China is definitely extreme but you don't have to go too far to see overworked people, it's much more common in the US than people realize. Everyone is overworked. I think that Starbucks got popular partially due to this.
This hypothesis I also think helps explain the explosive rise in things ranging from 'internet activism' which often results in little more than hurting mostly innocent individuals to the sharp increase in radicalism and division in US politics when actual differences, in spite of rhetoric, are little more than two sides of the same coin. People are trying to find meaning in their lives and its manifesting as it always has throughout humanity's history - division and conflict.
Indeed, Alexis Ohanian has been speaking out about this very recently too.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...
I think this is the first one I saw https://qz.com/work/1458073/reddit-co-founder-alexis-ohanian...