Economic Illiteracy and How Japan is Responsible for the Destruction of the Western Economies

The things that get printed in the Western press about Japan never ceases to amaze me. The most recent article that made me smirk and roll my eyes came out on the Washington Post Blog the other day...  I guess there's a good reason that articles like this make it to a blog and not the actual newspaper; maybe someone is paying attention at the editorial desk at the Washington Post after all...

Get this: The story claims that Japanese people not having sex is going to be responsible for the destruction of the western economies.

That's right. Because the Japanese do not have enough sex (trust they do - they pay for it), and therefore they don't have enough children, this supposedly will result in the collapse of the western world economies. This article is currently doing the Internet rounds and I have been asked to comment many times. So, since my comment is the same every time, I thought I'd save myself some effort and just blog my response to this. My response is below the article quote... So, first, kindly, read a bit on this interesting economic theory.

From the Washington Post Blog: Japan’s sexual apathy is endangering the global economy:

Because Japanese people aren't having kids – which is both partially a product of, and perhaps driven by some of the same factors as, their relative disinterest in sex or sexual relationships – the population is shrinking. It's shrinking very, very fast. The Japanese population dropped by 212,000 people last year, the largest decrease on record. The birth rate is still falling, with only 1.03 million live births last year, a record low and dramatic decrease from 1.21 million the year before... 

This isn't just bad because it means the Japanese economy will have fewer workers and thus be less productive. It's setting up an economic time bomb that will go off before long... For any economy to stay healthy, there need to be enough taxpayers to support all the retirees. But Japan's population is shrinking and aging simultaneously, which means that the number of old people is skyrocketing just as the base of taxpayers shrinks.

Here is my response to this article: 

1) Japan is too crowded as it is. Japan is the size of California yet it supports a population that is 1/2 the size of the US population. 

2) Who cares about the world economy? I don't. I am worried about my own and my immediate family; I don't give a rat's ass about the USA or the EU or people living 6000 miles on the other side of the earth. 

3) Here's my vote for Idiot Statist Quote from the article: "For any economy to stay healthy, there need to be enough taxpayers to support all the retirees." Why? What kind of economic theory is this? Why should I pay taxes to support people I don't even know? (All the while the government takes a cut off the top). And why should other people pay to support me? What happened to individual responsibility? Why is the government even in the business of social security? The government should serve one function and one function only (if that): To protect the nation from foreign invasion. Where in the constitution of Japan or the USA does it say that the government should run a retirement Ponzi scheme (or run national parks, roads, airport security, farm production, dictate how large colas can be at fast food restaurants, what you can and cannot eat or drink, etc...) If big government were the answer to our problems, then the Soviet Union would have been a very successful nation. But it wasn't. 

We don't need more taxpayers; we need to shrink the government (and its out of control spending) and get it out of the health insurance business, the food safety business, the retirement fund ponzi business, the business of "Morality Police" (gambling, drugs, prostitution), giving tax monies to foreign governments in foreign aid, on and on and on.... Phase out Social welfare programs and cut government spending.... If we do so (we won't) then this population "problem" and lessening tax revenues are no longer a problem. Problem solved!

PS: History shows that the government built on fiat currency and deficit spending will out spend revenues in every case; Increasing revenues will only serve to prolong the inevitable collapse of this corrupt fiat Ponzi scheme that we have built today. The sooner the Japanese (and USA) government collapse into bankruptcy and new management takes over, the sooner we can try to make a system that can be sustained; it's obvious to anyone paying attention that this system is NOT sustainable. 

We have been mortgaging our children's and our children's children's future for decades. This shit has got to stop. "What cannot continue, won't." (Can't remember who said that!) 

This photo is not from the Washington Post Blog. These are some girls I took a photo of in Osaka at Nanba station (I think it was). If you like this photo, please use as you wish (Credit Mike in Tokyo Rogers, please!) 

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NOTES: So, you say you want these people taking care of your welfare and your life and your families well-being?! You have got to be kidding me!

And while I am railing on government over-reach, you folks know that right now there is a butter shortage in Japan? That's right. It's hard to find, and if you do find it, it's being rationed to one block per customer.

Yes, I do have butter. I always keep extra on hand. I have to; after three years in a row of not having butter because of shortages (and being a guy that likes to cook and bake) I decided not to get short handed again.

The world's third largest economy and we can't keep butter on the shelves? And this has happened now for 3 years in a row. Why is that? Because the morons running the government control milk and butter production. 

These assholes can't even handle making butter and people want them to control their lives and health and the nation's prosperity???? 

Incredible!

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For an easy to read and simple to understand explanation of how the economy works, may I recommend: Henry Hazlitt - Economics in One Lesson

Japanese Government Will Spend ¥17,166,666 (about $193,333.33 USD) Per Job to Create Jobs! I Want That Job!

The government in this country is leading us to financial catastrophe. You can't make this stuff up.

I can't believe that the people - as well as financial commentators in Japan -aren't up in arms about the latest financial plan from prime minister Shinzo Abe. I can see how the average person couldn't figure this out, but it is simple math. How could most commentators on economics in Japan be so clueless that they can't see the glaring problem with this latest plan? 

First let's look at the plan.

The End of Japan's Economic Golden Age: Financial Times Covers Anti-Nuclear Power Demonstrations in Japan

Who says the mainstream media doesn't cover anti-nuclear power demonstrations in Japan? The Financial Times has. This seems to me to be a very fair report.

My take on this? Japan is damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. The economic miracle of Japan from the 1960s to the mid-1980s is over. The bursting of the bubble in the mid-80s was the beginning; Fukushima is the nail in the coffin.


The protestor who says, "Japan is an earthquake prone country so building nuclear power is crazy," is correct. It is.


But what are the alternatives?


Then prime minister Noda says that its not just energy, it has to do with the entire economy of Japan; he's right too.


Finally comments are made that Japan will try to utilize more "renewable energy sources." Folks the most efficient and cost effective bio fuel resources are oil and coal by far. That being said, for every one person who has died from nuclear power (including Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl) 4,000 have died from coal.


So called renewable energy resources such as solar and wind are expensive, inefficient, and, wait for it... rape the environment (though no where near as bad as coal or oil).


Japan has nuclear power plants that are running on technology that is 50 years old. Those plants should be shut down.... But to reject nuclear power as unfeasible is ignorant. 

Throwing out all nuclear power because we have problems with 50 year old plants is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.


How about Thorium?

Japan cannot survive as an economic power without nuclear energy. Japan is too far in debt already to be subsidizing inefficient and expensive "projects" in so-called renewable energy resources (like wasting $78 billion on renewables in 2010)... People need to eat and need to have jobs....


Since the Japanese people and government can't seem to think past their noses, this surely is, the end of Japan's golden economic era.

More on Why Japan's Economic D-Day Could be Coming Soon - The Euro Collapse Has Started

As predicted, events are quickly spinning out of control in the Eurozone and this is going to have many unforeseen consequences to Japan and the rest of the world's economy. The recent news and chain of events have even begun the clarion call that the countdown to the breakup of the European Union has begun.

When a politician holds up a copy of EU Constitution and says, "Elect me and I will make a country for our people, not the EU" He will be elected... Greece recently elected Neo-Nazis to parliament. Will it happen in other EU countries? I think the answer is "Of course!"

I think it is a safe bet that the Euro is a dead currency and I don't think it will last another two years. In fact, I believe that things will completely spin out of control this year (but have been wrong with timing before).


Zerohedge reports in Countdown to the Breakup of the Euro Has Officially Begun:

It turns out that austerity is extremely unpopular.  But if newly elected politicians all over Europe begin rejecting austerity, this puts Germany in a very difficult position.  Should Germany be expected to indefinitely bail out all of the members of the eurozone that choose to live way beyond their means?  If Germany pulled out of the euro tomorrow, the euro would absolutely collapse, bond yields for the rest of the eurozone would skyrocket to unprecedented heights, and without German bailout money troubled nations such as Greece would be headed directly for default.  The rest of the eurozone is absolutely and completely dependent on Germany at this point.  But as we have seen, much of the rest of the eurozone is sick and tired of taking orders from Germany and is rejecting austerity.  A lot of politicians in Europe apparently believe that they should be able to run up gigantic amounts of debt indefinitely and that the Germans should be expected to always be there to bail them out whenever they need it.  Will the Germans be willing to tolerate such a situation, or will they simply pick up their ball and go home at some point? 

"It turns out that austerity is extremely unpopular." Duh!


This looks to me like a lose-lose proposition. 


If the EU countries stick to austerity, the people revolt and their governments fall. If they reject austerity (which I believe they will) then the Euro collapses. Germany is not going to keep bailing out these countries.


I expect that Greece will leave the Euro - soon! And then Germany won't be far behind...


Couple that with US economic problems and the Japanese financial disaster we are faced with and, as I said, I expect the bug to hit the windshield this year... Possibly summer.