Maggie's Farm

Most lawyers have had to work 7 days a week since the economic collapse of 2008. And that's for partners. It's an aging and dying profession since millennials are not willing to work that hard, whereas for older attorneys that's what they have always known. The washout rate for associate attorneys is very high--they cannot handle the hours or pressure. The economic model for law firms--where partners delegate work to multiple associates working under them--has largely broken down. The other threat is that much of what U.S. lawyers do can be done more cheaply in India, and with the tech age more and more work is going to be outsourced.

Most politicians and policy makers in Washington have an unbelievably naive and uninformed view of Mainland China. The underlying ethic promoted in Mainland China from childhood is that China was unfairly oppressed by the West (and Japan) since the early 19th century, and it is only right and fair that China regain its place as the leading nation in the world, even if that means taking "shortcuts" against others to do so. It is only balancing the scales of past injustice, they say.

On the other hand, there are respected "advisers" in Washington who still think that China is like it was in the early days of Deng Xiaoping. Within the last year I read an article by some respected policy wonk in D.C. that went on and on about China not being a threat because it was still backwards, people ride around on bicycles, and don't know anything about the outside world. Are you kidding me??? China is more technologically advanced than the U.S., it's largely a cashless society where virtually EVERYTHING is done by people on their smartphones, and I can tell you that Chinese know a lot more about America and American politics than Americans do, let alone Americans know what is going on in China. And yes, they know all the latest American movies and pop stars. They are just as plugged in as anyone. And anyone who spends any time outside of the U.S. can tell you that Chinese tourists are everywhere, and they are the wealthy ones with money to burn. (American tourists are so 20th century--no one pays attention to them any more.)

Sure, there are still lots of rural areas in China that are backwards, just like you could find the same thing in parts of America like Appalachia--not to mention most of America's decaying urban cities. But China is driven by its large and growing middle class, which is now both larger and more affluent than the middle class in America. Sure they are under the control of their government in what they do and think, but they have never known anything else and so they are happy with their present situation. Ironically, if anything urban Chinese are nostalgic for the old rural days. One of the most popular vlogs in China is about a girl, Li Ziqi, who supposedly abandons urban life and goes back to care for her aged grandmother in rural China and tries to live the old traditional life. (She's been called a combination of Martha Stewart and Snow White.) If you're interested you can watch her videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A

Her videos are really quite exceptional.

And here's an interview with her, partly in English and the rest subtitled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9CfVcXoYh4