do other people envy in someone “successful” like TB? I think Mostly they envy the visible signs of success:

• A: (jolt) not quick commute, but a (visible) prestigious office location, even if it requires long commute
• A: (jolt) not career longevity, but a (visible) brank
• A: (jolt) not Fuller Wealth, but exclub wealth including big home. Hurts brbr and closer to the cash flow low ground
• A: (jolt) not an attractive spouse (not at my age anyway) or stable marriage, but a high-earning spouse
• A: (jolt) not health (invisible) but health insurance and (visible) athletic fitness
• A: branded degrees + academic kids

— visibility: financial status is one of the most visible of all statuses. In contrast, Health “status” is less visible before age 50. (Overweight is visible but too common to be a concern.) You could be more healthy than a friend, but usually the difference isn’t visible. Due to the less visible difference in this “status”, I guess most individuals consider themselves in reasonable/acceptable health condition.

Here’s another way to put it — if each person is asked to self-classify into one of three health status zones of

• deep-green i.e. no known issue whatsoever
• yellowish green i.e. acceptable, even if not perfect
• red i.e. non-trivial health conditions

.. then I think the yellowish green zone would be the widest and the default zone. Consequently, most individuals don’t feel the urge or the need to make big healthcare decisions or major lifestyle changes (HH). Actually, many people had better work hard to reduce weight, eat and drink less, quit specific habits… but these individuals self-identify with the yellowish green zone and feel no such urgency.

On the other hand, they all have to work (sometimes pretty hard) for a living, 辛苦工作, 省吃俭用, included as a FF component. Specifically, I perceive a “financial struggle” whenever I see folks worry about job loss, mid-career transition, long term family livelihood, retirement planning, inflation in healthcare, education and housing … Endless variations of Insurance products have been designed to address these financial struggles.

Who on earth need not economize their financial resources? Even the rich need to do so, but economization and give-up isn’t always a financial struggle. How about a “Beijing home ownership” dream? It easily costs RMB 10M but the ordinary salary is …

— longevity target .. Most individuals don’t aim to live beyond 85. So they accept some non-trivial health conditions (HH), and they often decide not to make certain sustainable lifestyle changes (HH).

Note these changes are often tough over the long term. Remember the daily battles (Promethean struggles) in this blog.

— cash flow low ground .. A sizable portion (10%?) of the population seem to be stuck struggling on cash flow low ground. For them, wellness struggle is a low priority unless for a medical reason.