好不容易七夕走了,很快又要中秋和国庆了。
过节意味着花钱,过节使我贫穷……
最近,很多人(尤其是大城市的年轻人),日子都不太好过。
@Lsi77:
爸妈还真以为我懒,不想出去。要是有钱的话,你连我的人都见不着
@神经精神病院:
在家自拍时,为自己的家里背景打上了马赛克
@谁拿走了我的养乐多:
试衣服的时候偷偷看标价,别告诉我,你们没做过
买菜时,我都是跟在大妈后面,等大妈跟老板讲好加钱以后,我跟着说:老板,我也来两斤!
@白衬衫的校草:
眼睁睁地看着购物车和收藏的东西一件件下架
@周唧唧-:
凡是能用钱解决的事情,我都解决不了
@七个布里:
约会喷六神
@弯田公子:
不说了隔壁wifi关了
消费降级。
从天猫国际到拼多多?
早在去年5月,主页君就在咱们Global Times报纸上“教老外学中文”的栏目里,见到过“消费降级”这个词。
consumption downgrade
消费降级
A: Electronics are being upgraded too fast nowadays. I need to renew both my cell phone and my computer.
现在电子产品更新换代太快。我的手机和电脑又都该换了。
B: That's going to be quite the expense. Are you going to stick with the same brand?
那这开销可不小。你还继续用原来的牌子吗?
A: Nope. I plan to buy a cheaper brand.
不了。我打算买比较便宜的牌子了。
B: You better think carefully about this consumption downgrade. It will severely impact your user experience. Maybe you can consider changing out one thing.
这种消费降级你可要想好,会严重影响使用体验的。或者你可以考虑只换掉其中一个。
说到“换手机”,主页君倒是可以拿自己举个例:在魔都,周围用iphone的盆友大多与时俱进,哪怕不用X,起码6s或者7以上得有。
只有我超凡脱俗地用着SE,并且打算用到它彻底坏掉为止……
关于“消费降级”,可能不少人有过类似的体验:以前出门必打车,现在小黄车骑得也很溜;以前喜欢泡在健身房,现在沿着公园马路夜跑;以前去天猫国际海淘大牌,现在追着拼多多“砍一刀”……
好吧……拼多多倒是不至于。但不趁着双11囤点卫生纸洗衣液啥的,总觉得亏了一大笔。
美媒《纽约时报》最近刊登过一篇文章,提到的则是另一类“消费降级”的年轻人——不约会,不生娃。一人吃饱,全家不饿。
▲不生孩子、不约会:中国迎来“消费降级”时代?(via New York Times)(翻译via纽约时报中文网,下同)
在文章里,出现了一枚因为“穷”而推迟恋爱结婚的汉子——
A 34-year-old semiconductor engineer in the southern city of Shenzhen, Wang Jiazhi bought a one-bedroom apartment in 2016.
34岁的王家志是深圳的一名半导体工程师,2016年他购买了一套一居室公寓。
In addition to a mortgage of more than $700 a month, he needs to pay his relatives back for the money he borrowed for the down payment.
除了每月5000块左右的房贷外,他还需要偿还为了首付款向亲戚借的钱。
Like many Chinese men, Mr. Wang believes he needs an apartment in order to find a wife. But he is under so much pressure with his mortgage and debt, and with supporting his aging parents in the countryside, that he hashad to postpone his plan for marriage.
和许多中国男性一样,王家志认为他需要一套房才能找到妻子。但是因为抵押贷款、债务,以及要在农村赡养年迈的父母,他承受着巨大的压力,不得不推迟结婚的计划。
His prospects weren’t good anyway:To save money, he has stopped dating.
他的前景反正也不好:为了省钱,他已经不谈恋爱了。
▲China’s Consumption Downgrade: Skip Avocados, Cocktails and Kids (via NYT)
除了不谈恋爱,王家志还把自己贷款买的房子给租出去了,自己跑去和另外9个人一起合租,就为了减少点开支……
但她已经把“不生娃”列为了节约开支的重要环节——
Wu Xiaoqiong, 28, is the only child of a civil servant and a doctor in the eastern province of Hebei. She works at a big internet company in Beijing with monthly pay of $1,500 after taxes. Her husband works at a state-owned bank in Shanghai.
28岁的吴小琼是东部河北省的一名公务员和一名医生的独生女。她在北京一家大型互联网公司工作,税后月薪1万元。她的丈夫在上海一家国有银行工作。
Her consumption downgrade plan is to remain childless.
她的消费降级计划是不生孩子。
“We have almost no savings and no retirement plans,” she said.“My parents have been supporting me financially. How can I afford a child?”
“我们几乎没有积蓄,没有考虑养老,”她说。“我都还在啃老,还怎么要小孩?”
▲China’s Consumption Downgrade: Skip Avocados, Cocktails and Kids
一位麻麻跳了出来……
When asked whether she would consider having a second child, Li Keli, an accountant at an electronics maker in the southern city of Huizhou, said,“Absolutely not.”
当被问及她是否会考虑生二胎时,惠州一家电子制造商的会计利可丽说,“打死我也不干。”
She used to take her son, 7, to visitnearby citieson weekends. Now she takes him to theplaygrounds of big residential complexes because they’re free.
她过去常常在周末带7岁的儿子去附近的城市旅游。现在她带他去大型住宅小区的游乐场,因为免费。
▲China’s Consumption Downgrade: Skip Avocados, Cocktails and Kids
就算你不恋爱不结婚不生娃,只要你在外打拼,总免不了要租房。(极少数富二代除外)
这段时间,各种关于北京房租暴涨的文章,想必你也看到过一些。那真是闻者落泪听者伤心……
The China Securities Journal cited data from a renting app, zhuge.com, that shows rent in the capital cityhas risen 25.8 percent, compared to last year, with July rent alone 4.3 percent higher on a monthly basis.→ 北京房租同比上涨25.8%,单7月涨幅就达4.3%。
Rent for a50-square-meter one-bedroom apartmentbuilt in the 1980s in Xuanwumen, 2 kilometers from Tiananmen Square, isover 8,000 yuan($1,164) a month, the journal reported. Earlier this year, the rent was 6,000 yuan per month, the journal said.→ 在宣武门租套50平一居室,80年代的老房子,需要8000多块。早几个月时还只是6000块。
The average monthly income in Beijing is 8,467 yuan, it said.→ 北京的平均月薪为8467元。
▲Majority of Chinese women demand potential husband have a home despite exorbitant prices (via Global Times)
要么把工资都拿出来供房租,节衣缩食过日子;要么去偏远地段租房,来回通勤四五个小时。
房租的上涨,不仅是简单的供求关系改变的结果。中介从中作妖的案例数不胜数,这里不再赘述,以免看了引起强烈不适。
Beijing’s real estate agency association announced Sunday that 10 rental platforms, including one of the industry’s major players, Ziroom, have promised to follow the government’s instruction and put an additional 120,000 apartments on the market in an effort to stabilize prices.
北京市房地产中介协会召开座谈会,自如、相寓、蛋壳公寓等10家主要住房租赁企业负责人参加,并承诺不涨租金且拿出手中共计超过12万套的全部存量房源投向市场。
▲Beijing Real Estate Companies Agree to Stop Raising Rents (via Sixth Tone) 不涨租金拿出12万套存量房源(via北京晚报)
是啊。消费降级的同时,房租却在自己给你“升级”。
哪怕是搬走,找中介看房和搬家也会再度耗费一笔开支。更别提时间、精力和情绪上的折磨……