Some say: "If rainwater doesn't pass through rivers, lakes, and reservoirs and flows directly into the sea, then the entire land will be barren."

This statement appears to describe natural laws on the surface, but essentially it reflects the self-preservation logic of an authoritarian system during economic decline.
Rainwater represents the wealth, credit, currency, and productivity created by society;
Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs symbolize ordinary residents, private enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumer markets;
The sea represents government departments, state-owned systems, large financial institutions, and more broadly, the concentration of power and capital.
When the economy still has room for growth, the system needs some rainwater to flow through the private sector because their vitality can continue to generate wealth.
But when the economy is unable to turn around, the primary goal of the rulers is no longer to nurture the ecosystem but to maintain their own operation.
Thus, policies begin to show two directions: on one hand, continuously siphoning off private assets through taxes, debts, land, finance, regulation, and asset revaluation;
On the other hand, diluting the existing wealth of ordinary people through monetary expansion, credit dilution, and cost transfer.
On the surface, it seems like a flood, and society does not lack water;
But this water hasn't truly flowed into rivers, lakes, and reservoirs; instead, it circulates among power, finance, and large institutions.
The private sector receives not nourishment but pressure after being drained.
Therefore, the real problem is not that it rains too little, but that the rainwater has changed its course.
When rain bypasses rivers, lakes, and reservoirs and flows directly into the sea, the result is not prosperity but a society with only a center and no middle layer.