Japan has the problems now we, Western society will be facing in 20 years. This has been true since the 80s, so it's be nice to learn from it, and not follow it.
> not follow it. How? Any idea?
The obvious method would be to have more children.
Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
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Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
People here are disagreeing with you, but I actually think you're exactly right about most modern economies: too many people and too few jobs leads to all sorts of social issues from wealth inequality to excessive hours to crazy house prices.
So Malthus was in a sense right, as the “too many people” issue has showed up constantly since he wrote his stuff. And before anyone comes and tells me that “he was wrong because the Earth can sustain 8-9 billion humans, like it does right now”, I’ll say that there’s no way Earth’s actual ecosystem can sustain a major part of that population regularly eating beef, or regularly flying, or having scattered individual h…
Malthus’ argument fits your later points, but not why a sub-population is experiencing unemployment. Unlike food, jobs don’t grow on trees.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#23I've traveled a fair bit, and every part of Japan that I've been to feels like I've timed-traveled 20 years into a better future [compared to anywhere else I've been]. Yet there seems to be a fairly constant negative economic narrative about Japan (and this narrative seems to be decades old). What's the deal? Are my observations superficial, or are economists just annoyed that Japan doesn't fit their world-view (low…
>I've traveled a fair bit, and every part of Japan that I've been to feels like I've timed-traveled 20 years into a better future
That's strange. To me traveling Japan feels like entering an alternative history where the 80s never ended.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#24The things that stand out to me about Japan: * 3rd largest economy. * 11th largest population (top 10 until recently, they basically tie with Mexico). * If you look at a table of countries by area, they are there. Even in the top half, thanks to places like Tuvalu. I think there is a very strong on-the-face-of-it argument that they just have too many people and not enough for them to do, economically speaking. If the…
People here are disagreeing with you, but I actually think you're exactly right about most modern economies: too many people and too few jobs leads to all sorts of social issues from wealth inequality to excessive hours to crazy house prices.
Have you head of the Plant Kingdom?
They just stand around doing nothing the whole day.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#25I've traveled a fair bit, and every part of Japan that I've been to feels like I've timed-traveled 20 years into a better future [compared to anywhere else I've been]. Yet there seems to be a fairly constant negative economic narrative about Japan (and this narrative seems to be decades old). What's the deal? Are my observations superficial, or are economists just annoyed that Japan doesn't fit their world-view (low…
I’ve lived in japan and believe me, what you see as a tourist does not translate into reality. Japan in general is about 10 years behind the western world and in some places even more. Sure, tourist facing areas and central tokyo are pretty nice, but that’s not the reality in most places.
> Japan in general is about 10 years behind the western world
In which areas is Japan behind? What are some of your observations?
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve lived in japan and believe me, what you see as a tourist does not translate into reality. Japan in general is about 10 years behind the western world and in some places even more. Sure, tourist facing areas and central tokyo are pretty nice, but that’s not the reality in most places.
> Japan in general is about 10 years behind the western world In which areas is Japan behind? What are some of your observations?
When was the last time you used a fax machine? We maintain one specifically for communicating with Japanese companies.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#27They'll also get a burst of creativity. I know that whenever I am unemployed my creativity just gets diverted into the nearest interesting endeavour. One of those might have paid off and become a business. Quite likely in fact, if I hadn't had to work. I've often considered going on benefits so that I can work on my own ideas unhindered by work life. But I wanted a family more than I wanted time to pursue my other dreams.
I am very sure there are a great many others who are taking the opportunity to follow their dreams now that they have been forced to stay at home, out of work.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#28Japan has the problems now we, Western society will be facing in 20 years. This has been true since the 80s, so it's be nice to learn from it, and not follow it.
I don't understand why Western countries are not incentivising people to have children.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not how economy works. There is no such thing in general as "too many people for the economy". "The economy" is the sum of goods and services produced and consumed. Everyone who lives consumes, and could easily consume more. The economy is generally limited by the ability to produce, and is generally limited by the number of working-age people to do the producing. Unemployment can be result of production being…
That is exactly how the economy works. Demand and supply. Oversupply in labor results directly in diminishing incomes and the ability of employers to be extremely picky about who to hire (e.g. like you said nobody over 30).
Wrong because every person who supplies labor also generates demand for goods and services, which generates demand for labor. Simply "removing" unemployed people would not in fact fix the oversupply of labor.
I also explained that the problem is not just that employers are picky because of an oversupply, they are picky in ways that are actually not really in their own interest and which contribute to the oversupply problem.
Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents
#30Does Japan really have a ‘lost generation of jobless’ if their unemployment rate is only 2.29%? That seems incredibly low to me.
Source: https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JPN/japan/unemployment...