The best way to live in China

...is to have money and to know people. Last week I went to dinner with a friend who worked in a public school and his coworkers, the headmaster, and some important parents. After a few rounds of baijiu shots, the parents were all red in the face and telling me if I am EVER in trouble that they know people. Another parent was telling me that if someone will not do what they want you to to give them some money under the table.

After talking to coworkers and friends this is veryyyyy common--especially when it comes to passing a driving test (dear god) and dealing with the police. Remember my little run on with the police? Yeah they had the worst work ethic I've ever encountered. They were waiting for me to slip them some money. My old blog is back from being suspended and the last posts on it were about my whole run in with the police...

http://kschmidt495.blog.com/

They were also explaining how there are many laws or regulations that you can pay your way out of...such as the one child policy. If you have more than one kid you can pay a tax (a large tax) for each additional child.

There have been many interesting news articles recently about people doing horrible things (drunk driving...hit and runs) but since the people who do them are people of power or know someone of power they do not have any punishment. There was a drunk driving incident where the driver hit a girl and killed her and jumped out of the car and yelled "Go ahead, sue me if you dare! My dad's Li Gang!" a head officer at the public security bureau.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/my-dad-is-li-gang-我爸是李刚

Sometimes our justice system in the United States can be frustrating...especially when it seems a case is so one sided but at least everyone for the most part is subject to a fair trial. Granted when we talked about this in the office some coworkers pointed out that if you do have money in the US you can get a good lawyer which makes the justice system a little unbalanced but still--nothing compared to the justice system in china.