The inheritance industry
Will and I were in a Chinese restaurant today when we heard this little girl ask her father "Daddy, which one of us will inherit the most?"Her sister was quite a bit older and should have known better but wasn't prepared to laugh about it. She obviously wanted to know, too. The natives are obsessed with inheritance. With their inheritance, of course. Meine Erbe, they call it. There are books and classes and self-help groups and websites and you name it, it's out there, all dealing with the subject. It's a real industry here, a growing industry. It's understandable. The natives have always been known for their frugality. They have also proven to be quite talented at passing money down from one generation to the next. At least up until recently, that is. Now it's all coming to a head. Now they've stopped having children, or they stop at one kid. And these kids aren't stupid, either. They've gone with the times and have wasted no time in developing great expectations. Most native kids feel as if they've got something coming to them. A whole lot of them know that they do - and just how much. They are good at math here, you see. They have pretty well figured out what they will be getting by the time they are twelve.
