There's a hot question on 知乎 recently called How do you feel about people who sit in Starbucks without buying anything?
People say different things.
Some people said: in the consideration of interests and business point of view, these people in the store is to hinder the dining experience of other users. And it is also a reflection of low quality, should be boycotted.
And there are many people who stand in another point of view that: Whether it is Starbucks or McDonald's, in some of the dining environment in a better place, for some people need to rest and air conditioning, to provide a rest place, deserved.
Before I get to that, let me say something.
Before traveling to a developed country, I noticed two details.
The first is that in foreign business places, there are a lot of dedicated areas. There are smoking rooms, washrooms, rooms for mothers and babies, as well as special places for people to rest and chat. Pure water is provided free of charge in the premises.
Another detail is that at that time we arrived at a parking lot. Probably also an old man, also a sanitation worker, walked into a restaurant. The waiter came up to him and asked if he needed anything, and he shook his head. The waiter then brought up a glass of ice water and then went off to attend to the other customers.
These two things struck a chord with me. In many big shopping malls in China, I don't see any special smoking rooms, but rather, they are rudely labeled as no smoking.
Similarly, in many places in China, there are no special rooms for mothers and babies.
Also in many places in China, there are no special rooms for mothers and babies, and mothers with babies often have to breastfeed their babies in public places, even to the point of being criticized.
2
I have a friend who is a designer abroad. She and I said that in foreign countries, when carrying out interior layout design, there is an area called public **** area . When designing in foreign countries, this area must be reserved, and also need to consider the light and location, to ensure that the user can find these places in the public **** place smoothly.
In China, in the consideration of commercial maximization, many times will not take into account this area. Often, a few chairs are placed at the entrance to the elevator, and the job is done in a haphazard manner.
However, in our country, the neglect of the vulnerable is almost everywhere.
Take the blind alleys we see everywhere. In China, a large number of blind alleys are occupied, and even appear in strange T-shaped and L-shaped, reduced to a road decoration.
In addition, many of the so-called "disabled" facilities in China are inadequate, or even simply missing.
For example, there are a lot of stairs everywhere:
In many banks, there are stairs in front of the door, but I often see the lack of accessible stairs. So is it that banks don't have disabled people coming in, or is it that disabled people don't need to go to banks to do business?
In China's rapid development, ignoring the interests of a small number of people in exchange for greater benefits is a deal that works well to some extent.
Similarly, going back to Starbucks, it's true that those who don't consume but take up space are a detriment to business interests.
But society is not all about commerce.
A mature and well-developed commercial society requires a certain amount of tolerance, and that tolerance includes using unused resources to provide some help to others.
China is growing fast, really fast, the fastest it has ever been to climb from poverty to second place in the world in thirty years, the fastest it has ever been to stand up straight in the international arena and regain a new sense of patriotism, and the fastest it has ever been to be looked at and talked about by all the Western countries.
But this speed is, to some extent, the result of workers at Foxconn working 16 hours a day, day and night; the result of the massive use of child labor in garment factories; the result of service workers receiving low wages and working a lot of overtime; and the result of construction workers risking safety failures on construction sites.
It's also about maximizing the use of unused space in public ****places for commercial considerations.
I'm proud of China's development, I'm proud of my country's strength, but I don't think this exchange is worth being proud of.
3
The question is more interesting when you think about it more y.
Before this, I saw an incident where a group of Chinese were with an American, and they ordered a takeout.
Then the delivery boy delivered it in the rain. The American thinks it's too hard to walk through the rain, and the Chinese tell him, with theory and calculation, that there's no need to tip, it's the delivery guy's obligation, and he's paid enough for the trip.
But the American insisted on tipping, and insisted on sending the delivery boy downstairs.
That's another dimension of the problem I'm trying to address: it's interesting to note that in China, not so long ago, people were talking about turning peasants into masters, and using proletarian labor as a slogan, and then not so long after that, when they took off, a lot of people became shrewd and competent businessmen, and started to think in terms of masters and shopkeepers on their own initiative.
I have always felt that the measure of a mature and developed society is not the GDP or how much international discourse the country has gained.
A mature and developed society and country is often reflected in the details.
In society, no matter where you are, no matter what your income is, you can find your place and live a decent and dignified life.
I think this is the criterion for judging whether a country is strong or not.
Some time ago, there was a call on WeChat to make room for stray dogs, and on elite forums, the question of whether enough seats could be vacated at Starbucks was debated.
Similarly, in our country, there is no shortage of elderly people who are aggressive even after square dancing is a nuisance; there is no shortage of big mothers who call cosplayers sluts on the subway; there is no shortage of rich rich people who are used to verbally harassing waitresses at the dinner table; and there is no shortage of common disadvantaged groups who are used to being ignored.
It's important to have money, and it's also important to respect the elderly, and the able-bodied deserve to be envied for their lives.
But this does not mean that the payment can be ignored the rights of others, the old can rely on the old, the young punched and kicked, their own in the enjoyment of health and seize the benefits of the time can be habitually ignored the feelings of some other people.
To some extent, we all need to treat everything around us with a gentler and more tolerant mindset.
But despite this, I am still hopeful for the future.
One day on my way to work, I saw a can thrown out of a speeding car with a trash can right next to it. A young man on a bicycle saw it and went over to pick it up and throw it into the trash can.
Where do you see hope?
I think the hope is in that can.