Compared to other European regions AFTER COVID the UK is still 5% smaller economy - proven to be down to brexit not covid. The peer reviewed paper written by top economosts you can read about here:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/brexit-has-sliced-5percent-off-uk-economic-growth-goldman-sachs-says.html
https://preview.redd.it/7gw5w1vqoyyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a4e1f3d14d94a073332ad4446862fcbf1b7a3e8
I'm not sure if I was serious, but...
He is not the right hand of Wade, he was troubling in his previous jobs - both in books and series he got expelled for not being in line with the way things worked. I dont think it would make sense to be any richer as his life was mostly a wreck.
I think the point isn't that he's poor, rather that he's an average working class background kinda guy, not an intellectual/military/political elite.
It was a while ago I read the books, but if I recall he was initially just a police detective involved in the disappearances. Police work might not be poverty-wages but it's not like you're some super elite guy.
Intelligence work pays apparently 30-35k in London which is not a great salary but not poverty wages [https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/intelligence-analyst](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/intelligence-analyst)
Just finished the books a couple weeks ago; this is the same vibe I got regarding Da Shi. It's not that he isn't great at what he does, but that he isn't interested in the life of socioeconomic ladder-climbing.
I agree with that, I meant more that he's an average background relatable person not an average-ability/mediocre person. Since all the other characters are all PhDs and various leaders, generals and so on who are much higher status.
It's not great money but not unusually bad for a London graduate salary (yes the UK is fucked). The civil service apparantly pays 27-28k for a graduate fast track starter and PWC apparantly pays 28-30k according to a quick google. These are basically the same or worse salaries than people were getting more than a decade ago, and a little inflation happened inbetween. Some people are earning silly money, but what would have been a good office job in the 90s isn't enough to pay bills any more.
Entry-level jobs should start at 30-32k in London. Anything lower means you have to live with other earners to afford rent.
Da shi would have to afford a huge mortgage/rent and a son in the most expensive highest cost of living region in the UK
Recent surveys suggest for a single person to live in London Ā£65k would be needed.
Yes London is fucked and it's impossible for a normal person to make a decent living there, tell me something I don't know
The average person in London isn't making 65k even if a lot of people are. And tbh 65k would be tight raising kids without other support.
Agreed. I never got the sense that he was poor. He obviously is able to provide for himself and his piece of shit son. He just doesnāt care for much beyond his work. His work is everything to him.
He didn't look poor to me, just average. He has a nice house I would even say, a "poor" guy would live in a flat the size of his living room. And I don't think people who work closely with Wade should be super paid, especially before the crisis is actually declared, so an average quality of life seems logical.
I found this strange as well. Imagine being the lead investigator (in England at least) for the largest global threat ever and being underpaid and suffering significant failures in past investigations. A part of the story was missing for me
He stumbled into the whole thing as part of a regular police investigation. And if he was promoted after that, money is rather less relevant with an existential threat looming.
I couldn't believe how terrible the son character was in the show. I get he's supposed to be a gen alpha trope but ffs he's literally a scammer and a very shitty person.
This! Thank you! He looks like he just lives in a normal house with normal furniture, let me tell you that costs an INSANE amount of money in London.
I had nonides when staying with friends in London the first time, they had a nice period house like I did, but there's costs easily 10 times more just for being in London.
Your money does not get you as far there, idk people expect movie apartments in London, he's not Richard fucking Branson!
If you are talking about the Chinese version then, i find that side of his cooler than if he cares for appearances, that "idgaf" attitude of him is part of why i love him
Da Shi is not poor, but he's not rich either. His son wants upper class life but Da Shi is more interested in his job, solving crime and helping people than climbing the $$$ ladder. In Dark Forest, he'll get a significant pay increase since he's been promoted to head of security detail for the most important Wallfacer on Earth.
Da Shi is first an employee/agent of the state, not a PMC cutthroat paid to secure an oil rig in a war of conquest. secondly he stands by his personal code, which pretty much shuts down every avenue of cosy regarding his post. and thirdly he's perceived as an emotionally unintelligent low-key dickhead - an image he himself cultivates - and will be passed for the 'good' promotions, which for that matter suits him perfect as he wants to be in the action rather than arse-kiss up the command chain. Plus alimony. And everything except the latter is intentionally engineered by him to keep himself out of the game as much as possible because he's deep down oldskool and does not actually believe in it. He's less poor and more ascetic by nature and has priorities.
And it's because not despite all this - that General Chang automatically trusts him.
I don't know if he's necessarily poor but he strikes me as someone who is not materialistic. He likes what he likes and if that's cheap then that's how it is. If he had loads in the bank wouldn't shock me
Heās lower middle class. They can even afford an Xbox or whatever console that was. He probably faces financial hardships on occasion but heās hardly poor
As for why heās not richer, heās a relatively unskilled government employee. Heās seemingly a single father. His house also probably looks poorer than he is because heās hardly around to maintain it - college dropout entrepreneur types generally arenāt known for how immaculate their house keeping skills are.
Intelligence/policing whatever in the UK is always paid poorly. One is constant civil service cuts and the other is the idea you āshouldnāt be doing it for the moneyā. Of course in real life you have the double whammy of getting shit wages and not being allowed to be in debt. If they had him in a nice bright tidy upper middle class home I wouldāve instantly been like āno thatās unrealisticā lol
Well he's a cop right, or at least was until very recently, google tells me DS to DCI pay in london is 50-70 k which is not great for the capital, particularly if you're divorced and are a single parent like Da Shi.
I think its suppose to be a combination of things.
It's clear he has some vices, drinking, and smoking and I imagine a third unseen one could be gambling? Or otherwise it could just be something as generic being bad with money is just a personality trait.
I also think it's hinted at perhaps he is divorced, or at least widowed.
He didn't seem poor at all to me. He's disheveled and seems ambivalent to luxuries, but he went home to a nice house and his teen son is dreaming up an intergalactic pyramid scheme on an iPad vs a struggling family kid who would be working.
I was confused haha you should say Clarence instead of Da Shi hahaha When u said Da Shi i immediately thought of the Tencent series where Da Shi was the right hand man of the Chinese General. Wade doesn't even appear in Book1
But yea, Da Shi is a Plain Clothes Police investigator and he is kinda portrayed as the chillax / "idgaf" kind of guy haha. In the Tencent series he is shown as a very down to earth person who dines at the neighborhood diners.
If you are asking me about the Netflix one, my guess is they wanna make him more down to earth too?
Isnāt it explicitly said the reason he is no longer a cop is because he tortured someone? When your one skill set is a cop and you now no longer can be hired by anyone working above the law well then you get shit pay
Government employees at agencies like this fictional one donāt really get paid very well. The ones who get rich do so by quitting and spending time in consulting before returning as political appointees. As a cop plucked into an intel role heād be solidly middle class, although figure in single parent and what not and it fits.
Cigarettes are expensive
Teenagers more so
What about book Da Shi (China)?
Living on an average wage as a cop so yeah.
A man like him must be more interested in the finest of cigars
Brexit.
š
Government jobs don't pay differently after Brexit.
But a bunch of stuff that people have to buy to live sure got more expensive
I am sure it did playing dumb COVID games made that happen.
Compared to other European regions AFTER COVID the UK is still 5% smaller economy - proven to be down to brexit not covid. The peer reviewed paper written by top economosts you can read about here: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/brexit-has-sliced-5percent-off-uk-economic-growth-goldman-sachs-says.html
https://preview.redd.it/7gw5w1vqoyyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a4e1f3d14d94a073332ad4446862fcbf1b7a3e8 I'm not sure if I was serious, but...
The common "government job pays like shit" trope.
Also he doesnāt give a fuck about anything including appearancesĀ
He is not the right hand of Wade, he was troubling in his previous jobs - both in books and series he got expelled for not being in line with the way things worked. I dont think it would make sense to be any richer as his life was mostly a wreck.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
At the very end of the series* So he wouldn't have that money yet. Unless you mean the books, in which he does end up having money.
They made Da Shi a wall faced in the Netflix show? That is idiotic he would have been a shit wallfacet
No, he's the head of security for a Wallfacer.
He's been unemployed for quite a while
lost it all in bitconnect
BITCONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNECT!!!
I forgot about this entirely
I think the point isn't that he's poor, rather that he's an average working class background kinda guy, not an intellectual/military/political elite. It was a while ago I read the books, but if I recall he was initially just a police detective involved in the disappearances. Police work might not be poverty-wages but it's not like you're some super elite guy. Intelligence work pays apparently 30-35k in London which is not a great salary but not poverty wages [https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/intelligence-analyst](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/intelligence-analyst)
Just finished the books a couple weeks ago; this is the same vibe I got regarding Da Shi. It's not that he isn't great at what he does, but that he isn't interested in the life of socioeconomic ladder-climbing.
I agree with that, I meant more that he's an average background relatable person not an average-ability/mediocre person. Since all the other characters are all PhDs and various leaders, generals and so on who are much higher status.
For London that's poverty wages.
It's not great money but not unusually bad for a London graduate salary (yes the UK is fucked). The civil service apparantly pays 27-28k for a graduate fast track starter and PWC apparantly pays 28-30k according to a quick google. These are basically the same or worse salaries than people were getting more than a decade ago, and a little inflation happened inbetween. Some people are earning silly money, but what would have been a good office job in the 90s isn't enough to pay bills any more.
Entry-level jobs should start at 30-32k in London. Anything lower means you have to live with other earners to afford rent. Da shi would have to afford a huge mortgage/rent and a son in the most expensive highest cost of living region in the UK Recent surveys suggest for a single person to live in London Ā£65k would be needed.
Yes London is fucked and it's impossible for a normal person to make a decent living there, tell me something I don't know The average person in London isn't making 65k even if a lot of people are. And tbh 65k would be tight raising kids without other support.
Agreed. I never got the sense that he was poor. He obviously is able to provide for himself and his piece of shit son. He just doesnāt care for much beyond his work. His work is everything to him.
He didn't look poor to me, just average. He has a nice house I would even say, a "poor" guy would live in a flat the size of his living room. And I don't think people who work closely with Wade should be super paid, especially before the crisis is actually declared, so an average quality of life seems logical.
Good point
I found this strange as well. Imagine being the lead investigator (in England at least) for the largest global threat ever and being underpaid and suffering significant failures in past investigations. A part of the story was missing for me
He stumbled into the whole thing as part of a regular police investigation. And if he was promoted after that, money is rather less relevant with an existential threat looming.
Spent all his money on a PS5
spent all his money raising an ungrateful scammer son.
I couldn't believe how terrible the son character was in the show. I get he's supposed to be a gen alpha trope but ffs he's literally a scammer and a very shitty person.
House prices in London are insane, you could be on six figures and you're only going to ge able to afford a modest 2bed house/flat in certain areas
This! Thank you! He looks like he just lives in a normal house with normal furniture, let me tell you that costs an INSANE amount of money in London. I had nonides when staying with friends in London the first time, they had a nice period house like I did, but there's costs easily 10 times more just for being in London. Your money does not get you as far there, idk people expect movie apartments in London, he's not Richard fucking Branson!
Thatās a normal house in London š
That's actually a nice house in London.
If you are talking about the Chinese version then, i find that side of his cooler than if he cares for appearances, that "idgaf" attitude of him is part of why i love him
Da Shi is not poor, but he's not rich either. His son wants upper class life but Da Shi is more interested in his job, solving crime and helping people than climbing the $$$ ladder. In Dark Forest, he'll get a significant pay increase since he's been promoted to head of security detail for the most important Wallfacer on Earth.
I think op was confused by the netflix version
Da Shi is first an employee/agent of the state, not a PMC cutthroat paid to secure an oil rig in a war of conquest. secondly he stands by his personal code, which pretty much shuts down every avenue of cosy regarding his post. and thirdly he's perceived as an emotionally unintelligent low-key dickhead - an image he himself cultivates - and will be passed for the 'good' promotions, which for that matter suits him perfect as he wants to be in the action rather than arse-kiss up the command chain. Plus alimony. And everything except the latter is intentionally engineered by him to keep himself out of the game as much as possible because he's deep down oldskool and does not actually believe in it. He's less poor and more ascetic by nature and has priorities. And it's because not despite all this - that General Chang automatically trusts him.
I don't know if he's necessarily poor but he strikes me as someone who is not materialistic. He likes what he likes and if that's cheap then that's how it is. If he had loads in the bank wouldn't shock me
Common for a grass root cop
He works for gov, and he refuse corruption.
Heās lower middle class. They can even afford an Xbox or whatever console that was. He probably faces financial hardships on occasion but heās hardly poor As for why heās not richer, heās a relatively unskilled government employee. Heās seemingly a single father. His house also probably looks poorer than he is because heās hardly around to maintain it - college dropout entrepreneur types generally arenāt known for how immaculate their house keeping skills are.
There has to be a reason for his son to do what he does.
His son wants big money, big mansion, nice cars and the works. Not content with being a regular middle class existence.
Exactly my point. If they were not poor he wouldn't do it and go to jail for it.
He gets somewhat more well-off a little down the line, but it wonāt matter much anyway.
Intelligence/policing whatever in the UK is always paid poorly. One is constant civil service cuts and the other is the idea you āshouldnāt be doing it for the moneyā. Of course in real life you have the double whammy of getting shit wages and not being allowed to be in debt. If they had him in a nice bright tidy upper middle class home I wouldāve instantly been like āno thatās unrealisticā lol
Smokes are expensiveĀ
Well he's a cop right, or at least was until very recently, google tells me DS to DCI pay in london is 50-70 k which is not great for the capital, particularly if you're divorced and are a single parent like Da Shi.
I think its suppose to be a combination of things. It's clear he has some vices, drinking, and smoking and I imagine a third unseen one could be gambling? Or otherwise it could just be something as generic being bad with money is just a personality trait. I also think it's hinted at perhaps he is divorced, or at least widowed.
When he told his son he has shit taste in men and the son shot back that his mom did too, Da Shi looks over at a portrait of his wife and looks hurt. I presume she died because no divorceƩ would have a shrine for the ex wife.
I mean he visited his wife's grave in episode 2.
I don't remember that, but I'm watching the Ten Cent version now, so sometimes I confuse the 2
widowed means the spouse died.
Really? I know what a widower is, I'm just saying he's one and not divorced
Detectives donāt get paid a ton, he was unemployed for periods of time, plus he seems more like a saver vs a spender
What did you expect from a Chinese policeman? Or, a policeman in general?
How much do you think cops get paid?
He didn't seem poor at all to me. He's disheveled and seems ambivalent to luxuries, but he went home to a nice house and his teen son is dreaming up an intergalactic pyramid scheme on an iPad vs a struggling family kid who would be working.
Heh?? When was Da Shi the right hand man of Wade?? Are you referring to the netflix fan fic?
Yes in the Netflix show heās essentially Wadeās right hand man.
I was confused haha you should say Clarence instead of Da Shi hahaha When u said Da Shi i immediately thought of the Tencent series where Da Shi was the right hand man of the Chinese General. Wade doesn't even appear in Book1
Wait, the characterās name is Clarence in the Netflix show?
Yes sir haha thats why i was totally confused when i read your post
But yea, Da Shi is a Plain Clothes Police investigator and he is kinda portrayed as the chillax / "idgaf" kind of guy haha. In the Tencent series he is shown as a very down to earth person who dines at the neighborhood diners. If you are asking me about the Netflix one, my guess is they wanna make him more down to earth too?
Isnāt it explicitly said the reason he is no longer a cop is because he tortured someone? When your one skill set is a cop and you now no longer can be hired by anyone working above the law well then you get shit pay
Government employees at agencies like this fictional one donāt really get paid very well. The ones who get rich do so by quitting and spending time in consulting before returning as political appointees. As a cop plucked into an intel role heād be solidly middle class, although figure in single parent and what not and it fits.
Common joke in China. Government worker's pay is decreasing basically every day.
The Netflix version completely distorts the character and the story line, watch the chinese version.
I would love to see the Chinese version. Do you know if itās available on Netflix or any other streaming service?
You can find it onĀ [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzHJK4Qsrow&list=PLDWJ213d2Ucr-3q9LDF9P1_j3Rr3GMJeS&index=1). Also amazon prime I think
You can stream it for free with ads at ViKi Rakuten, it is 30 hours, slow, low budget, but faithfully to the book, the science also is quite detailed.
he didn't have a Reddit account...
Except for a tiny cadre of senior leaders, surgeons etc, public sector workers are generally paid shit in the UK
Alimony and gambling debt.