the color red

As I was walking out of the Punjabi restaurant last evening, I saw a construction worker casually smoke a cigarette on the curb. The man was covered in dust, no T-shirt, worn out sandals on his feet and obviously very tired after what must have been a long day of hard work. He also had a red construction hat sitting next to him. The hat had seen its fair share of abuse but still was probably his most priced possession. As I was observing the man and his hat, out of another restaurant walks this young, noisy Chinese man. He was well dressed, even fancy and talking loudly in his cell phone. A few yards from the worker, he takes out his car keys and then I saw it: a blood-red Ferrari. The wealthy man casually opened his shinny red car and drove off still talking to his phone. One man has the red construction hat, the other the red Ferrari. Then I realized that China and the US might have more in common than we think.