Takeout Doctor and Cryptocurrency Trading Youth: Who is Stealing Young People's Compound Interest Life?

Written by: Daii

There are two things that prompted me to talk about this topic today. It feels like a thorn in my throat, and I can't be at ease without expressing it.

One is a Chinese PhD delivering takeout;

Another reason is that young people in South Korea are turning to cryptocurrency exchanges out of despair.

These two scenarios seem unrelated, yet they reflect the same group - young people - caught in the dilemma of being torn between two extremes.

Let's first talk about the young people delivering food in China.

Delivering takeout is not shameful, but when someone with a PhD has to rely on being a rider to make a living, it becomes a satire of the times. Ding Yuanzhao, widely reported by the media, is a microcosm of this group. He is a PhD, well-educated, yet due to real-life difficulties, he ultimately chose to put on the rider's vest and join the "high-education delivery army" that rushes through the city.

He is not an exception.

China now has over 7.45 million Meituan delivery riders, among which hundreds of thousands hold a college degree or above, with several thousand master's degree holders among them. Meituan officials disclosed in 2022 that 29% of the riders have a college degree or higher, and Meituan recruits over 5,000 fresh graduates each year to fill rider positions (Source: Caixin Global).

Let’s take a look at the young people in South Korea who are currently enthusiastic about trading cryptocurrencies.

In South Korea, the number of real-name registered cryptocurrency trading accounts has exceeded 16 million, accounting for one-third of the total population. In the first half of 2023, the price of Bitcoin in South Korea was once 12% higher than the global average, resulting in the well-known "Kimchi Premium" in the industry.

According to Cointelegraph, the emergence of this premium is not a coincidence in the market, but a typical product of a large influx of retail investors attempting to get rich overnight. The "enthusiasm" of the new generation of users in South Korea for cryptocurrencies is actually more like a kind of desperation:

Traditional channels are yielding lower returns, and young people are starting to lean towards choosing high-risk, high-volatility assets as a breakthrough.

Young people in these two countries seem to be on different paths, one delivering food by bike and the other trading cryptocurrencies, but in essence, they are both trapped by the same issue:

Resource allocation imbalance, narrowing upward channels, and increasing pressure in reality.

Let’s take a closer look at the root of this dilemma.

1. Real Dilemma

At a macro level, the difficulties faced by contemporary young people often do not stem from personal laziness or lack of ability, but rather from the upheaval of the entire era's economic structure. They grew up during a period of rapid development, yet when they truly enter society, they hit the ceiling of growth, facing not "how to climb faster," but "how not to be left behind."

The root of all this must start with the slowdown of economic growth.

1.1 The Shift and Stalling of Economic Growth

South Korea's per capita GDP entered a plateau after reaching a historical high in 2021. According to World Bank data, the growth rates for 2022 and 2023 have consecutively fallen below the global average. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for South Korean youth (ages 15–29) has long remained around 6.6%, which is twice the national overall unemployment rate, indicating the structural difficulties faced by the youth population.

The situation in China is even more severe. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2023, the unemployment rate for non-student youth aged 16–24 in China once surged to 21.3%. In 2024, this data was temporarily "suspended from publication," attracting significant public attention. By May 2025, the unemployment rate still reached as high as 14.9% (source: Reuters).

Being unemployed is not the most terrifying part—what is truly despairing is the prolonged inability to find a job that matches one's educational background and skills. When there is a huge gap between the "jobs that can be found" and the "prospects promised by education," young people can easily fall into a sense of "stagnation": having a degree but no way out; putting in effort but seeing no return.

1.2 The Severe Pressure on Housing Prices

Housing, once the starting point of life, has now become the ceiling that crushes young people.

In South Korea, the Price-to-Income Ratio (PIR) of housing in Seoul is about 15, meaning a young person would need to work for 15 years without eating or drinking to be able to buy their own house (data source: Numbeo). In China, this ratio is much higher—PIR in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai has exceeded 34, placing it at an extreme level among major global economies.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) currently has 38 member countries, covering the most developed and representative market economies in the world. Under its statistical standards, the average PIR of member countries generally ranges between 7 and 10. However, the level in China's first-tier cities exceeds 30, which has significantly deviated from the international affordable range, indicating that the threshold for young people to purchase homes has become exceedingly abnormal.

The reality is harsh: between the buildings of the city, young people increasingly resemble "external residents" without ownership. They can't afford to buy, nor dare to rent for long; they don't belong and have no way to escape.

1.3 Rapid Decline in Educational Returns

The belief that "knowledge changes destiny" is being repeatedly challenged by reality.

In the past twenty years, the expansion of enrollment in Chinese universities has pushed higher education onto a path of universalization. In 2000, the national enrollment in universities was only 2.2 million, and by 2025, this number is expected to exceed 10.5 million, an increase of nearly five times. However, the explosive growth in the scale of education has not led to a corresponding increase in returns.

According to data released by the Ministry of Education, the median annual salary of undergraduate graduates has remained between 60,000 and 80,000 yuan for several consecutive years. In first-tier cities, this is even insufficient to cover basic rent and living expenses. The income levels of many professions are severely imbalanced with the opportunity costs during their studies.

More critically, the "marginal value of education is declining." Research by Stanford University education economist Hanushek shows that compared to a high school diploma, the income premium of a bachelor's degree has fallen from 15% at the end of the last century to now 8-10%. This means that the effectiveness of the diploma as a "social pass" is rapidly depreciating. When "education" is no longer scarce, it loses its filtering and empowering function, becoming merely an ordinary label.

In summary: For many young people, education is no longer a handrail to climb the ladder of fate, but has become the default ticket to enter the job market. Having it does not mean you can change your life; without it, you can't even get in the door.

2. The Inevitable Choice

Young people are not unambitious, nor do they reject hard work. They are simply trapped in a cruel paradox of reality:

The harder you work, the easier it is to fall into low-value repetitive labor; the more you persist, the harder it is to break through the boundaries set by the system.

2.1 The end of '6 yuan per order' is an invisible future

On the streets and alleys of China, riders have become the most basic "muscle organization" of the platform economy. They weave through the gaps of the city, measuring each order's 3-kilometer distance with their feet, exchanging time for a reward of 6 yuan for each order. Their work is precisely segmented by algorithms into metrics such as "delivered within 20 minutes," "customer reviews," and "completion rate standards," with all actions quantified, scored, and ranked.

They rely on completing orders, increasing order volume, and boosting performance, yet find it difficult to accumulate any social capital, transferable skills, or pathways for career advancement—no matter how fast they deliver, they cannot transition to the platform's operations or algorithm departments.

Their "efforts" are reset every day, never turning into "compound interest."

2.2 "High Leverage" Bets on Fate, Not Market Trends

In South Korea, young people embrace cryptocurrency not out of a belief in technology, but from a deep sense of economic despair. They clearly understand that saving for a down payment on a salary is a fantasy, starting a business has barriers to entry, and failing exams leaves them with only one option left – to bet.

High-leverage products offered by cryptocurrency exchanges can turn a capital of 1000 dollars into 10,000 within a day, or it might vanish into thin air. Screenshots of "+5000 dollars credited" and "today's surge of 50%" are everywhere in Korean cryptocurrency communities and Telegram groups, sticking to the screens of every lost young person like visual toxins.

They don't really believe in blockchain; they just can't see a way to "get on board" through conventional means. So they bet their fate on a highly volatile asset, willing to give it a try even if the probability of success is only one in a thousand.

This is not speculation, this is a desperate faith.

They filled a structural void lacking an upward channel with capital, emotion, and trust.

2.3 Young People Without Compound Interest

More dangerous than unemployment is the loss of the ability to compound interest. Both physical labor and high-risk gambling lack the foundation of "accumulation"; they do not provide positive feedback and have no long-term curve.

Delivery relies on physical ability, trading relies on emotions, returns rely on luck, but risks are borne solely by individuals. Platforms and exchanges appear neutral on the surface, but in reality, they use algorithms and rules as control tools, turning each participant into "fuel for algorithm operation"—extracted, utilized, yet without the right to allocate value.

Takeout is the exploited liquidity; coin trading is the ignited liquidity.

Although these two seem to be at odds on the surface, they are reflections of the same mechanism:

They all contribute traffic and volatility at the edge of the system, yet have never had the qualification for profit-sharing within the system.

It's not that they are not good enough, but rather the systemic structure hinders their advancement path.

So, do young people really have no way out? Of course not. The way out is not between these two "pseudo-options"; rather, it is to break free from the entire misleading structure and seek a path of accumulation that truly belongs to oneself.

3. Breaking the impasse begins with an upgrade in cognition

Breaking the deadlock is not impossible, but it requires a profound reconstruction of cognition.

In this algorithm-driven and structurally rigid era, if you want to break out of your predicament, you cannot continue to go around in circles along the path designed for you by the system.

3.1 It is important to understand: a diploma is not a sunk cost, but a fundamental asset with "embedded options"

It may no longer be scarce or directly redeemable for value, but it still represents the minimum threshold for you to enter new platforms, new industries, and new markets. What truly determines the value of this diploma is not the halo surrounding it, but whether you are willing to actively exercise that "option for re-learning."

The return on education investment has shifted from "one-time cashing out" to "continuous transformation"—only by constantly reshaping the knowledge structure and continually stepping out of familiar zones can a diploma avoid becoming worthless on a resume and truly translate into opportunities.

3.2 Betting on the 'Compoundable × Transferable' Skill Path

Don't expect that a single exam, a single hiring, or a single offer can determine your entire life. This is a path to illusion. The new reality demands that you iterate on yourself every 6 months.

AI tool applications, data analysis, Web3 security, cross-border remote collaboration capabilities, video expressiveness... these fields all share three common characteristics:

The learning curve is short (can be initially mastered in 3-6 months)

Transferable skills (applicable across multiple platforms and industries)

Market premium is significant (being contested by scarce positions)

In today's world where "degree premium" has collapsed, the compound interest of skill combinations is the new social passport.

3.3 Start Building Cross-Cycle Asset Allocation Capability

You don't need to become an investment expert, but you must have basic means to withstand cycles. After reserving living expenses, choose assets with long-term scarcity for low-frequency dollar-cost averaging—such as Bitcoin.

This is an anchor against inflation and the starting point to break free from "living only on wages." It is not gambling, but a defensive action that transcends local economic cycles and establishes asset independence.

I once wrote more detailed strategies in "Bitcoin: The Ultimate Hedge Solution for Long-Termists." It is a personal financial structure that is platform-independent and decoupled from market fluctuations, serving as a "backup plan" for the future.

3.4 The most critical point - Stop handing your life over to any platform UI

Don't let the pop-up "Complete 30 orders to earn 150 yuan" manipulate your time, and don't let the market push notifications about "BTC breaking 110,000" control your emotions. Those UIs and notifications are essentially not informing you, but training you.

True freedom is the ability to operate independently and make judgments even during the 48 hours of platform downtime and market interruption.

Life is not a racing game that relies on placing orders or betting on price increases; rather, it is a compound interest curve that can be self-designed and accumulated over the long term. The starting point of this curve begins with cognitive awakening.

Conclusion: It's not about being defined, but about defining

Chinese actor Wang Baoqiang, who rose from the countryside to the spotlight, from a supporting role to a director, has never relied on being 'chosen', but on consistently investing time in worthwhile endeavors. He has no shortcuts, only choices—he did not chase after popular paths, but continued to do things that seemed inconspicuous yet could yield compound returns. He did not have the fate of overnight fame, but he has carved out a track that can be reused repeatedly.

This is exactly what countless young people find most scarce today:

It's not about the degree, not about the capital, but about the sense of direction.

What is worth doing day after day? What ability can transcend cycles and quietly accumulate chips for you?

Choose, decide whether you will be consumed by the system;

Persistence determines whether you can ultimately break out of the system.

American writer Vivian Greene once said:

Life isn『t about waiting for the storm to pass; it』s about learning to dance in the rain.

This sentence, though concise, hits home. It does not talk about idealism, nor does it comfort you that the storm will eventually pass. It simply reminds you:

The world may not get better, but you can become stronger.

Don't wait for the "platform system" to design your destiny, nor should you pin your hopes on a single market trend or opportunity explosion. True strength comes from whether you are willing to build something that belongs to you in the midst of the most chaotic winds and the grayest days.

Starting from today, begin with a proactive choice. Even if it's just reading one more page of a book, learning one more skill, or making one more observation.

What you create, regardless of size, is your way of reaching out to destiny.

The storm will come again, even if the eaves leak and the ground is muddy, one must build their own stage —

Then dance in the rain.

Source: Daii