🌎 Space: Our beautiful junkyard

Doctor, lawyer, teacher… child?

One of those careers is not like the rest — but it’s an option for some young adults in China looking for their next step.

The “full-time children” phenomenon has amassed 40m views on China’s social app Xiaohongshu, and is becoming increasingly popular among recent college graduates, per the Los Angeles Times.

But why?

Because there’s a major mismatch between the job market and the applicant pool.

Chinese youth — many of whom spent years pursuing academic and professional goals — are finishing higher education to find there are no jobs:

• China’s unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas hit a record 21.3% in June, and had risen every month this year through August (the government has since suspended reports).
• On the flip side, China’s higher-education enrollment ratio reached 59.6% in 2022.

Rather than taking jobs that are financially or intellectually unfulfilling, some youths are sticking with a role they held before leaving for college: child.

Being a professional child…

… is about more than just sleeping in a twin bed at your parents’ house.

Some are actually earning an income from their families (or at least having their expenses covered) in return for providing caretaking services, cleaning, or running errands.

It’s a drastic departure from China’s infamous “996 culture” — i.e., working 9am to 9pm, six days a week.

Full-time childhood…

… is just the newest ripple from a faltering job market.

And it joins a host of other trends driven by young people:

• “Tangping,” or “lying flat,” was coined by Chinese Gen Zers and millennials to describe taking a break from the grind of constant achievements.
• The newest, more nihilistic iteration, “bailan,” or “let it rot,” is about giving up on a hopeless situation.
• Some are even throwing resignation parties to celebrate their exit from the corporate world due to burnout and dissatisfaction.

All this comes as China continues to emerge from its strict pandemic lockdowns, which caused weakened consumer spending, higher debt, and a worsening real estate market.

Even worse: A recent opinion piece from a Chinese outlet contends that if the ~16m young people “lying flat” in their parents’ homes were included, the true youth unemployment rate could’ve been as high as 46.5%.

Props to humanity: It isn’t easy to make an infinite expanse observable across 94B light-years feel like a cluttered mess.

But, oof, we’ve turned space into quite a landfill, per McKinsey & Co.:

• There are now ~20k pounds of junk in space, encompassing inactive satellites, rocket parts, and missile debris.
• Trackers have their eyes on 30k+ prominent objects, but there are another ~670k Cheerio-sized objects capable of puncturing the International Space Station.

The problem’s gonna get worse before it gets better

Put simply, an increase in space exploration means an increase in orbital garbage. And the increase in launches — and subsequently the junk accumulation rate — has been steep:

• Since the late 1950s, 11k+ satellites have entered space.
• Another ~60k satellites could soon join them, starting with Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which launched the first of its 3.2k-satellite communications constellation Friday.
• It’s doing so to compete with SpaceX’s planned ~42k-satellite Starlink network (4.5k+ of which are currently in orbit).

It’s crowded up there — and as the real estate between new additions and orbital debris tightens, the situation will grow far more dangerous for astronauts and equipment alike.

This might explain the US government’s urgency…

… as it levied its first-ever fine for space junk last week, dropping a $150k penalty on Dish Network for failing to move an old satellite.

• Though the sum is a pittance against Dish Network’s bottom line, the MIT Technology Review called it a “big deal” — an initial use of regulatory powers often signals more to come, and the FCC suggested future fines would be higher.
• Experts also say it could “kick-start” the market for solutions, reenergizing startups that specialize in junk removal.

Right on cue, Astroscale, which uses a magnetic system to capture and tow debris, scored $80m from the Japanese government last week to inspect a defunct satellite for removal.

BTW: Astronauts are heroes, but they aren’t helping matters here either. Some of their litter is also stuck in orbit, including a pair of pliers, a camera, a spatula, a glove, and an Andy Warhol drawing.

$3m: The cost of Tsubame Industries’ 14.8-foot-tall, 3.5-ton robot suit. Designed for emergencies and space exploration, it can be piloted with internal joysticks and resembles a similar machine from the 1970s anime “Mobile Suit Gundam.” Tsubame CEO Ryo Yoshida drew from his culture’s knack for animation, games, robots, and cars, saying, “I wanted to create something that says, ‘This is Japan.’”

$1.2k: The minimum cost of applying to college, per Command Education CEO Christopher Rim. What’s driving that figure? Application volume rose 30% for the 2022-23 academic year compared to 2019-20. Rim told CNBC he now sees students applying to up to 20 schools at $60-$100 a pop. Add ACT and SAT test fees and that’s a “bare minimum” of $1.2k-$2k.

104 years: The new world record for the oldest person to go skydiving, set by Dorothy Hoffner of Chicago. Hoffner told reporters, “The whole thing was delightful, wonderful.” But it wasn’t her first rodeo — the centenarian thrillseeker completed her first dive at age 100.

278.84 seconds: The average total time customers spend in a Taco Bell drive-thru, from getting in line to receiving their food. That makes Taco Bell the quickest fast-food chain on Intouch Insight’s annual report, but it lost on both accuracy and satisfaction to Chick-fil-A, the chain with the longest average total wait time of 436.09 seconds.