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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

#311

Post by jokethrowaway »

fearn077 wrote: post #291
offtop5 wrote: post #130

>Under Katsube’s direction, Junko also enrolled in a program that helps shut-ins learn social skills by engaging in activities such as gardening, music, sports, and volunteering. America desperately needs this. I fear the rise of social media has caused more and more people to stay inside all day without interacting with any real humans. I've found Meetup to work very well for getting out of the house. I did find it…

Your fix for technology enabled social distance was more technology. I love it. Perhaps social media has done that to some people. But I still see my neighbors out in their garden, and even outside with musical instruments. My musical friends come over and play outside with me. I garden alone because socializing over everything is insane to me. I disagree there’s a real problem. Re: people living at home still. That…

I agree with you, but I'm not sure we're aware of this problem as a society.

People still think that people making 6 figures are the elite and cheer every time a progressive income tax targeting someone marginally richer than them is introduced by their government. They are not the enemy, they're not the people lobbying the government so their business can make extra millions or avoid paying taxes with loopholes.

The political discourse always ends up on some hot issue backed by group identity (whether it's minorities, poor people or some other kind of victim). I don't think the government will ever be able to tackle this conflict of interest and actually impact the ultra rich which maintain politicians.

I just hope we won't get to a violent revolution and physically killing of the rich middle class (kulaks 2.0)

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#312

Post by kubanczyk »

netsharc wrote: post #45
growlist wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why Western countries are not incentivising people to have children.

Most European countries give parents monthly stipends for children and even one-off payments for births, so that's.. a little incentive.

Yes. US wasn't incentivizing having children because the population growth historically always used to be a solid 1%. But it ended around 2008, so policy is likely to change soon.

"The West" taken in general predictably provides incentives when it sees effects of small or negative population growth.

Take for example stats for the year 2000 to see how the past shaped policy of today:

  - US 1.1%
  - France 0.7%
  - UK 0.4%
  - Germany 0.1%
  - Italy 0.0%

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#313

Post by brazzy »

gfxgirl wrote: post #160
brazzy wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it truly were a pre-payment, it would be partially refunded when the rental contract terminates early.

No, it wouldn't. It would just be your non-refundable downpayment. Plenty of other things have non-refundable up front payments in the USA and other countries.

Then don't try to spin it as "pre-payment". It is not.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#314

Post by garfieldnate »

After watching this I feel a little bit ungrateful. I lived there for a while and had a permanent position, which is really coveted. I left after a year and half because I just hated the working culture so much. Because I speak English I was able to leave. Japan is largely monolingual, and the English education for children stresses test performance over communication. Japan has always had a powerful enough economy that monolingualism worked okay for the country as a whole. But for the miserable individuals who believe they have no opportunities, monolingualism is a trap that keeps them in the system where they do not find the opportunities.

Meanwhile I speak English and can therefore work in dozens of countries if I so choose, though as a linguist I actually savor opportunities to study new languages).

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#315

Post by brazzy »

roenxi wrote: post #253
brazzy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan in the 1980 didn't have any better access to natural resources than it has today, yet it didn't have the labor market problems described in the article. Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and are not having these problems.

My basic argument is Japan (might have, I did see a few convincing counters in other parts of the thread that were convincing) too many people for the amount of land they have. Your counterargument is that they didn't have a problem in 1980, when they had less people and the same amount of land. I can't disagree with that, but it isn't relevant. > Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and a…

Japan has a smaller population now than they had in 1980, and a much smaller working age population:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#316

Post by acd »

Japan never cleaned up the debt created by its banking system during the Lost decade. This enormous debt makes it harder for young people to own their own place, in effect tget rent from the bank through loans. This is despite that Japans population is shrinking and there should be more houses on the market. Free debt creation creates a generational ladder where older generations own their houses and younger rent due to high debt creation. Old could buy before the exponential growth of debt was created.

Lost decade https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)

Demographic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#317

Post by lenkite »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #127

I feel like the "Jobless and living with parents" pejorative is missing the mark. Jobless -- So what? If a country has figured out how to provide for its people w/o jobs, so what? For example if we had perfect AI-robot slaves we'd all be jobless. Would it be a problem? Maybe we should ask people why they want a job, maybe what they want to do doesnt require one? "Living with their parents" - Again, so what? Much of t…

In my early 20s, I actually liked living with my parents and utterly hated that I had to move out when I had a job...man the food.

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#318

Post by roenxi »

brazzy wrote: post #315
roenxi wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My basic argument is Japan (might have, I did see a few convincing counters in other parts of the thread that were convincing) too many people for the amount of land they have. Your counterargument is that they didn't have a problem in 1980, when they had less people and the same amount of land. I can't disagree with that, but it isn't relevant. > Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and a…

Japan has a smaller population now than they had in 1980, and a much smaller working age population: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan

You may have misread the numbers slightly; population of ~117 million in 1980 and a population of ~ 125 million today.

And the chart in that article shows that they basically stopped having children in 1980 which would be consistent with a "running out of resources" hypothesis as a root cause. If they hit a wall in economic carrying capacity circa 1980 that chart would supporting evidence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan

Re: Japan’s lost generation is still jobless and living with their parents

#320

Post by baybal2 »

asdff wrote: post #229
inglor_cz wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biology puts some limits on that. Fertility of women goes down in the fourth decade of life. The # of aneuploid ova rises sharply. It is possible that there will be scientific development solving that, but so far, we do not have enough young fertile people to practice your obvious method, unless they were ready to have 4+ kids each.

in vitro fertilization is the development you are looking for, and exists for those who can afford it.

Being able to have kids at 40 does not change the fact that you will still have only 20-30 years left to spend on them.
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