I would also point out that the author conflate two tightly-coupled but distinct spheres - the political and the economic. China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore have all been massively successful because they acted aggressively in the political realm to foster growth and development (with little to no regard for Democratic norms). Conversely, their economic systems were and are fairly liberal (China being both the least developed of these as well as the biggest laggard on this front). Chinese citizens may not be politically empowered, but it is far easier to set up a company, hire and fire, etc. in Shanghai than in New York.
One interesting thing to note is that this allows for the exact quantification ("pricing") of various forms of dissent. If a large enough segment of the population is willing to pay a measurable financial cost in order to engage in a certain behavior, the government will be able to monitor (and respond) to that in near real time.
If you want to see the impact of profoundly cheap labor in a modern country, go to India. When I was there last winter, it was fascinating to see how many things were done by simply throwing seemingly-inordinate man-hours of labor at tasks (e.g. painting roads and signage by hand).
Banker here. We actually have automated and outsourced quite a bit of the drudgery, although doing it within the framework of Excel and PowerPoint often requires some pretty strange contortions from a UI perspective.
I actually like and use sheets (it's much better than Excel for simple and/or non-analytical use cases), so when I use Excel for something, it's because I want to use Excel for that thing.
No. The middle class in the US and other highly developed nations is hurting, but by any global measure, this group of people is actually relatively wealthy. The global middle class has experienced an unprecedented level of growth and prosperity over the past 25+ years. Of course, this has in many cases come at the expense of the first group.
I have the same setup, as well as a 15" retina MBP. Each one is optimized for different use cases, but it's amusing that a machine that ran me ~$400 is better for a lot of things than my $2500+ top of the line Apple.
Biggest drawback of the X230 is the AWFUL trackpad and the low res screen. Highly recommend getting the extended battery.
As a manager, this is definitely not always the case. If someone is leaving for the "right" reasons (namely, they have an awesome opportunity somewhere else), then that's great. While it may be an operational disruption, one of my goals as a manager is always to want the best for the people on my team - even if that means leaving.
Tablets and mobile devices are primarily consumption devices, and are ill-suited for creating anything. However, going by the 90/9/1 rule, there's a much bigger potential set of consumption consumers than creators.
Lease terms that prohibit or limit subtenancy (especially without the express consent of the owner) are nothing new, and certainly not a reaction to AirBnB.