I’ve been thinking a lot recently about a massive logical disconnect plaguing the Chinese corporate world. It feels like a structural schizophrenia.
On the production side, companies are doing everything in their power to squeeze their workforce. We see this in the infamous "996" work culture (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week), the brutal "Age 35 Phenomenon" where seasoned workers are discarded, and the relentless pressure of "involution" (neijuan, “内卷”).
Yet, on the sales side, these exact same companies are desperate for a vibrant market. They are constantly hoping that consumers will buy their products and upgrade their services.
Here lies the immediate paradox: The employee and the consumer are, in reality, the same person. The workforce is the terminal consumer market. Every measure a company takes to "cut costs and increase efficiency" on the backs of its employees is, in essence, a measure that systematically weakens the purchasing power of the end consumer. By suppressing wages and increasing instability, enterprises are dismantling the very market they rely on for survival.
Moreover, this corporate short-sightedness carries a far graver societal consequence: The very methods used to make corporate financial reports look good are not only killing individual businesses but are also pushing the entire society into a devastating deflationary spiral.
So, why doesn't anyone stop? The reason this knot is so hard to untie is that we are trapped in a classic Prisoner's Dilemma.
In a cutthroat market, no single company dares to be the first to break the cycle. If Company A unilaterally decides to raise wages or reduce working hours to "save the market," while Company B continues to exploit its workforce, Company A’s costs will skyrocket.
Without industry-wide change, the "ethical" company loses its price advantage and gets wiped out by the competition. Consequently, every company is forced to choose the "defect" strategy—continuing the squeeze—even though it leads to a collective dead end where the consumer pool eventually dries up.
我近期一直在思考一个现象，即中国企业界普遍存在着一个显著的逻辑脱节。这在我看来，更像是一种结构性的错位。
在生产层面，企业不遗余力地压榨劳动力。这体现在臭名昭著的“996”工作模式、残酷的“35岁现象”（即资深员工被淘汰），以及永无休止的“内卷”压力。
然而在销售层面，恰恰是这些企业，又迫切希望市场充满活力，期待消费者能够购买其产品并升级服务。
显而易见的悖论在于：员工与消费者实际上是同一群体。企业的劳动力本身即构成了终端消费市场。任何企业为“降本增效”而在员工身上采取的措施，其本质都在系统性地削弱最终消费者的购买力。通过压制工资增长和增加就业不确定性，企业正在瓦解自身赖以生存的市场基础。
此外，这种企业层面的短视行为，正带来更为严峻的社会后果：那些旨在美化企业财报的手段，不仅正在扼杀单个企业的生机，更在将整个社会推入一场破坏性的通缩螺旋。
那么，为何这种局面难以终止？症结在于一个经典的“囚徒困境”之中。
在一个竞争激烈的市场中，没有哪家企业敢率先打破这一循环。如果A公司单方面选择提升员工待遇或缩短工时以“提振市场”，而B公司继续其劳动力压榨模式，那么A公司的成本将显著增加。
若缺乏行业范围内的集体调整，率先做出改变的“良心企业”将因丧失成本优势而被市场淘汰。结果是，所有企业都被迫选择“不合作”策略——继续当前的压榨模式，尽管这最终将导致消费市场彻底枯竭。