<story><title>The myth of Japan&apos;s failure</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-true-story-of-japans-economic-success.html?pagewanted=print</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mbesto</author><text>Let&apos;s look at one metric that supersedes all (in my opinion):&lt;p&gt;According to, Japan&apos;s unemployment rate has been no higher than 6% over the last 32 years (1980-2012).It&apos;s currently at 4.5%[1]&lt;p&gt;Compare that to the US, who&apos;s unemployment rate has been at worst 10% over the last 32 years (1980-2012). It&apos;s currently at 8.5%[2]&lt;p&gt;Why does this supersede most other stats? Because we simply need to keep people busy &quot;doing things&quot;, otherwise (as you&apos;re seeing in the US) riots/protests break out, crime goes up (crime is largely a result of poverty), and people don&apos;t have the means to keep themselves healthy. What more do you need from a society? I understand people will say &quot;but we need growth&quot;. I ask why? What is the end result of growth that makes societies &quot;better&quot;?&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate&lt;/a&gt;
[2]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-r...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;edit: 32 years...doh!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bane</author><text>It reminds me of my first time visiting South Korea. While there I observed people who&apos;s job it was to wear a cute uniform and bow to cars entering the parking garage at the local department store, people hired by companies to stand in the aisles at the local supermarket holding packs of coffee or shampoo or whatever and dance to loud techno music (usually young women in short skirts and thigh high boots, bizarre to see families shopping for vegetables, fighting their way around scantily clad 20 year olds in the middle of a dance routine around the cabbage aisle), and other similar, &quot;keep people busy&quot; type jobs. I&apos;d be highly surprised if these folks made more than $3-4/hr, not even remotely a living wage.&lt;p&gt;- checking on the numbers, the minimum wage in South Korea for 2011 was about $3.75. I&apos;m guessing when I first went there in 2003, it was even lower.&lt;p&gt;- in 2006 I visited and remember having to make my way around a gauntlet of guys in doorman uniforms, who&apos;s job it was to bow to people entering the hotel, and another guy who&apos;s job it was to push the &quot;up&quot; button to request an elevator. That&apos;s it, that was his entire job. For eight hours a day, he stood outside of the elevators, waiting for guests, and pushed the only button to request an elevator (there was no down button the hotel I was staying in).&lt;p&gt;So yes, while the unemployment figures were pretty good, the actual &quot;work&quot; that people were doing was essentially meaningless.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve never been to Japan, but I&apos;d be highly surprised if there weren&apos;t similar analogues.</text></comment>
<story><title>The myth of Japan&apos;s failure</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-true-story-of-japans-economic-success.html?pagewanted=print</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mbesto</author><text>Let&apos;s look at one metric that supersedes all (in my opinion):&lt;p&gt;According to, Japan&apos;s unemployment rate has been no higher than 6% over the last 32 years (1980-2012).It&apos;s currently at 4.5%[1]&lt;p&gt;Compare that to the US, who&apos;s unemployment rate has been at worst 10% over the last 32 years (1980-2012). It&apos;s currently at 8.5%[2]&lt;p&gt;Why does this supersede most other stats? Because we simply need to keep people busy &quot;doing things&quot;, otherwise (as you&apos;re seeing in the US) riots/protests break out, crime goes up (crime is largely a result of poverty), and people don&apos;t have the means to keep themselves healthy. What more do you need from a society? I understand people will say &quot;but we need growth&quot;. I ask why? What is the end result of growth that makes societies &quot;better&quot;?&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate&lt;/a&gt;
[2]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-r...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;edit: 32 years...doh!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kiba</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Because we simply need to keep people busy &quot;doing things&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I suppose we could employ people to dig holes and pay them for the job of digging holes for no purpose. That&apos;s not productive or is a good use of their time, unless it is spent digging useful holes. That&apos;s because we have a million other things that people could do help and help out. All we need to do is figure out how to employ people.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;I ask why? What is the end result of growth that makes societies &quot;better&quot;?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Less time spent on farming, manufacturing, servicing, and generally working. More time for leisure and family, increased well being, increased lifespan(more is always better), supposedly.&lt;p&gt;However, we&apos;re not good at figuring out what we want in life and thus not spend time on leisure, family, hobbies, and things that are fun. Instead, we seeks certain job because they&apos;re prestigious, buy things merely for status symbol effect, and so on.</text></comment>