This is what happens when you put people in cages and turn the government into zookeepers.
They also got rid of the “counter-revolutionary” teachers who might have imparted some wisdom, during the Cultural Revolution. Time for a war.
We have this same problem here; the chronic inflation spurred by running the printing presses 24/7 during the “coup flu” have put many things beyond the reach of younger workers - so they stopped working. CA’s $20 minimum wage is a bizarre attempt to address this (with predictable shortcomings); this is Weimar Germany now.
The increases in minimum wage laws are more than posturing; Biden pushes it because it is also a way to increase payroll taxes - especially Social Security, paid by both employee and employer - and it will also lift some low-wage workers above the threshold whereby they qualify for freebies (on top of their paychecks).
None of this is an accident, or unintended; the 1%ers didn’t become rich/gain control of this country by being stupid.