Finished reading: Breakneck by Dan Wang

This was a fast-paced and really good reflection on the differences between China and the United States—the stark differences between a country run by engineers and a country run by lawyers.

It made me question whether I would buy an iPhone again, and shocked me by the depth of suffering many people in China endure. Especially, reading the stark realities of the three-and-a-half-decade duration of the one-child policy.

It brings back the line I use far too often: “Stop the Planet, I want off.”

Highly recommend the book; it’s a quick read, and Dan does a very good job at explaining the complexities of China from a lived perspective.

“The future would be better if China could learn to build less, while the United States learns to build more.” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)

“It costs five times as much to build a kilometer of subway in New York City as it does in Paris. If it only cost twice as much, it might be a national tragedy; since it costs five times as much, it is only a statistic. There’s no reason that much older European cities should be able to build more cheaply than New York. And the people in charge don’t seem to be able to do anything about it” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)

“Americans live today in the ruins of an industrial civilization, whose infrastructure is just barely maintained and rarely expanded.” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)

“Sometimes, the only thing scarier than China’s problems are Beijing’s solutions.” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)

“It’s not just the government. America’s problem is the lawyerly society. The United States is unusual among Western countries for having so many lawyers: four hundred lawyers per hundred thousand people, which is three times higher than the average in European countries.” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)

“Nowhere in China is it advisable to drink tap water. Not even Shanghai.” (Dan Wang, Breakneck)