Something happened in Beijing, the streets are full of them!!? Why did the CCP implement Reform and Opening-up? There is only one goal! Qiqi Baba TALK Episode 982 20260927

This episode explores China's current severe economic downturn and the wave of unemployment. A large number of young people, middle-aged people, and even the elderly are forced to live on the streets, collecting scrap or searching for food in trash cans due to the inability to find work and the pressures of survival. Through the personal accounts of several netizens, the program reflects on the national debt, the immense pressure of mortgages and car loans, and the survival crisis at the bottom of society, while also analyzing the governing logic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the essence of the Reform and Opening-up policy.

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Full transcript:

Hello everyone, welcome to Qiqi Baba, I am Qiqi.

Hong Kong is on fire, this is true. If you don't fight, you die, are you fucking going to fight or not? I'll let you, you, you, you fucking fight, you, I'm fighting, you fucking fight, you fight me, you give me, give me, fight me, I'll beat you to death, right? You, you, you fight yourself, fight yourself, what are you doing? You, who? So much fake news!

Have you all noticed that recently, whether on the street or while scrolling through videos, you see more and more people picking up trash?

Now, the people picking up trash are getting younger; many post-90s and even post-00s have started picking up trash.

Look at how intense the involution is now, it's so embarrassing for the older generation! I've already started picking up bottles and cardboard to sell. Wait a second, let's see how much I can sell my bicycle for.

Hey, you say there's a strange phenomenon now! There are more people picking up scrap! Yes, yes, yes, yes, hey, can you tell us why this is?

Anyway, I don't know about other places, but in our area, at the trash bins, there are over a dozen different people visiting them. Actually, right now.

Middle-aged people over forty are really having a hard time. Everyone knows, right? It's not easy to find employment or work after forty; it's very difficult. Many factories, many of those factories, don't hire people over thirty-five. But in reality, the retirement age is sixty and beyond, so what are we supposed to do?

This is right outside my door; there are countless people digging through the trash cans here every day. To be honest, more and more young people are joining this industry now. Really, you could say at least a hundred people dig through this trash can every day, one wave after another, and they always manage to find what they want. I...

I've submitted many resumes. As soon as they see my age, they don't even give me a chance and just swipe past it.

This isn't just a passing gust of wind; it's a blizzard, and it has only just begun.

But if you think about it from another perspective.

What are you afraid of! We are poor and stable. Fight, fight, keep going.

Loneliness also has its rewards.

Actually, listen carefully, it's called scavenging, what kind of scavenging? Picking up scrap, this thing, picking up scrap, I was just upstairs, watching that one trash bin, you watch for an hour or two, and you see how many people are picking up scrap, one every ten minutes, one every ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, thirty people could come by, just picking up scrap. You are now.

Achieving this goal. Have you all noticed? Recently, there are more and more "fashionable baskets" around. In Tianjin, this behavior of picking up trash, collecting waste, and gathering scrap is called a "fashionable basket." Do you all feel it? And it's trending younger; it's hopeless, you can't see any hope for life at all.

I really don't know what to do now. I've interviewed for many jobs, but either they are just filling a KPI, or as soon as they hear my age or my marital status, there's no follow-up.

Too many people are unemployed this year, even factories like ours have started laying people off.

It's useless.

Ah.

Still grinding? Yes.

Never.

Can you survive? Well, you tell me.

Speak up!

More and more people are collecting scrap. Today we went to sell some scrap, and I saw a lot of people lined up in front to sell theirs. Let me tell you, last year I was running a street stall, chased around like a dog, and finally realized you can't do whatever you want; you can only work a low-end job and pick up some scrap to boost your income a little. I've been in this line for a long time; a lot of people kept coming up behind me one after another, and for those with small amounts, I basically let them sell first. Like this auntie who arrived after me, I let her go to the front to sell first, while I waited a bit in the back. Here comes another auntie, pulling a cart of scrap; we still let her sell first. And another tricycle came up behind us.

Has anyone noticed that more and more people are doing scrap work now? Actually, I think it's because the unemployment rate is getting higher and higher. Many people are unemployed or out of work, don't know what to do, and one after another they pour into this industry. You have to know that in the past, many people looked down on this industry. When the economy was very good and very prosperous, nobody looked at this industry at all. But why now? Because the economy is depressed now, and there are no better businesses or jobs to do.

Oh, cutting this today, this was cut from here, given to me by upstairs, oh, the upstairs did.

ID card given to you.

I've been unemployed for four months, and my mindset has collapsed from looking for a job. I am actively looking for a job every day, taking turns submitting resumes on five recruitment apps, and I even bought a membership on Boss, which costs 68 yuan a month. The companies I apply to only have two outcomes: either unread, or read with no reply. Since I've been unemployed for four months, four months without income, my mindset has really collapsed. I don't know what kind of mindset to have to face this job-hunting thing anymore.

After looking for a job for over half a month, fuck! I just want to find a good day to go and get it over with.

How severe is the employment situation? These past two days our company was hiring a receptionist, and in just two days, HR received more than 900 resumes, and quite a few of them were from undergraduate students.

Well, now don't even talk about picking up trash at night; nighttime is still fine. Picking up trash at night has fewer people, you know, fewer people picking. Mom, if you go out during the day, there are quite a few people during the day now. Picking up trash in the day has more people than at night now. Even if someone isn't a professional trash picker, even if they're just passing by, they'll see something in the trash can.

And they'll rummage through it. Nowadays, people with great resumes don't have an easy time finding a job either. Why do I say this year's market is the worst I've ever seen in history? Let me tell you why. Because in previous years, or say last year, jobs were equally hard to find, but finding a job was still relatively easy.

Yet what did I find this year? Even the positions you can actually submit applications to are so few, which is really distressing. To what extent is everyone struggling this year? These past two years you can feel that all industries are sluggish. When you go out, whether you're chatting with relatives, friends, or strangers, everyone says money is hard to make. Whether you're a boss or an employee, everyone says it's hard.

Every time I go out, I see people rummaging through the trash cans at the entrance of the residential complex. Hey, a single trash can might be rummaged countless times; you leave, and someone else comes.

I found that there are actually 50 or 60 grandpas and grandmas in our residential complex every day picking up cardboard boxes and plastic bottles inside the community. They are truly more diligent than the property management security guards. From the second basement level to every single trash can in the complex, they patrol around the clock, rummaging through them one by one. These scraps are really in high demand right now.

Two elderly people were caught fighting over a cardboard box from a burning fireworks display. After knowing that my parents work in property management, my mom said, oh, it's very hard to find cardboard boxes now. My mom said to what extent do they rummage? During lunch, they don't dare eat at home; they carry their bowls and sit right next to the trash cans to eat. As soon as someone throws away a cardboard box, they can immediately go open it up, collect it, and sell it for money. Just like the video you saw earlier, those two elderly people, before the fireworks even finished going off, were desperately fighting for that cardboard box. Can they ignore how dangerous this is? You say while those fireworks are burning, the falling embers will first burn clothes, could burn people, and could even explode on people. You say just in case you fight for a broken piece of cardboard and end up in the hospital, how high is that cost?

Even collecting scrap requires fighting for it; is life really getting harder and harder? Why are the elderly arguing over a few yuan worth of scrap now? Will more people worry about a meal in the future? Will there be more and more homeless people on the streets? Will we ordinary people face the distress of not being able to afford a meal in the future?

Under the scorching sun.

It's over.

Seeing an elderly person with a little kid rummaging through a trash can really makes one feel heartbroken.

Anyone else like me? Unemployed for a long time, can't find a job, mindset almost burned out, torturing myself every day, so anxious I can't sleep until midnight, feeling like I can't hold on much longer.

I am thirty-five years old, and I only worked for twenty-four days this year. I heard that some people haven't worked a single day and haven't earned a single penny since the Lunar New Year. A blind person's dream is to drink a cup of green tea; three yuan has become an unattainable dream for him. I don't know if you are aware of this human suffering. When you truly face such an environment, when the older uncle says his lifelong dream is to drink a cup of green tea, and then I go to buy him green tea, and he says three yuan is very, very expensive—it just feels so expensive. Do you have any dreams?

Ah, everyone else is doing well, why am I not? Why am I?

Green tea, your dream is just to drink some green tea.

Um, what? In summer, you pick leaves, pick leaves, pick leaves, how much do they ripen?

Wait here for a moment. Didn't you say your lifelong dream is to drink a bottle of green tea?

Look.

Now I'm going to buy you green tea. Alright.

Zhongnanhai power is good.

Um, good, then wait for me here, wait for me a moment.

Big brother, Brother Zhang, thanks.

Don't run around!

He said, "It costs more than three yuan, one of them."

Ah.

It's three-plus yuan, three yuan each.

Is three yuan expensive?

Uh, three yuan for insurance.

Recently in our residential community, a strange phenomenon has been found: more and more people are picking through trash cans for scraps. Moreover, these people picking through trash cans have also subverted my traditional views. In my impression, trash pickers were always dressed in rags and looked sloppy, but now many of the people picking through trash are dressed decently and look quite clean. Once, I saw a woman around fifty years old, actually wearing a pretty cheongsam, also picking through trash in a garbage can, and without a trace of nervousness or unease.

Whether an old woman or a middle-aged woman, as long as she sees something, she has to go pick it up. As for some of the younger ones, people in their tens, a husband and wife riding an electric bike are also picking things up. A husband and wife—I've run into it a few times. Those riding two-wheeled electric bikes, there are a lot of these trash pickers. Now trash pickers, um, the other night when I went out, a street sweeper told me, he said it's not easy to pick things up anymore, now cola bottles are not easy to find either, there are no cola bottles left. He told me fewer people are drinking beverages, so there's nothing much to pick up, they are gone, basically unable to find anything. Oh, my, it's really tough nowadays, this industry, doing this industry is really tough. All kinds of people, all sorts of people are there. You say old women, but young people are there too, people in their tens and twenties.

China's economy is getting worse and worse, and the public is facing a survival crisis. Unemployment and the inability to find work are everywhere, and more and more people are forced to make a living by picking through trash. Mr. Xie, a resident of Zhangzhou, Fujian, revealed that in the past, it was always elderly people rummaging through trash cans for scraps, but now many young people cannot find work, uh, and with empty stomachs they also start rummaging through trash cans, but the authorities block the news, and related videos cannot be sent out.

More and more people are looking for food in trash cans; now people in their forties are already scavenging in trash cans, and this has already appeared.

There is no relief at all on the mainland, when you encounter it.

Once difficulties plunge you into a desperate situation, it is worse than death.

How much is your monthly salary? A little over a thousand yuan. A little over a thousand yuan? Mm. How many days off a month? Where are there days off? Room and board included. Room and board not included? There is room and board included? With this kind of treatment! Oh, this salary is too low. Is he under sixty?

Over sixty. Nowadays, he is—this era is an era of universal debt. Just how miserable can this year's entrepreneurial environment get? At present, the number of debtors nationwide has exceeded 800 million. Whether you are a wage earner, an office worker, or a business owner, the overall amount of debt is currently quite high. Is it true that many people cannot find jobs now? Hard to find jobs? Young people can't find them, and older people go without saying. Those over thirty, in their thirties, forties, and fifties, either deliver food or drive for Didi. Many women have also started delivering food now. Have you all seen that news? When women hail a ride, it's very easy to get a female ride-hailing driver. And now many white-collar workers, because companies have collapsed on a large scale and closed down, these wealthy people no longer invest and all go to set up street stalls and do these small businesses. Just think about it, how has the whole environment changed now?

I might not survive much longer. I was born in the 1990s, nearly thirty years old, and in debt by over 8 million yuan. I used to be the boss of one bar, two restaurants, and a homestay brand, but as a result of blind investment, I ended up with nothing.

Just how poor is everyone this year? Let me talk about myself first, I was born in 1996, don't talk about having 5,000 yuan, right now I can't even scrape together 500 yuan.

How much is 1,000 yuan really? For many people, it's money to save their lives. After I went to pay my father's hospitalization fees earlier, I don't know how many days it will cover. After paying the hospitalization fees, I only have

4 yuan left on me. Now I can't even pay the mortgage.

I drive for Didi.

At home. They are all those high—professions, some people can tell, obviously not professional Didi drivers, but professional Didi drivers.

Yesterday I took a hitch, someone driving a file—

Ah! I chatted with her, Sis, my sis, I said why are you driving such a nice car doing this, I said spring is just impossible now.

Uh.

I work as a ride-hailing driver, driving twelve hours a day, making over 600 yuan. My wife was laid off.

I can't even pay my mortgage now. If I don't drive, I can't survive.

Yes, there's no other way but to drive, but driving isn't a solution either, it's just not a solution. It's just to make ends meet! Yes, everyone is like this now—mortgages, car loans, the next generation—who doesn't have debts to pay? Once you face layoffs or pay cuts, the pressure spikes instantly.

People also report that many are eyeing the trash cans in residential compounds, which are rummaged through several times every night. Sometimes, fights break out over plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, and other recyclables.

Even picking up bottles is an intense rat race; they all rummage through trash in the middle of the night. There are more and more unemployed people, and the streets are full of those unmanned ride-hailing cars. Anyway, isn't it just fighting over that little bit of money? My relatives are all unemployed; it's so poor! I don't dare to eat out; a meal costs over ten yuan. I cook at home now, and a meal costs only three yuan.

This generation is secretly anxious. With elderly parents above and young children below, carrying mortgages and car loans, and earning a fixed salary, they are terrified of losing their jobs one day, terrified of something happening at home, leaving them with no room to even breathe. Seeing these elderly people collecting recyclables is like seeing my own future; I'm afraid of having no security when I get old, afraid that even after giving my all, I still won't be able to live a good life. I've finally realized it.

We ordinary people simply can't find good jobs; good jobs aren't hiring at all, even if they exist.

It's a mess, and it won't be found from the perspective we think. Who has a college senior in their family this year? It's already June, and the one in our family still hasn't found a job. I asked a relative to see if their workplace was hiring. They said their workplace didn't have many positions this year anyway, and they had long been taken by the relatives and friends of the leadership.

I might not be able to go on. There are really so many unemployed people this year. I'm 35, unemployed, married but childless—putting these words together is like a death sentence. I lie in my rented room in Guangzhou every day, eating one meal a day, eating the "dark cuisine" I make myself, and I haven't worked for several months. The panic in my heart grows heavier, and the anxiety is suffocating.

Nowadays, for college students, finding a job is as hard as a rooster laying an egg. I really find that our generation, the post-00s, hasn't tasted a single bit of the era's dividends, but we haven't missed a single bit of the era's shit. When the economy was good, you told us to stay in school and study hard; now that the economy is bad, you tell us the environment is poor, wages are low, and jobs are hard to find. I'm really speechless! I don't know if my stress tolerance is too low or what. I sent out 400 resumes in three days, and only got two interviews, and then... no results. I feel like my whole life will be like this.

Finding a job now is just too realistic. Any position you can get hired for is basically one left behind by someone who couldn't take it anymore and ran away. What to do now?

I can't go on. Since becoming unemployed, I haven't worked for nearly four months. I've sent out a pile of resumes, but no one wants me. As soon as they see my age, they say I'm too old. I said I'd be an apprentice, I don't need money, just feed me, that would work.

No one wants me. During this time at home, my wife gets annoyed just seeing me every day. Consumption is downgraded, young people can't make money, sigh, what can we do? Cut living costs, save a little, with elderly parents above and children below.

The family burden is heavy—car loans, mortgages, children need to get married, parents need to be supported—it's really too hard.

This, this is the problem. Chinese people actually can't care about anything else now, there is only one thing: having enough to eat. So many people previously refused to believe that the CCP dictatorship would intentionally make Chinese people poor. In fact, they really hope to achieve this, because only when Chinese people become very poor can they continue to do whatever they want. So, for the CCP, what is the best state? It's that they, as the government, are very rich, but everyone in China is struggling at the subsistence level. But you can't really let people starve to death, right? If that happens, well, they might start causing trouble. So, the state where Chinese people try their best and just barely don't starve to death is the best. But the government must be very rich. And those massive infrastructure projects, why do so many? Actually, it's also to let Chinese people brag about them. Because the more magnificent the government is, and these kinds of empty, grand, and fake prosperity that can be bragged about and seen with the naked eye are the simplest and fastest to achieve. But this also allows the Little Pinks to live under these grand narratives; even if they are gnawing on tree roots, they will feel satisfied. So this is what the CCP has been doing. The short-lived reform and opening up was never meant to let Chinese people live a wealthy life; it never was. They did it so the government could become wealthy; they were too poor at the time. And now, it's about the same. So, as slaves who need to be ruled, it's time for the Chinese people to return to poverty, so let them continue to struggle at the subsistence level.

Alright, that is all for this episode. If you would like to support me, please join the membership channel. I really hope to chat with you in real-time during the members-only live stream in a few hours. That is all for this episode, and I will see you in the next one.