tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post4920052204057889615..comments2024-03-14T07:32:30.141+09:00Comments on Marketing Japan: The United States and the West Are in Big Trouble. Japan is Collapsing and Why Corporations Pay For Schooling For Ex-Pat Children in Japanmike in tokyo rogershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04977446676243085409noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post-22354002458721056272012-11-29T10:29:48.805+09:002012-11-29T10:29:48.805+09:00Most people probably don't know Karl Marx tre...Most people probably don't know Karl Marx treated money like water because he was always mooching off his rich friend Friedrich Engels and that Marx . I'd like to think a man's lifestyle greatly shapes his beliefs, some not necessarily for the better. <br /><br />Also, in mentioning the "rich", it probably excludes the ones they expect, the megacorporations funded by the government itself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post-59550399124044580332012-11-27T09:45:00.897+09:002012-11-27T09:45:00.897+09:00When I was in college I came home for the weekend ...When I was in college I came home for the weekend and was discussing economics with my grandfather, who was a genius with a 6th grade education. He listened a lot and after letting me regurgitate the Keynesian and Monoterist crap I had been taught by my economics professors, he just said "I ain't never worked for a poor man." A profound economic principle if I ever heard one. Wealth is the basis for having a division of labor and increasing productivity. No rich people, no jobs. - Mark DavisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post-79569993713975136212012-11-27T05:57:08.072+09:002012-11-27T05:57:08.072+09:00I think most of the rich hate in the U.S. stems fr...I think most of the rich hate in the U.S. stems from the fact they don't pay the same tax rate the rest of us do. It's BS that Romney only pays a 12% tax rate. You can argue it's due to his 'charitable contributions' but he can donate to a non-profit Super Pac to get tax deductions, that spends the donated money supporting Romney, it's a pretty screwed up system.<br /><br />Also, the fastest growing Rich in the U.S. isn't job creators it's the financial industry. A hedge fund doesn't make it's money from creating jobs, it makes it's money from shuffling around investments.<br /><br />Entrepreneurs are the ones that create jobs, but the likelihood of getting incredibly rich as an entrepreneur is minuscule to the financial markets. Michael Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post-69269639555200925722012-11-27T05:51:25.008+09:002012-11-27T05:51:25.008+09:00I think these last blog entrys are really on perce...I think these last blog entrys are really on perception and need to be put into perspective. The United States citizen hates the decline of the middle class, loss of spending power, high unemployment, and the ultra-high concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Do politicans exploit this angst and muddy the waters for their own gain, you betcha. Mike Rogers decrys cronyism, and I believe is part of the solution. The United States is not the same country it was when M. Rogers left it. I proudly voted for Ron Paul. The press decried Ron Paul's idea that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should not bail out rich people who could easily buy private insurance for their expensive beach front properties. The upper echelons of the Democrats are fabulously wealthy. The finanical collapse of 2008 was really eye opening for this generation. The banker bailouts proved it was Socialism for the rich, and free market for the rest. One only has to look at the last four president's cabinet members. Its made up of bankers galore. The same type of bankers that are hurting Japan with allowing so much debt. Harvard educated Americans become lawyers (mainly corporate) or bankers. People in the mid to late 2000's really thought if they could get a 2nd house they could be famously wealthy.The free market proved otherwise and the government got the tax payer to bail them out. Both Obama and Bush 44 voted for the bail out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2207076947655236975.post-131545001559411402012-11-26T11:10:26.325+09:002012-11-26T11:10:26.325+09:00"One thing good about Japan, though, is that ..."One thing good about Japan, though, is that I don't notice the Japanese hating the rich. The Japanese have their problems too but they have their heads on straight and do not hate the rich. They aspire to become the rich. That's logical and normal behavior."<br /><br />I was just thinking about this re: Hong Kong. Class warfare is alive and well in the US, but it was hard to find in Hong Kong (unless you hung out with British expats). There are plenty of rich people in HK and plenty of poor people, and guess what? The poor people believe they can become rich by working hard, and they actually DO! To be fair, it is a lot easier to do that in HK, where you don't have a million stupid regulatory hoops to jump through every time you want to engage in business of any kind. <br /><br />Class warfare over here dates back longer than Occupy though, sadly. It's the attitude that's taught in liberal arts colleges, and it's just "cool" to hate the rich and identify with the downtrodden. The irony of course is that compared to the rest of the world those in the US and UK ARE the rich. - Bretigne Shaffer Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com