V2ers on Lying Flat: Meta Build, or Move Back to a County Town?
Read these two V2EX threads together:
- Is lying flat the meta? — no job, no marriage, no house, no kids
- Is moving back to a county town workable? — ~¥2M saved, married with one child, rural house, low spending
The slogan thread fights over definitions. The case thread fights over constraints.
Split the word first
The OP listed “four nos.” Replies immediately forked:
| Claim | What it argues |
|---|---|
| Low desire is the real meta | Quitting work/marriage/housing/kids is fighting society, not lying flat |
| De-responsibility | Items 2/3/4 are social duties; item 1 (no job) is a survival floor and the loudest fight |
| Lying flat ≠ quitting work | Lower desire, refuse hustle culture, don’t trade health; some joke that double-rest taxpayers are the real “flat” cohort |
| Eligibility | Money-backed rest is lying flat; tight, miserable rest is “lying like a corpse” |
| Walled city | OP already married with a kid—wants flat mode after boarding the train |
| Emigrate | “The meta is to leave”; society will keep making flat mode hard |
Which of the four nos gets the most heat
No job is the only item repeatedly stress-tested on cashflow: “If you don’t work, who pays rent?” Some say a few frugal programmer years back home can last a lifetime; more say gap years / security / ride-hail are fine, but don’t exit society. Someone revived “Sanhe gods”: work one day, lie six—pro max is just having more savings.
No marriage / no house / no kids draw less argument. High-frequency line: a child is unlimited liability; every problem returns as a harder copy. Pushback exists too: if you already have a kid and still call parenting a trap, maybe the marriage is PUA-ing you—different income tiers have different low-stress parenting modes.
Experience camp: life shouldn’t be a straight line to death; marriage and kids deliver tastes you only know by living them. Walled-city camp: don’t romanticize the path you didn’t take just because you’re unhappy now.
¥2M back in a county town: workable, bill elsewhere
The case thread is more concrete: ~¥2M savings, under ¥100k/year spend in a big city, lower at home; parents healthy with their own savings for ~10 years; spouse supportive; relaxed parenting.
Concern checklist from replies:
| Concern | Point |
|---|---|
| Is money enough? | Most say “enough for your own life”; some cite bond yields or growing vegetables |
| Kids | Biggest split: relaxed parenting vs “once born, flat mode dies / lower niche” |
| School & healthcare | County quality trends down; only works if you accept it |
| Flashing wealth | People will eye the wallet; claim exam-prep / remote work; don’t tell parents the truth |
| Where to buy | Many say skip county apartments; second/third-tier suburbs or first-tier outskirts are stabler |
| Boredom | Total sleep mode isolates; gardening, Xianyu side gigs, a stall as filler |
OP’s own clarification: flat mode means not punching a clock—not doing nothing.
One reading of both threads
Slogan posts turn lying flat into resistance theater. Case posts drag it back to a household balance sheet.
Cleanest shared line:
Low desire and de-responsibility can be strategies. Quitting work with no cashflow usually isn’t lying flat—it’s lying like a corpse. After kids, flat mode stops being a personal toggle and becomes an intergenerational tradeoff—schooling, niche, and the story you tell outsiders arrive as one bill.
Sources:
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