What are the current era dividends?

This is the best era.

In today's age, as long as you have some savings or a steady, stable income—even if not much—the cost-effectiveness of not working is actually far higher than working.

Because China's social infrastructure, cost of living structure, and highly competitive economic environment make the marginal returns of hard work increasingly low, while not working allows you to enjoy the greatest era dividends. Many people do not realize that public wealth is the greatest wealth. Over the past few decades, our country has accumulated enormous wealth, but many ordinary people have not benefited from it.

But just look at the infrastructure around us—libraries, parks, museums, high-speed rail, subways, highways, airports, scenic spots, and social security, etc.

These things often involve investments of hundreds of millions, billions, or even hundreds of billions, yet we ordinary people can use them at very low prices, or even for free.

You may have no savings in your account, but you can always go to the city library to read, run in beautiful parks, use the world's cheapest and most accessible transportation system to go anywhere, and you don't need to worry about security issues.

As long as you don't work, avoid peak hours, and steer clear of crowds, when you go out on weekdays, the entire city is quiet, and scenic spots, subways, libraries, and parks become your private space.

If you strictly consider market prices, how much do you think you should pay? And yet, all of this is almost free now—you are enjoying the prosperity of this era for free. Another point is that China is a country with extremely low living costs, which many people do not realize.

China's cost of living is actually very low globally; excluding housing, everything else—food, drink, utilities, transportation, education, internet, etc.—is unbelievably cheap.

If you calculate carefully, if your life is simple, even more than 1,000 yuan can meet your basic needs. How much would you spend on groceries?

How much do utilities cost? How expensive is takeout? How expensive are supermarkets? How costly are buses and subways?

It can be said that China is one of the few countries where basic survival has no threshold—if you don't pursue quality excessively, you can maintain a decent life at very low prices.

Moreover, the quality of these services will continue to improve. In the past, cheap meant poor quality, but now, cheap means scaled low prices, a result of decades of industrial development across the country. China's economic structure ensures that almost everything is cheap, except for housing, which has been the main battleground for wealth distribution over the past decades.

So, as long as you don't buy a house and choose to rent, your living costs will be very low. In second- and third-tier cities, you can rent a single room for a few hundred yuan, and live very comfortably for over 1,000 yuan.

Even in big cities, as long as you're not in the core area, the cost-performance ratio is high.

Essentially, because some people work hard and save to buy houses, and the country transfers part of this wealth into public infrastructure—subways, parks, high-speed rail, security, internet, etc.—these services become so affordable.

So, the wealth of those who work has been transferred to those who don't work. Many people have been brainwashed by success stories from the past for too long, but these ideas only make life harder today because society has changed. In the past, hard work could change your fate; now, hard work only pulls you into the rat race.

In this era, the true threshold for happiness is not high income but the absence of debt.

Once you have no mortgage, no car loan, no loans at all, you'll find life is actually very light. As long as you have a decent income, rent a small place, make good use of public resources, and plan your life well, you can live freely, with low pressure and dignity.

The prosperity of modern society has already borne the majority of our living costs for us.