A friend of mine here argues that it’s better to live in an overlawyered, hyper-litigious society (where someone else is liable when you spill coffee on yourself) rather than the alternative. For example – number of sprinklers I’ve noticed in China: 0. Not sure if I’ve seen many fire alarms either, for that matter. 

This is all fun and games until someone flies out of a building: four girls recently died in Shanghai after jumping from a fire in their dorm. Chinasmack provides translation of one of the posts, as well as links to news reports in English. This got me pondering – does provision of safety result only after sufficient societal wealth exists to provide for preventative measures? Put another way, do prematurely legislated safety requirements raise costs resulting in relatively more harmful unseen consequences? Unconvincing: a rope-ladder would have saved these girls’ lives, and surely a rope ladder costs less than the expected lifetime contributions of four university graduates. 

[Disclaimer: my own 4th floor apartment has window cages, making egress in a hurry impossible. These are apparently to prevent acrobatic break in? Being roasted alive in a window cage will make a unique cross cultural obituary.]

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Following apartheid, South Africa has instituted extensive labor laws.  You can spin it either way you like: “comprehensive labor protections” or laws which create a “rigid labor market.”  I don’t pretend to know all the labor laws.  Instead I hear stories from people about how the laws play out.  And granted, much of what I hear is complaining from one side: the side of the employer.   The labor laws are permeating the most informal relationships- for example, the relationship between a nanny and a small child- and rearranging what has been the “natural order” of the labor market in this country.  Sometimes with unintended consequences.

What I wonder about the following story is: 1.  What communication exists between the workers and the employer?  No doubt there is a huge power differential.  2.  How have small businesses have been affected by the labor laws?  Formalizing relationships and adding vacation, over-time, and pensions seems like it would eliminate many part-time informal work.  continue reading

Chinese rights dissident favored to win Nobel Peace Prize. As well as a Chinese barefoot (self taught) lawyer. This will be exciting. China, of course, does not approve:

A decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo to honor Hu or Gao may increase tensions between the West and the government of the world’s most populous nation.

“I hope the committee will make the right decision and not challenge the original purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize or hurt Chinese people’s feelings,” said Liu Jianchao, spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, on Sept. 25. The prize should go to those who “truly contributed” to world peace, he said.

Via my barefoot friend, CMcL.