As Chinese labor becomes increasingly less valuable, the ultimate payers will be the entire society. And the costs have already begun to appear.

1. When labor is cheap, the first to die will be a simple truth in consumer economics: your spending is someone else's income.
It sounds like common sense, but reality is precisely contradicting it.
What happens when more and more people's wages only suffice to survive, not to live?
The answer is straightforward: consumption begins to disappear.
It's not that everyone suddenly becomes rational, nor that young people "don't like to spend money," but: they are not qualified to spend money.
Buying a house requires risk calculation, getting sick requires savings for emergencies, losing a job requires supporting a year's cash flow.
So everyone begins to do the same thing: shrink.
The result is: the service industry becomes harder to operate, and the market is left with only one thing: competing on low prices, leading everyone into a familiar cycle: harder work → lower income → less daring to spend → thinner corporate profits → lower wages.
You can be very busy.
Or very poor.
What used to be a joke has now become a real problem.
2. More dangerous than poverty is the disappearance of labor dignity. When labor can only exchange for survival but not for dignity, society's values will inevitably distort.
People will no longer respect labor. Instead, they respect those who work diligently.
Thus, an absurd phenomenon appears: society constantly talks about "the glory of labor," but those who truly work feel less and less honored. In fact, the true glory of labor has never needed publicity.
When a person can: dress decently, live cleanly, afford healthcare,
and support their children with hope for the future. At that moment, labor itself is honorable. No slogans needed.
3. Today’s real problem is not production, but distribution. We are already very good at producing.
What truly stalls the economic cycle is the other end: distribution.
The reality is becoming increasingly clear: it’s not that things can’t be made, but that they can’t be sold.
Many say they want to stimulate consumption.
But the problem is: people are not unwilling to spend.
They just don’t dare to spend, and they lack the ability to do so.
When income only covers survival, and there’s a lack of security for the future, savings are no longer a choice but an instinctive defense.
4. A society’s true watershed, and a country’s transition from "developing" to "developed," is often not a moment of technological breakthrough.
It begins on a certain day: society decides to prioritize increasing the "value" of "people."
When people become more valuable: companies will upgrade, industries will innovate, consumption will cycle, and society will stabilize.
Otherwise, no matter how high the efficiency, it may just spin in low consumption and low desire.
Ultimately, the economy has never been about machinery running. It’s about whether people are willing to live.