We set up an incentive scheme to vigorously punish employers for offering full time work by loading it down with obligations over the worker’s long term well being, and didn’t do anything similar for temp/contract work. What were you expecting?

If we attached proportional responsibility to part time work, or just provided benefits out of the public purse instead of labor law, part time work wouldn’t be such an obviously superior choice to employers.

On the other hand, the wages of 700 million Chinese workers has trebled in the last decade.

And humanity, as a whole, will probably reap a ton of long term benefits from it. I doubt there's much solace in this thought for someone being fired because of it, though.

(Personally I don't mind a bit of hardship if it helps everyone, but I understand not everyone can be frugal or that some people can be just plain unlucky)

It's also a lot harder to swallow when you're hungry and someone out there is making enough to feed 100 of you.