Dong Mingzhu's generation of entrepreneurs can no longer empathize with young workers

Glacier think tank

2024-06-06 14:56Posted on the official account of Zhejiang Glacier Think Tank

Dong Mingzhu's generation of entrepreneurs can no longer empathize with young workers

Contemporary young people do not want to "fight", which is also a highly rational trade-off of interests. When "fighting" is not so cost-effective in the economy, not wanting to fight is the choice of rational economic people.

Written by丨Zhang Mingyang

Dong Mingzhu definitely couldn't have expected that a few words she said casually a few days ago would cause a storm on social media.

When asked about the public's desire for a laid-back lifestyle triggered by "My Altay", Dong Mingzhu said:

You can type a resignation report and you can go back for leisure without any problem. I think it's my choice. Like me, I haven't rested for more than 30 years, do you think it's a loss or is this choice wrong? For me personally, I feel very happy, so there is no standard for happiness, happiness comes from your heart.

Is Dong Mingzhu wrong?

Seeing Dong Mingzhu's words, the young workers blew up.

I've transcribed some representative hot posts:

The alienation of wealth and status from people will be reflected in the decline of empathy, which she can be regarded as seeing in her;

We young people really don't know if we can save enough money to buy a house first, or if we will collapse physically and mentally first...... The more desperate and serious the people around me are, the more ruthless they are PUA;

A person's radical aging begins with abandonment of understanding the young, and from this point of view, she ages thoroughly;

It's not surprising at all, people like this don't communicate well with ordinary people anymore.

Obviously, in the eyes of young workers, Dong Mingzhu has been "decoupled" from them.

Of course, this is not what Dong Mingzhu wants.

In fact, she has tried her best to communicate with young people within a system of discourse that she can accept, for example, she has said:

Let's not generalize now, beat to death with a stick, and say that young people are not good now, there are still many excellent young people, because they are the support point for the development of the country and the development of mankind in the future, right?

Speaking from her heart, Dong Mingzhu has hopes for young people, but the young people in her mind, just like Meng Yutong, the "successor of Dong Mingzhu" she personally set up back then, are completely like when she was young, "I haven't rested for more than 30 years", only work, no life.

But times have changed. In other words, today's young people are no longer willing to "struggle" like Dong Mingzhu.

▲Dong Mingzhu and Meng Yutong (Photo/CFP)

How to understand that times have changed?

First, Dong Mingzhu lives in an era of rapid reform. In those days, housing prices were still very cheap, the class was not solidified, whether it was a self-made entrepreneur or a migrant worker with a low education, as long as he was willing to put in the effort, most of them could reap a good result.

In other words, in that era "volume", there was less competition and greater gains. I think that if you can exchange times with Dong Mingzhu, many young workers are also willing to work overtime day and night.

To a certain extent, the fact that contemporary young people do not want to "fight" is also a highly rational trade-off of interests. When "fighting" is not so cost-effective in the economy, not wanting to fight is the choice of rational economic people.

Second, although there are many complaints from young people today, they also know in their hearts that their generation has much better family conditions than their parents.

Not only do their families have the ability to allow them to lie flat for a period of time, such as having more and more "stay-at-home children" over the years; More importantly, as individuals, what the struggle of the parents is for, of course, is not for the second largest GDP in the world, but to create better economic conditions for their children, so that their children can not be as miserable as they were back then.

Let's put it this way, a normal parent, even if he or she "hasn't rested for more than 30 years" when he or she was young, he (she) must not want his children to live such a busy life.

Let your children not work so hard and can live a good life, isn't this the reason for the struggle of the parents, and even the result?

The so-called change of the times is not only a matter of China, but all economies that have experienced a period of rapid growth have experienced such a generational change in behavior.

For another example, many people in the father's generation are reluctant to buy air conditioners no matter how hot it is, and they are reluctant to turn it on even if they do, is this the era that Gree wants to return to? It is precisely because the people have begun to enjoy life and start to consume that Gree's air conditioning business has been able to maintain medium and high-speed growth for so many years.

Dong Mingzhu may disdain to understand such a superficial truth, she is only willing to live in the illusion of the times that she has "not rested for more than 30 years", unable to extricate herself and unable to escape.

There is one comment that I really liked:

Boss, what people want is to take more vacations, so that they can go to leisure and relax and continue to work steadily, how can you ask someone to resign directly.

If you are a foreigner, when you see Dong Mingzhu's comment that "workers can resign if they want to relax", most of them will issue a "friendly surprise theory".

We always talk about connecting with the world. The market economy should be in line with the rule of law, the respect for entrepreneurs should be in line with it, the protection of private property should be in line with it, and the importance of individual rights should be in line with it.

In developed countries, "work-life balance" is common sense, and ordinary workers may not know who Adam Smith is, but it is impossible not to know about it, and it is impossible not to be true.

If you look at public opinion abroad, when we are still arguing over "996" and "compensatory leave", people are discussing "work from home" (working from home, telecommuting), and exploring the "four-day work week". In order to drag the employees back to the office, the bosses of large foreign factories were heartbroken, and Musk was so angry that he was incoherent.

But has the economy collapsed because of this? As if not, Nvidia's total market capitalization is just over $3 trillion, and the U.S. stock market has seen the emergence of three companies with a market capitalization of 3 trillion yuan for the first time in history.

Sometimes, I always feel that the world is very magical and folded. Obviously, "work-life balance" has become the basic common sense in most countries around the world, and it is clear that Robin Li was also growing vegetables in his own backyard in California while basking in the California sun, but only across a few time zones, we have the famous quote of Baidu's No. 1 public relations boss here, and Liu Qiangdong's brother universe (anyone who has poor long-term performance and never struggles is not my brother).

In other words, Dong Mingzhu's words are actually similar to Liu Qiangdong, they are all very unaccustomed to "life first, work second".

Friends who know me well should know that I am a very "pro-business" person, and I have always hated those anti-capital statements on the Internet.

Some people have said that criticizing Dong Mingzhu's remarks is anti-capital and anti-private enterprises.

But is it the same thing?

In my opinion, the people who say this are "anti-capital", anti-private enterprises, and anti-entrepreneurs, and they have scandalized the enterprise and the market economy, the greatest invention in human history, into "overtime fundamentalism."

Don't they know that the connotation of the market economy is always renewing itself?

In the modern sense of the market economy, it is a long-term game between workers and enterprises, that is, it includes the rising rights (welfare) of workers, if you have to go back to the "authentic" market economy in the 19th century, I suggest you travel back to the Lancashire textile mills of Dickens's era.

In fact, it is precisely because of the long-term game between workers and enterprises that there is the market economy that we love to embrace today.

I believe that, just as "leisure and work" can be balanced, the rights and interests of enterprises and workers can also be delicately balanced in the game. If you have to oppose leisure and work, enterprise and migrant workers, that is not modern people, that is a single-celled animal.

If you want to get more rest time, want to pursue work-life balance, and want a job with less overtime, this is not anti-capital, anti-market economy, this is a great game, this is participating in purification and upgrading the market economy.

Of course, in the post of the Dong Mingzhu incident, I still saw a lot of disgusting "anti-capital" remarks.

Dong Mingzhu is an extremely outstanding entrepreneur, she has indeed lost the ability to dialogue and empathize with the young people of this era, but why do you shout anti-capital slogans to "bring down" others?

What does not allow the public to criticize Dong Mingzhu is a single-celled organism, but what takes the opportunity to oppose capital is not even a living organism.

Why do criticizing Dong Mingzhu's remarks necessarily regard private enterprises as a flood beast?

Job opportunities are created by private entrepreneurs, workers, and consumers, and no one supports anyone, and no one is born superior, but no one is lacking.

In this sense, whether the economy is soaring, the economy is sluggish, there are many job opportunities, or it is difficult to find a job, it is all the same.

Entrepreneurs can't just look for the stubble of the workers and find the growth point in the workers because of the problems in their own business or the general economic environment, which is a sign of no profit.

But at the same time, workers should not talk about capital all day long, and what you should criticize is the improper behavior of enterprises and the undignified speeches of entrepreneurs, rather than the legitimacy of private enterprises themselves.

Without enterprises, workers don't even have a game partner.

A few days ago, I saw a discussion on foreign social media: Does anyone think that the 40-hour work week is not suitable for human beings?

The original text clearly says that the employer controls when you eat and when you go to the toilet, but when it comes to domestic bloggers, they gorgeously translate "employer" into "capitalist".

Is the thinking of some migrant workers so barren? Detached from the highly ideological concept of "capitalist", don't you know how to discuss issues and how to criticize them normally?

Yes, as long as you sincerely bring out the capitalists and raise the anti-capital, this is not a decent way to criticize.

It's like, you can debate passionately with the person opposite at the table, spit stars straight away, point at each other and scold your mother, these are all right, but you can't lift the table.

It's not a game, it's not a debate, it's a rough move.

Workers pursue work-life balance and embrace the market economy of the 21st century: work and life can be balanced, and enterprises and workers can also play.

So how to balance Dong Mingzhu's remarks?

Criticism is a kind of balance, voting with your feet is a game, and if you can't do it, you can also come to the east. There are many types of excellent private entrepreneurs, you just need to pick the ones you are used to.

In Chinese, learning to criticize, not criticize, is the rite of passage for every worker.

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