Middle class trap

The middle class is the most ideal and expected part of a society.

People at this level have struggled and know that wealth is hard to come by; I have a balance and know the value of hard work.

Compared with proletarians who are busy all day and forced to fall into the rhythm of making a living, the middle class not only maintains an upward enterprising spirit, but also has relatively free time and space to think about innovation and future-related things.

Compared with the profit-seeking class, which is centered on exploitation and doesn't care about production, the middle class keeps the vitality of innovation and makes incremental contributions to the world.

Therefore, the middle class is an indispensable part of a benign social structure, and the spindle type is the ideal social structure goal of the rulers.

But the ideal is full and the reality is skinny.

Although a benign social structure is spindle-shaped, society may not automatically evolve in that direction. The internal evolution direction of society is differentiation-polarization.

In fact, the premise of spindle-shaped social structure is incremental economy.

The premise of incremental economy is scientific and technological innovation.

After the war, under the impetus of the third scientific and technological revolution led by computers and the fourth scientific and technological revolution led by the information revolution since the 1990s, developed countries experienced a long period of development rarely seen in history, and their social structures also showed a spindle shape.

This period is constantly remembered by various dazzling names such as the "golden age", but in the final analysis, it is driven by the dividend of the scientific and technological revolution.

Only on the premise of considerable increase, the contradiction between labor and capital will be reduced. Because capital needs to come up with enough income to redeem workers and help them run faster and farther.

But when the technology dividend gradually disappears and the stock economy gradually dominates, the situation will become completely different. If capital wants to maintain its profit demand, it needs to struggle and exploit other economic entities more deeply.

This kind of interest competition even divides the enemy and ourselves. First cut leek, then cut middle class, and then the big fish eat small fish.

So, when is the stock economy era?

A: Now.

So in recent years, we can see that on the one hand, economic growth has been declining, on the other hand, the capital market is booming. There is no sign of an economic barometer of this prosperity.

With a series of dazzling actions in the capital market, on the one hand, workers are forced to fall into 996 and 007, on the other hand, super oligarchs are gradually taking shape.

In the real economic society, on the one hand, the pressure of employment, the pressure of life and the decline of traditional fields, on the other hand, the right to speak is constantly concentrated in the capital empire.

Therefore, although spindle is an ideal social structure, the internal evolution direction of competitive society is pyramid polarization.

This is the law.

Obviously, the rulers also saw this. Therefore, we will continue to correct this deviation through reforms and policies.

In recent years, anti-monopoly has been put on the agenda at home and abroad, which is not only a coincidence, but also for specific reasons such as anti-corruption. This reflects that everyone is beginning to face the same economic challenges.

But the law is a law after all. You can adjust or ease it, but you can't destroy or reverse it.

Therefore, in the era of stock economy, the social structure will still inevitably be polarized.

As a result, our worries surfaced.

The trend has been judged. What should we do to protect ourselves?

This is what the article "The General Public Resists Systematic Risks" wants to discuss.

By the way, although this article is about the middle class, it also applies to proletarians. Because there are only two poles in the polarized structure: oligarchs and migrant workers.

All right, let's go back and continue.

In the process of solving problems, you can't challenge the law, you can only and must apply the law.

The law you face is:

The polarization trend under the stock economy.

Currency overshoot in the era of credit currency.

Sino-American confrontation.

……

Polarization means that investors are better off taking sides than fighting alone, which is reflected in the fact that buying indexes in the stock market is better than buying individual stocks (see "Index is the best choice for the general public to resist systemic risks" for details).

Excessive currency means that buying assets is better than holding cash.

Judging from the confrontation between China and the United States, China is more important than China.

But look at our habitual operation:

Is it true that quite a few people still insist on choosing stocks and investing by their own decisions?

Are quite a few people actively holding cash on the grounds of caution in the face of the epidemic and current uncertainties?

Are quite a few property owners still considering emigrating to study abroad (except top universities)? Even because of the pessimistic expectation of Sino-US trade war, science and technology war, financial war and even hot war, he fled China.

These are common perceptions and habits; What governs your actions is habitual cognition deeply rooted in your brain.

Therefore, the anxiety and loss of the middle class are not only caused by the drastic changes in the external environment, but also by the rigidity of their own cognition and the separation of knowledge and practice.

Times have changed. China's high-speed growth period has passed, and now it is a critical period of transformation and transition. It is unrealistic to share the fruits of general growth brought about by urbanization.

In the confrontation between China and the United States, although the United States is strong, China's advantage as a latecomer is already very obvious.

So if you want to protect yourself, you need to look carefully. In the complex interwoven laws, we can distinguish who is the dominant law at the bottom and who is the secondary law at the shallow level.

Then the cognition will change and the action will become bigger, even if the cost is high.

Of course, you can solve your cognitive problems here at most, and you have to act on your own.

But isn't the unity of knowing and doing exactly what each of us pursues?

I won't say much about an outsider. You can read the text: index is the best choice for the general public to resist systemic risks.

The so-called information flow is "information feeding" in a word, that is, the judgment of the machine replaces your judgment and provides you with tailor-made "objective" information. Information feeding is the main cause of information cocoon room.

Therefore, readers are advised to add a star to this number to slow down the machine's induction to people.