Newsweek Looks At Japan

[Mulboyne]

[Yokohammer]

Thanks for those! Read them all and found them very interesting. IMO most of the content is pretty much on the money, but it's always interesting to see the slight shift in perception that seems to occur when the western media reports on anything Japanese ... but maybe just the fact of reporting in English and the cultural framework from which it is inseparable makes the difference.

Anyway, there's quite a bit of substance in those articles.

[pheyton]

Yes, Thanks Mul, I was just about to post the Japan is Fading article. Very good reads. If Japan plays it's cards right it will have a bright future as one of the Asian powers behind China and India.

I think the DPJ may be on to something giving people incentives to have more children other than tentacle porn. On the other hand it seems they are offering a lot of promises without any explanation of how they will be paid for. Who are the jackasses promising to make the highways free without a plan on how to pay for them? As a liberal I agree wholeheartedly with social programs, but I also expect them to be fiscally responsible, IE tax the fuck out of the rich.

Anyway, good articles.

[james]

but I also expect them to be fiscally responsible, IE tax the fuck out of the rich.

i'm no fan of taxes by any stretch, nor am i rich by any definition of the word, but taxing the crap out of the rich really won't do much alleviate current fiscal imbalances. until the expenditures side of this equation is balanced (read: unrepentant pork-barrel slush funds) it does little good to increase revenue. any project will expand to consume all available resources.

on that note, if i see one more geriatric flag-waver doing nothing in a completely unneeded position (ie between two other geriatric flag-wavers doing a comparable amount of nothing) i might just run him over and get the ball rolling on the expenditures side.

[pheyton]

i'm no fan of taxes by any stretch, nor am i rich by any definition of the word, but taxing the crap out of the rich really won't do much alleviate current fiscal imbalances. until the expenditures side of this equation is balanced (read: unrepentant pork-barrel slush funds) it does little good to increase revenue. any project will expand to consume all available resources.

on that note, if i see one more geriatric flag-waver doing nothing in a completely unneeded position (ie between two other geriatric flag-wavers doing a comparable amount of nothing) i might just run him over and get the ball rolling on the expenditures side.

Sorry James, you are probably right. I forget that this isn't America and the wealth gaps/CEO pays are much lower here.