“Duck syndrome,” the disease of Indonesia’s young middle class

From the outside, 38-year-old Altaf embodies the success of the Indonesian middle class: he owns a house in the suburbs of Jakarta, with a car and scooter in the garage. But behind this illusion of stability, he struggles to pay off his loans and provide his children with the best possible education.

The situation isn't helping matters: the tech company that employs him is stagnating. Salary increases are struggling to keep up with rampant inflation, promotions are rare, and the threat of dismissal is becoming ever-present.

"Like many Indonesian middle-class householders, Altaf pursues an increasingly illusory stability, carrying a growing burden alone," Kompas newspaper describes .

Altaf's case epitomizes a phenomenon affecting a growing segment of middle-class young adults known as "duck syndrome." The term, borrowed from Stanford University , originally referred to students who achieve brilliant results while silently struggling under intense pressure—much like a duck gliding serenely across the water while frantically flapping its feet beneath the surface to avoid sinking.

In Indonesia, professional competition, family expectations, and social media pressures to succeed are amplifying this phenomenon. Although it is not officially recognized as a mental disorder, it increases the risk of anxiety and depression, warns the medical website Alodokter .

This psychological pressure reveals a real economic weakening. While middle-class spending has jumped 142% since 2019, real wages have fallen by more than 10%, particularly in manufacturing, retail, and catering.

At the same time, 9.5 million Indonesians have left the middle class, which now represents 17 percent of the population, down from 21 percent five years ago. Many are sliding into the more precarious categories of “vulnerable” or “aspirational middle class,” as defined by the World Bank, while informal employment is growing.

A paradoxical dynamic that economist Arief Anshory Yusuf describes as “impoverishing growth” : an expanding economy that benefits only a tiny elite.

Faced with the erosion of its purchasing power, the middle class is getting into more and more debt: family loans, peer-to-peer lending platforms and pawnshop loans, the activity of which has jumped by 26% in one year.

In this tense context, mental health specialist Sofia Ambarini calls on public authorities to increase awareness among members of the middle class. “They must understand that there is no real obligation to be perfect. Doing a little better than yesterday is enough.”