Recently, everyone has been talking about "Snail House" because its realistic portrayal of high housing prices in cities has resonated greatly. A square meter of living space, daily crowded buses, a boxed lunch at noon, and thousands of yuan in monthly mortgage payments - "Snail House" narrates the reality behind the glossy surface of young white-collar workers in the city: the oppressive burden of high housing prices.
Reality is indeed cruel. Young people have to prepay for decades to afford today's high housing prices, sacrificing their current quality of life and postponing plans to have children. "The moment I handed my money over to the developer, I already knew what kind of life I would lead next. We have to pay 4000 yuan per month for our mortgage. Because overtime is normal in our jobs, we rarely cook at home. Occasionally meeting friends costs us around 3000 yuan per month for meals. Transportation fees for two people are already very economical at 200 yuan per month. After deducting the money we need to repay relatives each month, only 500 yuan remains for shopping and entertainment." (Beijing Youth Daily, November 23) This is the real-life version of "Snail House" survival for a young couple in Beijing with a combined monthly income of 18,000 yuan. The real estate economy has become the direct lifeline of China's economic development, accounting for 6.6% of GDP and one-quarter of investments, with 60 industries directly related to real estate. (Yangtze Evening News, November 23) What most people focus on is the distorted economy caused by excessively high housing prices. However, what we should be more concerned about is an entire generation whose youth ideals, which should soar high, are crushed under the weight of unaffordable housing prices, leading them into the hardships of material survival. A generation without dreams, whose only dream is to own a small place to live in the city. When this generation of young people becomes the backbone of society, their ideals, responsibilities, and beliefs will have been suppressed by high housing prices, becoming narrow, impoverished, lacking imagination, and adventurous spirit. Ultimately, who will bear the loss?
During the time when "Snail House" became popular, I thought about the younger generation that grew up in the 1980s. Their faith and goals during their youth were not about owning a house. Their youthful wings were fortunate enough not to be oppressed by high housing prices, allowing them to fly freely, take risks, try new things, seek beautiful things beyond material wealth, look up to the noble, and yearn for spiritual and intellectual pursuits. These qualities are completely absent in the current generation oppressed by houses. Wen Pulin said in an interview, "Now kids in their twenties start buying insurance, people in their thirties make installment payments for houses and cars, and those in their forties absolutely dare not leave their jobs as they are about to retire. Why should I be stupid and give my money to developers?" (Wu Hongfei, Mingliu)
"The middle-class lifestyle is the most pitiful. You don't dare to argue with your boss because the next installment payment is suffocating you." These shiny young white-collar workers have thus become slaves to their houses.
Lu Qiulüe recently wrote on her blog about the situation during Obama's speech in Shanghai: Similarly, young people fifteen years ago, when Clinton visited China, exhibited much more vitality and curiosity during his speech in Shanghai than today’s seemingly stiff and less energetic university students can match, “At that time, although the college students were naive, they were full of energy.” I wonder why, despite facing unimaginable material developments compared to then, today's young people show such a significant difference in spirit and demeanor even while still in university. Once they enter society and face harsh realities like high housing prices, how much further will their spirits be squeezed?
I am not saying that the experience of the previous generation, materially destitute but spiritually devout, is the only model of youth. What I want to say is that today's high housing prices have severely eroded the spirit of the young, compressing the possibilities of their lives. For them, what they should care about in their youth—spirituality, ideas, and passion for society—has been reduced to just one possibility: buying a house, no matter how cramped it may be. Otherwise, how can one talk about marriage or having children? Then, the rest of a young person's life is tightly bound to this house. Houses, houses—it becomes the sole goal of their lives.
It is indeed tragic. This generation of young people might be the one with the lowest spiritual survival standards. Among all the causes, high housing prices cannot be absolved. Material coercion leads to spiritual poverty and conformity. Houses have pacified this generation.