China is run by the state, which employs the engineers. The West is run by finance capital, which employs the lawyers (and buys the politicians). There was a

China is run by the state, which employs the engineers. The West is run by finance capital, which employs the lawyers (and buys the politicians). There was a post here a while back about engineering grads in the UK who couldn't get engineering jobs. So they ended up working for quant firms and banks instead. Under neoliberalism the economy ends up oriented away from productive activity and toward rent-seeking and wealth transfers. Hence the growing gambling "industry", the pump and dump crypto scams (run by heads of state, no less), the legally protected private cartels like banking and medicine. We get people like Vivek Ramaswamy who became a billionaire while producing nothing of value. Pinning these massive systemic issues on lawyers is frankly stupid. They are just one piece of the puzzle.