From Engel'S Coefficient To See The Young People'S Consumption View

In the 19th century, according to the statistical data, Engel, a German statistician, drew a rule about the change of consumption structure. That is, the less a family's income is, the larger the proportion of the family's income (or total expenditure) spent on purchasing food. With the increase of family income, the share of expenditure on food in family income (or total expenditure) will decrease, This is known as Engel's coefficient.
　　 Generally speaking, the poorer a country is, the larger the proportion of food consumption in the average income (or average expenditure) of each national. As the country becomes richer, the proportion tends to decline. That is, with the increase of household income, the proportion of expenditure on food purchase will decrease.

Interestingly, the Engel coefficient seems to have failed in the current consumption view.

Some time ago, in a variety show "Fifty Li Taohuawu", Su Mang, as a guest, caused heated discussion because the food cost per person per day was too small. Although the program group has made a clarification, the entertainment industry has been exposed to the problem of excessive food allowance.

In fact, there are some problems exposed under the heated discussion. We should know that an ordinary young person's daily food expenses are only about 100 yuan. Based on the curiosity of the above problems, this new eye random survey interviewed several young people to understand their consumption situation and try to restore the consumption structure of young people.

Most young people don't spend much
　　 "In addition to rent and meals, there are no other large expenses every month," said Ziyu, who has just entered social work.

Ziyu said that at present, in daily life, social spending is very small, even if it is social, it is basically about dinner; I don't like to buy clothes and jewelry. Taobao Jingdong will open it only when I think about it. I seldom pay attention to dress up and I don't have many other needs.

The monthly expenditure of Ziyu is about 4000 yuan, of which the expenditure on food is about 2500 yuan, which means that the Engel coefficient of Ziyu is about 60%. According to the Engel coefficient, Ziyu is a standard "poor" population. After knowing the result, Ziyu jokingly called himself "dry rice man".

If the newly graduated college students are a special group and are not representative in the performance of Engel coefficient, the 26 year old assan can be regarded as a case reflecting the consumption status of contemporary young people.

After graduation, a sang did not choose to continue to graduate school, but entered the society and officially became a "migrant worker". According to assan's statement, in addition to the monthly fixed rent, other expenses are basically from food and transportation. According to assan, on five working days a week, he commutes for an hour, goes home from work for an hour, and takes a lunch break at his desk. At the end of the day, he is very tired and has no other desire for consumption, I just want to stay at home alone on weekends other than working days. Besides necessary social intercourse, I don't go out on weekends.

In view of online shopping, a sang said that when he was studying, he would buy some things, mostly 3C and shoes. Now that he has a job and has made a girlfriend, he has no desire to buy (or even Taobao APP). If he has any need, he will go to the nearby supermarket or convenience store to solve the problem. If he can't buy it, he will consider online shopping.

The monthly Engel coefficient of assan's lifestyle is between 40% and 50%, which can only be regarded as barely reaching the well-off level.

According to the statistical bulletin of national economic and social development in 2020 released on the website of the National Bureau of statistics in February this year, the Engel coefficient of the national residents in 2020 is 30.2%, including 29.2% in urban areas and 32.7% in rural areas. China as a whole has entered the affluent level. Although the Engel coefficient of the above-mentioned two people may have deviation, it can still be seen from it, It seems that the living standard of this group of young people is not up to the standard.

Consumption is a false proposition
　　 Baudrillard in the book "consumer society" said: "consumption does not make the whole society more consistent, just as schools do not make everyone get the same educational opportunities, it even exacerbates its differentiation."

In fact, the meaning of this sentence is easy to understand. In a consumer society, everyone is consuming, but this does not mean that the quality of consumption of everyone is the same. For today's younger generation, their consumption power may be much higher than that of the previous generations of the same age, but we can not judge that their consumption quality is much higher than that of the previous generations, or even the middle-aged or elderly people of the same age.

To take a simple example, a young post-95 working (take asan for example) and an elderly person who has retired at home, their monthly expenses are 2000 yuan. In terms of amount, their consumption level is the same, but their consumption structure is quite different.

The consumption structure of young people may include: 50% rent, 35% food, 5% transportation, 5% sociality and 5% others; According to the report released by AI media consulting, the consumption structure of the elderly in the first quarter of 2020 includes diet 31%, health care products 33%, clothing 19%, and other 17%. From this data comparison, the consumption quality and living standard of young people are inferior to that of an elderly retired at home.

There is only one reason for this result. Behind the high Engel's coefficient and the imbalance of consumption structure, it is reflected that the young people's consumption concept began to play cards out of accordance with the law, whether it is "dry rice workers" or "wage earners".

Represented by the four major cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, from the price point of view, the price of an ordinary meal is 25-30 yuan, which means that the daily expenses of three meals for young people will be between 75 and 90 yuan, which in fact explains why the Engel coefficient of young people is high.

Chart: basic food prices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen
　　 From the rent point of view, for a house with 50 square meters of one residence in the city center, the rents of the four places in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are 3645 yuan, 3316 yuan, 2000 yuan and 2861 yuan respectively, which does not include the basic housing expenditure, such as electricity, water, heating, garbage treatment, and other expenses, which are higher than 200 yuan in the four places.

It should be noted that this is only the rental price outside the city center. The farther away the rental house is from the city center, the longer the commuting time will be. According to the data, Beijing has the longest working mileage per capita, which is 19.2 km, followed by Shanghai 18.82, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are shorter, 15.16 and 13.97 respectively. On the whole, it takes 52 minutes to get to work in Beijing and 51 minutes in Shanghai. The difference is not very big. It takes 46 minutes in Guangzhou and 40 minutes in Shenzhen.

It can be seen that the daily expenses of young people are basically spent on housing, food and transportation.

03 new consumption concept
　　 In the brief introduction of Douban group "has consumption been degraded today", there is such a sentence: in 8012, the iPhone 6S has replaced its battery and continues to wait for IOS 12; The haircut was changed from koyuki to Tony Wang; Sanlitun brunch has turned into picking vegetables and making salads. Behind the ridicule, it is showing that the young people have different consumption ideas.

In other words, even if this generation of young people is facing economic pressure, their subjective initiative is stronger than we think.

The income level can not meet the consumption demand, "consumption degradation" and "delayed satisfaction" are the "self deceptive" consumption mode invented by them in the face of pressure. According to the report on consumption of Chinese youth in 2019-2020 released in May 2020, 55.8% of young people said that they preferred to "only buy what is necessary for their own life", while 40.2% of young people chose to "buy less and buy better".

Replace big brands with cheap prices; Buy clothes until the discount season; Beef Ramen is more delicious than black pepper spaghetti; You don't have to go to the gym to keep fit. The effect is the same at home. Today, many young people find themselves relatively comfortable in the "consumption degradation" circle.

Douban netizen "glass minute needle" believes that consumption degradation is to buy quality goods within the scope of ability. Careful selection and comparison of goods are conducive to selecting suitable and satisfactory commodities. On the other hand, they may find that they are not in urgent need of such goods in comparison. Therefore, in the view of many young people today, consumption degradation is not to reduce the quality of life, but to make themselves more rational in shopping and avoid falling into the trap of "consumerism".

As a matter of fact, consumption degradation is only one aspect of the change of young people's consumption patterns. For those goods which are expensive but difficult to find replacement, young people have also found another solution: delayed gratification.

Mr. Qian Zhongshu has such a paragraph about eating grapes in Fortress Besieged: "there are a lot of grapes. The optimists must start from the worst grape to the last grape, and keep hope in front forever; Pessimism, on the contrary, eats grapes worse and worse until despair. "

Just as Zhang Yiming, CEO of the original byte beating, said, only by delaying sexual satisfaction can we overcome the weakness of human nature and gain more freedom. Delayed gratification can be understood as an optimist eating grapes and willing to give up immediate satisfaction for more valuable long-term results. This kind of delayed gratification is not only a consideration for the pursuit of a longer term, but also improves the individual's ability of self-control in the process of realization.

For an electric fan that can be bought immediately for 400 yuan and an air conditioner that costs 4000 yuan but needs to be saved for a period of time, the young people who choose the former choose the lifestyle of "consumption degradation", while those who choose the latter are the consumption mode of "delayed satisfaction". There is no distinction between high and low consumption patterns. Different choices show young people's adaptability when facing the gap between income level and consumption demand.

If we can't change the diversity of the world, we should change the way of consumption. This young people have their own life philosophy.