Every year, there are people who say that business is hard to do, yet they continue to do business year after year. Every year, some people say that being a person is really difficult, yet they live well year after year. So, is the phenomenon of "involution" a subjective feeling or an objective reason?

Let's look back twenty years ago. At that time, the internet business was still relatively weak. Although some people said it was the best time, it was still not valued by the mainstream. They thought it was just small-scale activities that wouldn't yield good results. At that time, the traditional economy was not affected by internet e-commerce. Whenever someone said that internet e-commerce would be unstoppable in the future, a group of people would scoff and say they were alarmist.

However, traditional businesses at that time were still hard to run, and many people faced the dilemma of being unable to find jobs. Even if they found jobs, the wages were very low. For example, in the wood workshop in Linyi City, there were many workshops at that time, and the workers' wages were basically three hundred yuan a month. Some skilled workers or those in key positions had to work twelve hours a day and only earned six or seven hundred yuan a month. Despite this, such job opportunities were not available to everyone. In addition to low wages, they often did not pay wages on time, and it was common for workers to be owed wages for two or three months. Some workshops even claimed that providing you with a job was a favor, and you should not withdraw your wages unless absolutely necessary, promising to settle everything at the end of the year. However, if you believed their lies and pitied the boss's cash flow, they would often unethically use their trump card when they had to pay wages, magnifying trivial matters and continuously deducting from your wages. The normal salary for December would usually be compressed to ten months or even eight or nine months' worth of wages. If you did not accept, they would continue to withhold your wages; if you accepted, it would be equivalent to working for free for two or three months. So, even though there was no so-called "involution" at that time, it was not friendly to workers.

In addition to workshop owners trying their best to deduct wages, there were also many idle thieves in society. At that time, unlike today where there are cameras everywhere, you could encounter thieves on buses, at stations, train stations, or even on the street. If you thought people were simple-hearted, you would end up with nothing.

Since many workshops settled wages at the end of the year and usually only paid a portion of the wages to workers as living expenses, when it came time to settle wages, they would typically put the money in their luggage to take home. During this process, they could encounter thieves, and if they did, all their hard-earned money for the year would be gone.

That year, when I just got off the bus at the Pingyi bus station, I heard two girls crying loudly at the station, and the people around were discussing it. I approached to understand the situation and found out that the two sisters had been working in a workshop in Linyi. At the end of the year, their boss settled their wages, and they put the money in a bag and placed it in their luggage. They should have been very happy on the bus from Linyi to Pingyi, but after arriving at the Pingyi bus station, many motorcycle taxi drivers surrounded them. They made a living by picking up passengers, but some had bad intentions. One motorcycle taxi driver took the opportunity to snatch the sisters' luggage and put it in the trunk, claiming to take them home, but in reality, he quickly drove away. Thus, the sisters' luggage was taken away by the unscrupulous motorcycle taxi driver, and they could only helplessly cry at the station.

Just think about how bitter and helpless they must have felt at that moment. How many exhausting days and nights did they endure working in the Linyi workshop throughout the year? Sometimes they would go to work even when they had a cold or cough, just to earn some money to improve their parents' situation or support their younger brother's education. Yet, upon arriving at the bus station in their hometown, they encountered such a situation. Who could help them?

Regarding their experience, many people expressed sympathy but felt powerless. Even if they reported it to the police, the police usually did not pay much attention to such small cases, and it was basically like a stone sinking into the sea, which also encouraged those evildoers to act with impunity.

I have encountered similar situations. I remember it was in 2003 when I was working in Dalian. After earning some money, I went home. On the way home, while transferring at the Linyi bus station, I inadvertently counted my coins and caught the attention of a fat man. He quickly came to my side, threatening and enticing me for money. Although there was supposed to be security at the station, it was basically just for show. In the end, I handed over the coins to him, and at that time, my money was in the outer pocket of my luggage. So, while I was walking with my luggage on my back, he probably stole my money from behind. Even if someone saw it, everyone chose to ignore it, thinking it was better to avoid trouble, so people were quite indifferent to each other.

Not only did these workshops withhold wages and shift risks onto workers, but there were also rampant thieves in society, and people's hearts were not good. I remember that in the small workshops in Linyi, the bosses never willingly paid wages. You had to cry and plead for them to give you a little. When I went home, they didn't give me a single cent. At that time, I had just graduated and was quite introverted, possibly due to strict family education, which made it difficult for me to communicate and interact normally with outsiders. So they pretended not to know. In addition, the surrounding residents were also not kind. I remember that I worked hard to earn five yuan, and the boss paid me in cash. When I went to a nearby small supermarket to buy something, the glass counter had already been shattered and was only held together with transparent tape. I was so tired that I rested my elbow on it, causing the glass to break further. The store owner insisted that I compensate him and took away the five yuan I had just earned. So, if you ask me what my impression of Linyi people is, I can only say that it used to be a revolutionary old area, but the later generations did not inherit the good traditions. Although I am also from Linyi, I do not think the quality of Linyi people is very good; on the contrary, many people are quite bad. That kind of bad is deeply ingrained, a kind of bad that is a smiling tiger, lacking any bottom line or moral boundary.

So, anyone who says that the era of involution is bad, I hold a negative attitude. It is much better than twenty years ago; at least the issue of unpaid wages is less common, at least the probability of thieves stealing your money has decreased, and at least as long as you are willing to work, you can still find a job.

Nowadays, many bosses complain that e-commerce has taken away their business, and many bosses complain that involution makes it hard to do business, but they do not reflect on what problems they actually have. What problems can be avoided? Can the service be improved? The so-called involution is merely a denial of their past services; in the new era, they need to provide more detailed services to avoid struggling painfully in the race of involution. However, since many traditional bosses have a mindset of cutting costs, their service has become worse in the so-called era of involution, isn't that digging their own grave?