Lawyer run state of the US

• The top decision makers in China have an engineering background. The US, on the other hand, is run by lawyers.
• Policy issues that are decided by voters in other countries are debated in the courts in the US and decided by lawyers.
• The US has 3 times lawyers per capita compared to the European countries.
• The lawyers are the real aristocracy of the US.
• It is hardest to build in the most Democrat-led parts of the US.
• On a per-km basis, Subway costs 5 times to lay in New York than in Paris.
• DOGE in Trump’s second term would have done better by targeting processes as opposed to personnel.
• Countries with more engineering majors (“builders”) grow faster than the countries with more law majors (“rent seekers”).

Engineering run China

• Engineers like to build. And that’s why China builds huge cities with great infrastructure.
• The Chinese are used to a physically dynamic and changing landscape as a symbol of progress. The current generation of Americans is not.
• China consumes half of the coal it produces.
• China has about 100 million workers in manufacturing.
• The perception of Japan shifted from shoddy goods to high-quality goods in the 1970s. The same might happen with Chinese goods now.
• China is estimated to be 45% of the manufacturing capacity of the world by 2030. All high-income countries, including the US, combined, will be 38%.
• Despite four decades of liberalization, China has made a very limited contribution to the global culture.
• Sanctions by Trump(2016-20) and porous implementation by Biden (2020-24) have riled Chinese companies. They used to buy the best quality chips in the world (American). Now, they are diversifying their supply chain by building a homegrown one.

China and socialism

• China is governed by conservatives who masquerade as communists. No other socialist country has as light of a tax burden as China.
• China spends 10% of GDP on social programs. The US is about 20%. And Western Europe about 30%.
• Deng Xiaoping supported industrialization of Shenzhen to eliminate socialism.
• The Chinese state focuses on monumentalism.
  • Amazing hospitals that might not have sufficient doctors.
  • Amazing bathrooms, but toilet paper will be missing.
  • Nowhere in China should one drink tap water.

China and the one-child policy till 2015

• Mao believed that a huge population was a source of strength for the country. He said, “The more people, the more power”.
• Deng Xiaoping, on the other hand, believed that a huge population would be a burden on the country.
• Over 300 million children were aborted during the one-child policy of Deng Xiaoping.
• There were several cases of induced early childbirth against a mother’s wish in December because the government officials want to use the leftover quota of the year!
• For 100 days in 1991, not a single child was allowed to be born in Shandong province. Everyone was killed via abortion or forced sterilization.
• The one-child policy lasted longer than expected, as a million-strong bureaucracy was working on it. Killing the policy would mean killing that bureaucracy as well.
• Authoritarian systems are not good at spreading bad news.

China and pro-natalism since 2015

• During his third term, Xi Jinping dropped the only woman in 25 member top-committee as an indication of his emphasis that Women should focus on keeping the husband happy.
• As China shifted to pro-natal policies in 2015, the Chinese state media showed in a more docile position and wrote articles saying that don’t care about your husband’s affairs.
• The divorce grant rate has dropped from 70% to 40% as well.

China and Wuhan Flu/COVID-19

• China followed extremely rigid COVID-19 isolation policies, which ultimately failed.
• There was even a case where a pregnant woman, bleeding and sitting outside the hospital, waited till her PCR test results came in before she was allowed to enter the hospital.
• Even infants who tested positive along with their parents were separated from their parents by China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

China and Internet

• Till 2018, the chief regulator of the Internet, Lu Wei, was taking equity in companies and then changing the regulations to benefit those companies. This all ended in 2018, the government became strict, cutting down unicorns in China.
• Xi Jinping hates the virtual economy, including blockchain and metaverse. He thinks it is not good for the real economy in the long run. Now, there is 400K USD. salary cap to dissuade Physics and Math majors from joining finance firms.
• Social media brings little economic gain but risks bringing political upheaval.
• After the COVID-19 pandemic response and the killing of the unicorns, many young Chinese are disillusioned and are leaving China.