Each one of us must be willing to contribute to society
TOKYO —
One of the most wonderful things about Japan is that freedom of expression and all other basic freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution, allowing its people to live in liberty and to fully enjoy the benefits of freedom. What could be more wonderful?
But with freedom comes with responsibility. While claiming our rights, we must also be aware of the duties and obligations that accompany these rights. The Constitution of Japan assigns three obligations to the people: education, work and taxation. The question is whether these “three vital duties of the people” are being met? Putting aside consumption taxes, what percent of the people are actually paying income tax?
When considering Japan’s fiscal crisis, our generation has the responsibility to go forward with reforms and to pass on a good society to future generations. Increasing the national debt is tantamount to “abusing the next generation” and can no longer be permitted. Instead of “abusing” the future generations, we want them to inherit a good and sound Japan. This requires us to fundamentally rethink the current subsidies and entitlements contained in the social security and public assistance systems.
Ninomiya Sontoku, a prominent Edo-period Japanese philosopher and economist (1787-1856), once said, “People cannot be saved from destitution by means of grants and tax exemptions. The secret to true salvation from poverty is to cut off all financial assistance. Such assistance does no more than to create greed and sloth, and is frequently the cause of conflict among people. As the wasteland must be brought under cultivation through its own fruits, so too must the poor overcome poverty through their own efforts.”
The words of Sontoku are compelling because we know how he himself rose out of poverty. The fact is that he led many others out of poverty by cutting off financial assistance, for which he ultimately earned their abiding gratitude. Considering the vast differences in the environment and the age that we live in, I do not think that the criticisms leveled by Ninomiya Sontoku against excessive measures are applicable to contemporary Japan. However, I do believe that there is much for us to learn from the spirit of, “Such assistance does no more than to create greed and sloth, and is frequently the cause of conflict among people.”
Certainly, we must extend a helping hand to people suffering from short-term difficulties (such as earthquake victims) and people with disabilities. But all others must become self-reliant and fulfill their three duties. In his presentation at the Asuka Conference, Robert Feldman said, “Social security has a positive impact of 30 million yen for persons above the age of 65 and a negative impact of 60 million yen on the children of today.” To correct this inter-generational disparity, we must ask the senior members of society to voluntarily forego a certain portion of the benefits that they have been receiving until now. This is necessary because the leading cause of Japan’s fiscal collapse is the increase in social security expenditures in an aging society. The passing on of this burden to future generations cannot be tolerated any further. Obviously, we pay our highest respects to the elderly who toiled in the postwar years to build the present foundation of the Japanese economy. However, we must accurately gauge the cost and benefits of each generation and arrive at a constructive consensus among all generations.
While helping the weak is important, going too far with assistance can lead to a loss of vitality and to fiscal collapse, which will only increase the burden of the next generation. Instead of depending on government support, subsidies and allowances, the first step to be taken must be self-help. With this self-help as the foundation, we should build a society that rewards those who work hard and try hard. The wealth created by those who work hard and try hard should then be reverted to society through their charitable donations and other acts of social solidarity. The weak should be encouraged to become independent and self-reliant by avoiding excessive assistance, while the strong should be encouraged to return their wealth to society without penalizing them with heavy taxes. The ultimate aim should be to build a society in which individuals help each other and a society that is brimming with vitality and energy in all quarters.
The world of politics is in disarray today. The winds of dissatisfaction with the prime minister, the leader of the nation, and distrust in political parties and politicians are everywhere. We, the people, must have a strong awareness of the fact that we constitute the electorate and the public. With this awareness in mind, we should be prepared to voice our opinion and must definitely participate and vote in all elections. In certain cases, we ourselves may be asked to become candidates in political elections and to exercise our powers of leadership. Each one of us must be willing to contribute to society as a leader shouldering the future of Japan. This determination and this willingness will lead to the rebirth of Japan toward a better country. This is what we, the people, expect ourselves to be.
Author Infomation
- Yoshito Hori
- The writer is president and dean of GLOBIS University and managing partner of GLOBIS Capital Partners.
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33 Comments
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7
JapanGal
The freedom to express yourself as all the others express themselves so as to not stick out and look different. The freedom is written, but not acted on at all.
0
oginome
I agree that creating a welfare society isn't the answer.
10
zichi
I'm not sure which Japan Yoshito Hori is writing about but it's not the one I live in. There are about 1.5 million, mostly single mothers who live below the bread line. There are about 30-50,000 homeless people, mainly males living on the streets.
The homeless supply most of the manpower for day laborers. Some of them are now working at the Fukushima nuclear power plant even though they had no experience or training. Getting 6,000-10,000¥ per day while the Yakuza contracting companies are charging 100,000¥ per day. The homeless receive very little help in becoming part of a society again.
About 2 million are receiving some form of social benefits. The poor, the old, the sick. Compared with European countries and America, that is a very low figure.
The minimum wage is about ¥750 per hour which is another low figure.
The unemployment level is around 5% which means about 10% of people who are capable of working can't find a job. I have friends who are university educated working two or three part time jobs because they can't find a full time one. Unemployment benefit is only paid for the first six months.
When it comes to national health which is something between what happens in America and what happens in Britain. We pay a monthly health charge and when we used the hospitals we pay 30% of the charge.
The average wage for a salaryman is about ¥5 million, but there are many, especially women, earning less than ¥3 million per year. These people pay less or no tax.
Too many live in poor, overcrowded and unhealthy housing. There is a lack of low rented quality housing which could be resolved with housing associations.
The central and local governments waste billions if not trillions of yen on useless projects. I found new roads in the mountains which have a beginning and end but don't actually go anywhere, looks like a landing strip? Trillions of yen have been given to power companies to build nuclear power plants which the country does not need.
Like most Asian countries, social benefits are not the norm and the family is expected to support its members.
There is a growing aging population and this writer fails to mention before the year 2050, the country will have to allow at least 30 million foreign workers into the country just to do the work and pay the taxes. At the moment there are about 2.5 million non Japanese, mostly Koreans and Chinese who were born here.
Children are not educated at schools, it just about passing exams and getting into the right university.
I'm seeing more freedom than when I first came 17 years ago, but you still have to fit into the group. Step outside of that, then there are problems.
If the writer wants people to pay more taxes then provide more well paid jobs.
4
sakurala
It seems to me that the writer thinks that everyone should be self-supporting which is just unrealistic. He is worried about the cost of the aging society and wants the elderly to take a hit. I am not sure what the national pension plan pays out but I am sure that it isn't excessive. If the elderly receive less money, I am not sure they would all be able to pay for their health care and medication. However, if they did go back to work (to fullfill their 3 duties) they would find that their salaries are cut but they are still required to work as hard as before. This is very discouraging to say the least.
I don't think people should live in a welfare state, but there are people that need assistance besides those listed by the writer. Single parents, expecting and new mothers, the suddenly unemployed can all benifit from programs such as maternity leave and training programs that should be offered by the state to allow for them to raise a family or find a new job. Addicts and people going through mental breakdowns should be offered help though state paid therapy to ensure that they can become a funtional member of society again, rather than homeless. Handing money directly over to some is not the solution but with creative thinking and public programs, people can get off of social assistance.
7
cleo
Poppycock and fiddlesticks. And codswallop.
Is Hori trying to say that the over-65s are getting benefits in the form of pension and health care to the tune of 30 million yen a year each? What utter rubbish. Those over the age of 65 who are now enjoying the 'positive impact of (a lot less than) 30 million yen' spent 40 years paying their dues, paying for their kids' education, being assured that if they just kept on running for the sake of Japan Inc., they'd be looked after in their old age. Now the upstarts who got the benefit of their hard work want to 'correct this intergenerational disparity' by chucking gramps and granny on obasuteyama. The elderly are not getting any 'benefits', they're getting back some of what they paid into the system and what they invested in the next generation. If Mr Hori wants to even things out, maybe he should start by paying up front for his fancy education and for the use of all the hospitals, roads, parks, airports, trains, every bit of infrastructure he now uses without a second thought.
Or he could take the sensible route, be grateful to those who when they were younger built all that infrastructure for him to enjoy, and do his bit to adding to it for the next generation. And hope his kids aren't as ungrateful as he is.
1
zichi
The average national pension is about ¥65,000 per month. It does increase with age but does not exceed ¥100,000 per month. People getting the pension still have to pay for medical treatment and drugs. These people paid their contributions over 40+ years of working.
No way does it reach the kind of figures of 30 million yen claimed by Hori. I agree with cleo-utter rubbish!
I have read the same kind of articles from the U.S. from the Tea Party and other right-wingers. The financial crisis is being created by poor, sick and unemployed claiming welfare benefits and has nothing to do with Wall St gangsters and banksters?
My mother and stepfather lost half their pension investments because of the thiefs of Wall St.
I thought to apply for a job, but Globis Capital Partners are not recruiting at this time?
2
JapanGal
30 million would be great but that is a bunch of garbage. No one gets that much.
-10
j4p4nFTW
People definitely have to step up and become more financially independent. Too much social welfare is given out. Six months of unemployment benefits? Why? It should take a month tops to find a new job.
I don't think companies have to provide better paying jobs. That would hurt their profits. Companies are in business to make a profit, so paying people more would only hurt the bottom line. People need to learn to accept lower pay and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. There is no need for expensive, imported brand name items.
As far as wasteful spending goes, I think zichi is missing the point. Building roads helps put people in jobs, which pay them. Besides, how would you get from point A to point B without any roads? If anything, Japan needs to step up its public spending to create more jobs.
1
zichi
@j4p4nFTW
I stated in my comment that I had found new roads in the mountains which didn't connect to any other road. While is might provide some income, a sort of social welfare project, most of the profit actually goes to the construction company.
I'm not against public spending on worthwhile projects which benefit both the local community and the wider national community. Here there is something called Section Three which mostly involves spending money on loss making projects.
I read recently, 20% of office workers in major companies are now temp workers who receive zero benefits, such as being paid on National Holidays.
How many times I have articles about reducing the taxes of the rich and well off and ending benefits of the poor, sick and old and increasing their taxation to boot.
6
cleo
Maybe it should, but in the real world it can often take a lot longer. We're in a recession and the jobs are simply not there any more, which is why the person probably lost their job in the first place. The people getting those 6 months of payments (barely enough to keep body and soul together for one person, by the way) have paid into the system.
Cutting pensions is like giving a person a nice secure safety harness attached to a good thick rope, telling them to climb a sheer cliff face and just before they reach the top, slicing through the rope. And to add insult to injury, telling them as they fall that they should be 'more self-reliant'.
Funny how it's always the people in smart suits and obese bank accounts who want us all to become 'self-reliant' (translate; the poor, the sick and the elderly should pay more so that I can hang on to my wealth)
1
gaijinfo
social security has been a scam from the beginning. It only sounded good in the beginning because there were more workers than old people. Now it's the opposite. The politicians, in order to get as many votes as they could, have painted everybody into an economic corner from which there is no escape.
What do you do?
Tell everybody who's worked their whole lives (and been promised X amount of benefits the whole time) that they are going to get stiffed? Sorry, there goes your votes politicians. Anybody that decreases benefits for such a large number of people will get kicked out of office in a hurry.
Tell the younger crowd they are going to have to pay social security taxes, but never get any benefits? Yea, that will go over well.
The only possible solution is to privatize social security, so the young workers of today will actually have THEIR OWN money to draw from when they retire, and somehow pay current social benefits with other income.
Tough to do in a country with twice as much debt as GDP.
3
zichi
Workers have rights too! Decent salary, health care, pensions, low cost housing, good schools....
-2
Cos
When a real expert writes a post, that gives headaches to JT readers.
"Is Hori trying to say that the over-65s are getting benefits in the form of pension and health care to the tune of 30 million yen a year each? "
For those that slept during the economy class in Junior High school :
Not a year. In a lifetime, in average retired people (in 2011) receive 30 M more than they paid in the 20 to 30 years they contributed. The "deficit" is a debt for Japan (or indirectly for Japanese companies doing their own insurances). So the children at birth have to pay 60 M (in a lifetime) to cover this. That's in addition to what they will need to pay for their generation's needs (health, public services, new hospitals unless they find those build in 1950 are enough until 2100), the education of their kids and maybe their own retirement. So that makes an additional 1.5 M per year, per Japanese worker, either taken as tax/contribution or reduced salaries as the companies will contribute.
Oh yes, you will contribute 40 years or more, but the eldest generation did not as the system started later than their career. And average means the temp blue-worker and farm staff contributed more than the small bit they get during their fewer years of retirement, while the elite sarariman that will live to 100 (getting the top notch health insurance) receives way more than 30 M of "present" . And can enjoy touring the ryokans at 70 000 yen in a shiny Toyota, as every 3 years, he gets a new car and 15 luxury week-ends in present.
Japan has a choice : 1. the collapsing of natality, drop of level of education (senmon gakkos and daigakus are closing at a fast pace not only because of the natality, it's because more cannot afford), drop of economic dynamism, lack of doctors and nurse for the superb hospitals, lack of investment in start-ups and innovative businesses.... because they keep rewarding the glorious generations that invest in their hobbies and in bluechips like Tepco. 2. rethinking the system and giving retirement benefits on different criteria (taking into account actual needs). Making in sort that education and research level in maintained, and enough money is going to business creation.
Grateful to ancestors ? Oh yes, like Antigone, dig your tomb and bury yourself for your ancestors, that solves it all, that's smart. And well, those we are talking about, they should get reward for... their contribution to the development of Manchuria, Korea, Nankin... ? And the next generation is proud of having build so much, reward for how they wrecked our planet with their waste of energy, car lifestyle, the extinction of whales and Asian forests, nuclear power-plant in the most quake and tsunami prone places, the on-going wars (now "off-shore" there in Middle-East), the unfair trade, etc ? And my generation, it's the same. Kids of the future, you won't owe us anything. Just be better than the old farts that lived before.
Then for those that don't believe a developed country can't fall back into Third World as its economy shrinks due to bad choices, look at Argentine over 20th Century.
-2
Cos
"Tell everybody who's worked their whole lives (and been promised X amount of benefits the whole time) that they are going to get stiffed? Sorry, there goes your votes politicians. "
Yes. And the demography makes that the over 65 (that will receive) are more numerous than the 20~50 (that will pay for present decisions for the next 1/4 of century). It's as if younger generations had no right to vote. I think people over a certain age should no longer vote. That would be fair. You're entitled to 45 years of vote, then shut it up. Or there should be a coefficient, to be sure the vote of over 65 counts for 30% maximum.
3
Nicky Washida
Agree wholly with Zichi, Cleo et al, and find it very worrying that the author is a) President and Dean of a university b) Managing partner of what I am assuming is a consulting firm and c) Japanese.
Zichi pretty much said everything I planned to say, but if you want an example of wasteful spending look at the oney the government has wasted on roads to nowhere and airports that no-one uses.
I agree in theory that a welfare state is not a good thing but if you want people to get themselves out of poverty you HAVE TO PROVIDE THE MEANS FOR THEM TO DO SO!
Who is going to hire a single mother with full benefits? Takes less than 6 months to find a job? Tell that to anyone over 45 here who has just lost theirs. Sure we can all live to our means, but here with no security, paid holiday, ability to plan for the future and treat ourselves occasionally thats hardly "living" is it?
Have to say I agree with the comment about the crazy consumerism of recent times though. Life is tough? Get your handbag from Jusco - they have some very nice ones!
2
zichi
@Nicky Washida
The author is also the CEO of a Venture Capital company and a pro nuclear energy.....
3
NeoJamal
There's not a lot that you can lecture to the new-right who believes that poverty can be eliminated by letting the poor die from their own helplessness.
Does anyone remember that 80s satire TV series "The New Statesman" where that Tory MP says, "In the good old days, you were poor, you got ill, then you die and yet these days people think they have the God given right to be cured."
2
hatsoff
I've been to Globis to hear lectures, and Yoshito Hori has many admirable qualities, but he's missed the target here and makes the mistake of relying on theory and sounding good without acknowledging the reality of what's happening in japan today. Here's an example:
He assumes the natural consequence of working and trying hard is wealth - tell that to the 'haken' (temp) workers on rock bottom wages. They work hard but where is their wealth (gone the way of their job security and health insurance? What about care workers who take care of the elderly, changing diapers and feeding the disabled - an undeniable service to society but for less than 200,000 yen per month.
State dependency is a problem, but it's hardly at epidemic levels in Japan (a far cry from the UK). The problem with 'trickle down' theories is that in reality the wealth rarely trickles down to where it's really needed. Better to cut back on other areas of bloated government than kick the poor when they are already down.
4
cleo
I dragged out my nenkin tokubetsubin and looked at the figures. In order to get my hands on the 30 million yen Hori say's I'm going to snatch from hard-working youngsters, I'd have to live till I was around 104.
Granted, I may get a bit more out of the health service as I start cracking up, but I'd have to be very, very sick for a very long time to get out what I've paid in so far.
1
GW
Folks,
Japan is BROKEN, has been since the mid 80s, white elephants are everywhere, waste, theft, kick backs....................... and what did/does the average Japanese do about it.
NOTHING!
Yeah it sucks but the elderly of Japan have let the politicians bleed the country badly, so yeah if Japan is going to have a chance of NOT becoming a 3rd world country again the oldies are going to have to suck it up BIGTIME, if not, Japan is going down the crapper.
The cheques Japan has written(to itself largely which is very LUCKY) are massive, I just dont see a chance of any light at the end of the tunnel & even after whats happened on 3/11, the politicians clearly dont give a rats.......
Were are going from BAD to UGLY folks, shouganai ne!
1
Cos
Cleo, precisely, it's not unlikely at all that you live till age 104. When the current system was established, people lived till age 65, a few till 75, centenarians were rare. They paid to cover that number of years after retirement. Then they lived till 75, and a few till 95, there are centenarians in every town. Also, the number of years of payment have already been increased for our generation. For health expenses, costs can climb quickly with new high-tech treatments, or add up with multiple drugs you need during 50 yrs. The figure is given by Feldman, the macro-economist. He is said to have collected data on Japan for a while. I don't see why he would make it up. He has no interest. I think you have to combine the different systems to get the scale of the problem. Younger employees get less in salary to cover for their retired sempai, and we know well that the State takes the relay if the corporate insurances are failing. Have any other economists, from Japan, from abroad, ever found that Japanese system was not in systematic deficit for pensions + health insurances ? Is it not in an increasing deficit ? The last 30 Prime Ministers admitted that was the case. Otherwise, why these recurring talks about increasing the consumer tax ?
And that's not an investment for the future of Japan, it's only paying debts of the past as they appear. That's true there are other sources of debts (the airports...), but they are not so big, and progressing.
"for less than 200,000 yen per month."
In 2011, if they get a full time baito (many have less) it's about 110 000 per month. Minus the tax and contributions, they live with 100 000 yen. Increase taxes, these people lose buying power. They will have to live on 90 000 yen. They will feel it much more than the riches. They =we. And in 5 years, we're here again as the deficit keeps growing. So let's raise taxes again, and they will get 80 000 yen. Till we arrive at zero ? That's not a permanent solution.
I am not the fan club of the author, but the question is important. I don't understand what he proposes concretely. Well, at least with his activities, he creates a few jobs here and there and he risks his own money at betting on the future of Japanese economy (they are probably less risky ways to make his fortune grow.). So OK, he does his share. And he wants others to do theirs...yep, but we do what ? Not sure most people can help. I promise that if my sales increase, I'll hire staff (don't worry, I'm lazy), but now, ahem... I should find something to sell to the Chinese tourists or old Japanese riches that hang out in 5 star hotels, as I see nobody else with money to spend in Kansai. Everybody wants to do that.
Nicky
"Who is going to hire a single mother with full benefits? "
Companies. Companies hire single mothers, single without-kids, married father and any qualified worker... as long as there are companies in activity. Then "with full benefits" in Japan... In case the single mothers (or anybody) can't find a job and have nothing to eat, they can go to the city hall, where a social worker gives them a bag of rice and powdered milk, that they can hide in a Jusco handbag to look like a bourgeoise. That impresses nobody and certainly not themselves. They want a rice-winning job, not a bag of rice, nor a furikomi nor any charity. Because anybody wants to feed their kids from their own work. It's the first role of parents, anywhere on earth. And if they are permanently unable to do it, it's terrible psychologically. That mother will have what image of herself ? She'll tell what to the kid ? to the teen ? We read the suicide and kill kids stories too often. That's why I think some type of welfare does more bad than good. But, there is no miracle. You have that woman with no money, she needs the rice today, or she starves. What I wish is that we ( the society) plan a way to give her a job tomorrow, instead of piling the bags of rice to hand out.
-1
oginome
Strange, cause civic society in Japan only started to form in the mid 80s...
1
zichi
"Experts" don't always get it right. Did the experts who built Fukushima get it right?
No mention of billions and even trillions of taxpayers money used to: -Bail out the U.S. government. ¥900 billion. -Bail out American and Japanese banks. -Bail out the American dollar. -Huge grants given to power companies to over construct nuclear reactors. -TEPCO will need trillions of yen to clean up the nuclear disaster and pay compensation. -Billions spent on the failed Mondu reactor. -Japan has the largest savings account in the world but the banks and especially the post office pay little or no interest.
2
cleo
Cos, while I hope I do see my 104th birthday in good health, no way is anyone calculating the national finances on the supposition that the average lifespan is 104. Feldman is surely talking about averages, not the lucky few who are extremely long-lived. And as such he appears to have his figures wildly wrong. Even if he's calculating only what the over-65s get out of the system (and not what they've put in) and what the children of today put in (not what they stand to get out) the figures still don't add up.
The pension system has reached a crunch, not because the people who have paid in so far don't deserve what they were promised, but because the money paid in was mishandled. It doesn't take a genius to realise that when the boomers started hitting retirement age, the demand for pensions would go up; but before that those boomers were paying in huge amounts of money, far more than was needed to pay out pensions for the boomers' parents. But instead of investing the extra or even putting it by for when it would inevitably be needed, the geniuses in charge of national finance used it to build useless, expensive concrete boxes and white elephants.
0
Darren Brannan
yes a dear friend of mine just retired and had to go to Hello Work and milk as much as she could from unemployment benefits because her pension was so small.A lot of people just lost their pension ..as in 'it went missing'. What?
My dad said to me as we were walking around Osaka 'Gee Daz, there seems to be a lot of people doing trifling jobs that wouldn't even exist back home..like the old guys marshalling bicycles outside the library'.
I guess they need it.
2
fds
the author seems to be confusing welfare benefits with social security. people that have paid into social security should be entitled to the benefit from it. the problem is government has mismanaged the money paid into social security so that there is not enough money to pay the benefits and now they want the beneficiaries to also pay the price for their mismanagement. as for how to fix it, i have no clue but personally, i like new zealand's social security system, where i understand that everyone pays in the same, everyone gets the same benefits. if you want a better life in retirement, its up to you to save for it. how you would get there from where we are now is another story but i do think the social security system would get fixed faster if the politicians and government employees didn't have their own separate system apart from everyone else's.
as for welfare, while there are those that do need the help, there is no such thing as a free lunch which is why the current system is abused. if you want to receive welfare benefits you should have to do something for them, pick up garbage, clean public toilets, do charity work, could be anything that needs doing but nobody should be just given money they haven't done anything to earn.
-1
some14some
...and a 'big momentum' to an expert writer?
1
presto345
Exactly. A clear example of the incompetence and indifference of those doing their 9 to 5 jobs in the lower echelons as well as those supervising them in their untouchable heavens or havens.
1
gonemad
The prerequisite for this to work is that society gives the poor a chance to work themselves out of poverty. Not in terms of money, but in terms of the legal and social environment. For somebody with no funds, the hurdles to set up their own company in modern Japan are almost insurmountable. And if they succeed to take that hurdle, their business will be taxed to death. Somebody who has lost his home will not be accepted by any regular company and so will never get the funds to rent a home again. The single salary of a haken worker often does not allow to support a family yet there is no institution or grandparents any more to take care of the children if both parents or a single parent want to work. There is no free land any more as it seems it was in the Edo period, nor is there any other free natural resource. If we want to get rid of welfare payments, we first have to provide a suitable legal and social environment.
The author seems to assume that Japan’s fiscal crisis is caused by the welfare state. It is not. It is caused by repeated and failed attempts to bail out banks or spend it's way out of recession. It is not the support of the poor which led to the current disaster but the support of the wealthy.
3
Johannes Weber
There is another very interesting concept, which states exactly the opposite. Provide a basic amount of money to everyone so that they can pay basic living costs and can afford to work. In my country (Germany), we have a drastic increase of so-called working poor, whose salaries barely reach the cost for paying a small apartment, simple food and - here's my favourite - the cost for commuting to their workplace. How are these people supposed to lead their lives if some idiot company blows up an industrial facility in the neighbourhood and they have to move? Or if they get ill and their salaries are not paid continuously? Or if there is an accident or something breaks down and needs repair, for which they have to pay money (even if they bear no blame)?
It is a natural desire for all self-respecting human beings to do something useful. If they know that they will not fall into poverty, they will also accept poorly paid jobs. One such example is health care. If You'd pay these health care workers fair wages, the price of health care would rise to unbearable heights for the customers. But this is the only job sector which will be steadily growing in the future. If You want to work in health care, it is easy to find a job. If You work in health care, the pay is awfully low (except a few positions) and it is already hard to feed Yourself and keep You healthy.
Thus, there are three things politics has to do: it must decouple the basic living expenses from the salaries. Otherwise these workers with low wages can barely feed their families. And it must decouple taxes from wages (at the low levels). There are plenty of ways how how this can be accomplished (e.g. step functions in the tax rate instead of a smooth increase). Lastly, they must find efficient ways to tax income which is not wages (like stocks, inheritances and benefits). These are mostly protected from taxes in ways such that wealthy people often have lower relative tax rates than the average worker. Not just here, but almost everywhere in the world. If the government fails at these three tasks, society will deteriorate.
Neocons often say that accomplishments should be rewarded. If they truly believe that they must remove the rewards which are not balanced with accomplishments. An inheritance or ownership of profitable stocks is no accomplishment in most cases.
1
Cos
" those boomers were paying in huge amounts of money, far more than was needed to pay out pensions for the boomers' parents."
In your imagination. Or in other countries.They never ever paid one yen more.
Japanese pension system has always been a "pay as you go system". That means the current active generations pay for the current retired generations.
There never was any promise to warranty a level of income to elderly. The only promise is that what the next generation will pay will be shared between the Japanese payers when they retired. The foreign payers -since they want us in the system to pay but not to receive pensions -may or may not (nothing promised) be given back a lump sum based on what they contributed (special case), like 2/3 (which makes less as it is not corrected with cost of life and minored by loss of files).
Normally, the system should balance itself and not take on the income of the current active generation a bigger % than they took from the previous generations. To get the balance, the age to receive can be set older, and premium reduced.
Logically, given the demographic + immigration + the economy we have had in Japan for a while... if from now, the active generation doesn't pay in more than the holy baby-boomer, either payment of pension should start at the age of 80, or they should be half or less than half (in average) of what it is now.
Now do the citizens of Japan accept that, or do they want that the active generations (that already have an average post-tax and contribution income) much lower than the average pensioner pay more to keep the allow the retired baby-boomer to live on 300 000 yen, while a young couple will do with 150 000 (and they'd better make kids to pay for them later, raise them, pay their uni) ? It's a choice.
About health spending, that's roughly the same. You have a 80 / 20 pattern. 80 of expenses for the retired. And 80% of the premiums paid by the others.
Japan is not the only country with such problems... but it is the one with the least hope of progress.
0
Nicky Washida
"Who is going to hire a single mother with full benefits? "
Companies. Companies hire single mothers,
Yeah, right. They also pay them decent salaries and are totally understanding when the Mother has to take 2 weeks off as their child has chicken pox. And then 2 days after they return another 2 weeks off because the younger brother caught it. They would never schedule meeting after 5 o clock knowing she cant go, and they would willingly hire her over a single woman with no commitments, or a man, because, well, they have to do their bit for society, right?
Not saying they are right or wrong, just saying this is the reality. Another reality is that I lost my job here the minute I announced I was pregnant, because a pregnant belly "doesnt look professional in front of clients". So sorry if I dont believe for a second that companies will ever stick to the law or do their bit for society.
0
zichi
There's a new class of people in Japan, "The Working Poor!" There are many well documented cases.
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