Is it necessary to see misery around us in order to be ambitious?
by 
- PtotheB
- Posts：55
- Shifu
Scandinavian countries, Canada, pretty much all of Mediterranean Europe - people there have fairly comfortable lives. I've talked to a few CEOs who worked in Sweden and Norway for instance, and complained that staff there were incredibly lazy, complacent, and easily satisfied, with very little ambition.
Come to China, where you go from seeing BMWs one minute and migrant workers freezing under a bridge pelting dirt, and you gotta wonder: is China's greatest strength the fact that the bridge between poor and rich is so obvious? Is that what builds ambition, ruthlessness, and drive to succeed in this country? (for better or for worse)
Re: Is it necessary to see misery around us in order to be ambitious?
What I've observed is that the poor people who are making less than the cost of living tend to work their balls off, whereas comfortable office workers just drunkenly chat on QQ if they bother to show up for work at all.
I can't speak for Scandinavia (never been there), but what I've observed is that the North American upper-middle class tends to be very self-critical, complaining about their own laziness and wasting of food, whereas the Chinese middle class tend to have no self-criticism whatsoever, brag about bribing their way through life, working as little as possible, and ordering about 10 times as much food they can eat at a restaurant, apologetically.
Which I believe is a reflection of the kinds of social changes that come about with industrialization (wasn't it a Norwegian fellow who first came up with a theory like this?). During the industrial revolution, the West was much the same, most of the population living on the edge of death while working every moment, and other families bragging about not having worked in x generations.
Winner: Dr. Science's Crassest Member of Site Award, one Year Running ||| Joint Prize: Five Silver Orchid Foundation "Let the Meat Cake" Award for Least Likely to Achieve Class Consciousness ||| Incumbent: Professor Bathos Lifetime Achievement Recognition Award for Outstanding Accomplishments: "Smoothest Criminal"
Re: Is it necessary to see misery around us in order to be ambitious?
>kchur wrote:
*Unapologetically, this section needs a flippin edit feature.
Winner: Dr. Science's Crassest Member of Site Award, one Year Running ||| Joint Prize: Five Silver Orchid Foundation "Let the Meat Cake" Award for Least Likely to Achieve Class Consciousness ||| Incumbent: Professor Bathos Lifetime Achievement Recognition Award for Outstanding Accomplishments: "Smoothest Criminal"