What is the real way out for ordinary men at the bottom?

Source: Four-Team Shoulder Key

The logic that even brothels understand is that serving clients is to buy one's freedom, not just to make money. The so-called way out for ordinary people right now, by analogy, is that the price to buy your freedom is very low. As long as you save up this amount, every penny you spend afterward is an investment in yourself!

This article is 4,000 words full of practical tips, focusing on just one question: how to make money, save money, and save up your "freedom fee".

First, an overview: you must save and earn money, and rent whenever possible. This doesn’t just refer to houses and cars, but anything you need or want—rent it as long as it’s safe. Don’t think this will hurt China’s consumption, and don’t think I’m encouraging people not to spend. I’m advocating for a change in the way you spend. The idea that anything can be rented actually boosts our leasing consumption market and makes a huge contribution to our unified national market! Let’s break it down by category.

1. Housing and Employment
Currently, there’s a surplus of housing, and rent prices are trending downward. For example, in Huizhou, you can rent a seaview apartment for 800, 1000, or 1200 yuan a month—great for escaping the summer heat. In the outskirts of third- and fourth-tier cities, you can easily find single rooms for 300, 400, or 500 a month, though the environment may not be great. Don’t worry—the landlords won’t kick you out since they can’t rent out the properties anyway.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice to prevent people from returning to and staying in rural areas, indicating that many people have gone back to the countryside, so there are even more empty homes in the cities. Home prices in top-tier cities are also falling, and more people are leaving Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, making rents cheaper. Renting saves you the cost of buying furniture and appliances. If you rent, you don’t need to pay for these at all. Remember, there’s plenty of housing now, and since 2022, China’s population has been in negative growth for three consecutive years. Many elderly will pass away, flooding the market with second-hand homes—so you’ll be able to rent anything you want.

After housing comes employment, which is closely tied to renting. Many liberal arts graduates are unemployed right after graduation. If you can’t find a job, immediately look for a place near a first-tier city, preferably on the outskirts, and rent a high-rise single room for about 700 yuan. You can consider sharing with others, but only with fellow office workers who won’t disturb you at night. Register for Meituan crowdsourcing, and buy any second-hand delivery gear you can. Run enough orders to make 150 yuan a day, or 200 if you can manage.

After your shift, go back to your rental and do whatever you want. This is my top recommended job for people at the bottom. Warehouse work is too exhausting for most ordinary people and robs you of life's pleasures. The benefit of food delivery is that you see your earnings immediately—one order, one payment. Plus, it’s like an open-world game where you’re the main character, making work feel more like play. You don’t need much, just enough to live. Keep all monthly expenses under 2,000 yuan. If you make 150 a day, that’s 4,500 a month—you’ll have over 2,000 left. In a year, you can save almost 40,000 yuan.

When you get back, if you haven’t played enough games, play first. When you’re done, think about starting on social media. Film your delivery experiences and the people you meet, edit the video, and post it on Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili—every platform you can. Try to earn enough to cover your food and rent. For example, after your delivery shift, cook a meal and make a simple cooking video—lots of people do this on Bilibili. If you earn a dozen yuan a day, that’s your meal money covered.

2. Transportation & Travel
For long-distance travel, take the train; for closer trips, take the bus; for medium distances, take a cab, which is cheap now and will stay cheap for years. If you don’t go out much, transportation costs are just a couple hundred a month. Honestly, there’s not much fun outside anyway. Shopping malls and food streets get boring after a few visits—they’re all the same nationwide. Many so-called 5A or 4A tourist attractions turn out to be unimpressive; local sights are better.

If you’re in Shandong, visit Mount Tai; in Sichuan, see the pandas; in the northeast, experience retirement life; in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai, see West Lake and Taihu Lake; in Hunan, go to Zhangjiajie; in Guangxi, see Guilin. After you’ve been, you’ll realize it’s all much the same—regret not going, regret it after you’ve gone; when you return, you’ll feel like you’d have been happier watching short videos at home. If you want a car, a 50–60,000 yuan EV or a 20–30,000 yuan used Japanese car will do—no need for anything more expensive. Just know how to shop used cars—most men are into cars. Find the right dealer and do your homework. I have a classmate whose father bought an 8,000-yuan minivan after retirement and uses it for small delivery jobs in the city. Used gas cars are even more fuel-efficient—you’ll hardly spend anything over a year.

3. Education
If you were great at studying, you wouldn’t be struggling at the bottom, right? Since you’re already here, there’s no point exhausting yourself for your kid. Raising a child is nearly free through junior high (compulsory education)—textbooks and fees just cost a few hundred a year. If you can’t afford that, don’t have kids. For high school and college, just stick to public schools—it’s only a few thousand yuan a year. Don’t fall into the traps of school district housing or tutoring classes—they’re bottomless pits.

School district housing? A square meter costs half your monthly salary. The neighbor's kid might get into the best schools with money, but still fares worse than your kid—what’s the point? Some tutoring classes are even worse, charging you 300 a night with teachers worse than those at school. Private schools are just for the rich—a year is 30–50,000 yuan plus the stress of keeping up with the Joneses in parent groups. Your kid might get mocked for wearing Chinese-brand sneakers—why bother?

For bottom-tier families, focus on just one thing: lie flat in the public education system, and don’t get caught up in anxiety. If your kid really wants to study, there are plenty of free courses online—watch top teacher videos on Bilibili to your heart’s content. If not, learning a trade early is best. Don’t believe in “breaking the bank for your kid’s education”—if you do, your kid might graduate only to be unemployed and both of you end up delivering food together. Realistically, the college path isn’t the only way out for working-class kids. Vocational school for electricians or auto repair can net a more stable income than college grads. Forcing your kid into a top college just for them to deliver food after graduation makes no sense. Raising a kid isn’t an investment—don’t always expect a return. Just keep them fed, warm, and law-abiding, and you’ve done your duty.

4. Healthcare
Ordinary people are tough—treat minor illnesses, die from major ones, and rely on medical insurance for everything in between. Got a cold or fever? Push through with folk remedies—sweat it out, drink ginger tea, you’ll be fine in three days. Going to a community hospital? Two hours in line and dozens of yuan spent—might as well buy some pork for nourishment. For serious issues like fractures or infections, cooperative medical insurance covers half—paying a few thousand is manageable. Don’t expect great service—public hospitals are packed, doctors rush you in three minutes. Cancer and similar “rich people’s diseases”—accept your fate.

Surgery, radiation, and chemo can cost 200,000–300,000 yuan, leaving you broke and dead anyway. Sometimes not treating it means you live longer and suffer less. For people like us, even checkups are a waste—if you find problems, you can’t afford to treat them anyway, just more stress. If you have extra money, buy a million-yuan medical insurance plan—it seems cheap, but when it’s time to claim, the fine print will drive you crazy. Some mutual aid platforms are scams—they say “just a few cents per person to save a life,” but when it’s time to raise money, you’re begging everyone and still can’t collect enough.

Here, traditional Chinese medicine has a role. Instead of losing 200,000–300,000 yuan at the hospital and enduring more pain, spend 10,000–20,000 yuan on a folk remedy for psychological comfort, especially for elderly relatives. The real rule for bottom-tier healthcare: treat minor illnesses, walk away from major ones. Minor problems can be handled, moderate ones have insurance, and for serious untreatable diseases, discharge early to save on costs and pain.

Worst is when doctors say there’s hope, and your kids feel obligated to keep trying, wasting tens of thousands for nothing. Sometimes better to just go the TCM route.

5. Life Services
What life services do working-class men need? Need a haircut? 10-yuan fast cuts solve your big problem! Alleyways or underpasses—old-timers give you a crew cut in five minutes, clean and tidy. Want to be fancy? Buy a 40-yuan electric clipper online, it’ll last three years. Bath and massage? Group-buy a 50-yuan voucher for a scrub and back massage—once a month is a luxury! Pay full price and you’re a sucker. For services, always watch Meituan and Douyin deals—9.9 yuan for a car wash, 19.9 yuan for a buffet. If you snag it, you win. Craving a feast?

Group-buy a 68-yuan hotpot set—unlimited meat rolls and plenty of veggies, half the price of ordering a la carte. Need glasses? Physical stores ask 800 yuan, but the same frame is 48 yuan on Taobao with free shipping—just order with your prescription and you’re set for 150 yuan. The greatest wisdom for working-class shopping: anything you can buy online is cheaper than offline! Don’t be pretentious about “supporting brick-and-mortar stores.” If you’re broke, what are you supporting? Saving money is making money, group buying is bargain hunting, and if you score a deal, you win.

6. Shopping
As mentioned above, don’t buy a house—rent instead.
Renting saves on furniture. All your pots and pans together cost maybe 1,000 yuan for a lifetime—just buy them from 2-yuan stores or second-hand on Xianyu, it’s nothing. Furniture? Hunt for second-hand on Xianyu—sofa for 300, mattress for 200, spray with alcohol and it’s fine. Once you buy it, it’ll last five to eight years at least, maybe longer. If you insist on new, that’s on you. Anyway, most rentals come furnished, so you don’t need to buy anything! With a smartphone, install Douyin Lite and Kuaishou Lite, collect daily rewards as you scroll—earn a few yuan a day while on the toilet. Add Tomato FM for music and Wukong Browser for info—altogether you can get about 4 yuan a day, or 120 a month, almost the same as a rural pension.

You might ask, what can 120 yuan buy? Meituan group meals go for a dozen yuan, sometimes 8.5 yuan for two meat and one veggie. If you order for pickup, 120 yuan covers 15 meals—one lunch a day for 15 days. Meituan’s group meal discount card is even cheaper, 6.9 yuan per meal, so you can eat for nearly 20 days.

Take advantage of every benefit you can—Pinduoduo groceries, fresh veggies and eggs delivered cheap. The ultimate rule for saving: use every app! If you’re thick-skinned, sample free food in every supermarket and get half full! When something breaks, fix it first—5-yuan screws on Taobao to fix a rice cooker in ten minutes; a 9.9-yuan plunger to unclog your own toilet, while calling a plumber would cost at least 50.

Shopping rules for the bottom tier: buy second-hand instead of new, group-buy instead of solo, and bargain hunt whenever possible! Remember, what you’re saving isn’t just money—it’s your confidence to survive. In short, the worst thing is trying to live like the rich when you’re not. The minute you have some money, you want to start a business to “change your fate” and end up getting fleeced by scam companies. Anyone with a bit of spare cash thinking of starting a business should watch Yong Ge’s catering livestream clips.

If you’re unmarried or divorced with no mortgage, car loan, or kids, you’re living the dream! Men can live rough—just get by. Life at the bottom is great! As my great-grandmother used to say, she never dreamed that communism would be as good as today’s life—she never imagined it could be this good. Let me tell you about her so you know what it means not to realize how lucky you are. She was born in the 1920s during wartime. In the 1930s, because of the Japanese invasion, she fled from Mudanjiang to rural Harbin, which was just a big village then, and spent her life in the countryside. When China was founded, she heard about communism. She died a few years ago, and before she passed, she told us that the world led by the Communist Party was wonderful—no war, always enough to eat, able to eat meat and rice every meal and buy raisins whenever she wanted. Life was good!

Living in modern times, it’s hard to imagine a rural granny in her 90s thinking that eating meat and rice every meal and being able to buy raisins is a good life. But in her youth, let alone meat, rice, or raisins—it was hard just to have enough to eat. Eating wild roots and tree bark really happened.

Going further back, it wasn’t even an exaggeration that people ate each other during famine; eating roots and bark was better than cannibalism. In the great droughts, people swapped children to eat—just a few words in the history books erased the lives of hundreds of thousands. In the past, during chaotic times, ordinary people either got conscripted or died in war. Even in the so-called golden ages like Kangxi and Qianlong, there were endless corvée labor duties, often unpaid and you had to bring your own food. Forget eating meat every day—even during New Year, a few meat or rice meals were enough to be satisfied.

Now, life at the bottom is so good—food, drink, housing, and no forced labor. Douyin Lite and Kuaishou Lite even pay you a few yuan a day for watching. Join a delivery group and everyone trades tips on where to get good deals.

Remember, the law is meant for the middle class—they care about appearances. Do people at the bottom care? Whether you get caught is another story. Even if you do, it’s just 15 days of detention, and you’re back to normal life. Fortune favors the bold. Who among young people wants kids these days?

Don’t always talk about feeling “oppressed”—that’s the middle class, because they care about appearances and their children. The timid feel oppressed because they fear risk. To sum up, this is the best era in thousands of years—no joke. Life at the bottom isn’t bad—you have enough to eat, drink, and a place to live. As long as you don’t compare yourself to others, know your place, don’t stir up trouble, and focus on cutting costs and improving efficiency, you’ll be able to live safely, healthily, and happily every day.

So, just work hard—all jobs that pay the same day are fair game. If you don’t hustle, you’ll end up like those “lie flat” influencers who got banned—like Langzai Xiaoniu, Hu Chenfeng, and Feng Ge. I fully support ordinary people striving.

That’s all. Main content sourced from @AskDaoTianji, with edits and additions.

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