JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
-
- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
-
- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
0
TheQuestion
And that is their prerogative. I smoke and drink and eat horribly but my blood work is, in no uncertain terms, perfect as is my blood pressure. At the same time I have a number of fairly costly genetic issues which are not covered by any state run program in current existence nor have they apparently seen fit to even register the drugs used to treat it due to the comparative rarity, the French damn near killed me because of it. The plan I worked out with my insurance provider is perfectly crafted for me and me alone. I would gain little from a universal system and lose out quite a bit and as such I see no reason why I should pay into one.
And it is flawed, like many of his other decisions. Freedom and protection of life and property are glorious, but to believe that society should be held responsible for retirement, education, or welfare I find to be gross overreach.
In my current job I’ve gotten the pleasure of seeing what kinds of people such entitlements breed in other nations. I’m used to seeing old money strut around the main offices but in Europe it’s like everybody does it. No sense of responsibility, no dependability, and, when I find they’ve tried to hide a major mess up, no spine.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
0
TheQuestion
Two problems with that. For starters nothing is free; it would be paid for by taxes and those that would pay the most into that system would receive the comparatively least value for that money. The second problem is this system of rewarding healthy behavior in that it with rewards there often come penalties, especially when government is involved. Health should be a choice that a person makes for themselves, not a societal one.
Define general welfare. I believe that it means food, water, and shelter. Three things that anybody with a functioning brain can find in the U.S in abundance. For those without a functioning brain there are charity shelters and institutions for them, I used to volunteer at one.
Anything beyond those three basics I consider a luxury.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
0
TheQuestion
Actually I'm a fairly well educated one that speaks five languages, three of which I'm fluent in, and that is regularly sent abroad to conduct performance reviews of my companies international offices. So yes, I can find France on a map...its teh 1 shped liek a boot rite?
I just don't like seeing money wasted, especially if it's my money. I don't see the benefit of government safety nets, food and drug regulations, or financial ones when they are, at best, lagging. Having worked at all levels of employment from laboring to corporate controlling and in both public and private industry I find the inefficiency of government to be well deserving of my ire.
You're confusing a free market with a coercive entity. The market doesn't require that you do anything at all; rather it exists for the benefit of those who actually feel like doing something.
I think I've made it quite clear that I don't distinguish between the two. As far as I'm concerned they're both out to strip the general population of their rights, they just use different methods. I vote based my own research and I'm frequently drawn to third party or independent candidates. The most disastrous thing in modern American history is the split ticket vote.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
0
TheQuestion
A voucher system might not be so bad, it would place a little bit more responcibility in the hands of those that use federal aid. It might also cut down on administrative costs so more of the money taken out of my paycheck goes to people that actually use the entitlements. Though at this point I've pretty much given up thinking that government can make anything better than sub-par trash.
They also have low growth rates, garbage bonds, low population growth, and a piss poor labor base.
I don't think government should be responcible for any of that, rather it should be the job of the consumer to moniter the products they consume. I also don't see why government should have anything to do with my lifestyle or how healthy it is. And I wouldn't touch European style healthcare if they paid me let alone the other way around. I'll take my high deductible and instant gratification.
Posted in: House passes huge GOP budget cuts, opposing Obama
0
TheQuestion
Actually defense and the courts are the only two things I find worth spending federal money on. Everything else is merely overreach.
Considering the U.S hasn't had a period of peace lasting more than a decade in well over a century I'd say it might be better to err on the side of caution. Maybe the next war will be someone that can actually do something.
I think we've given up on caring about our rep, at least I have.
By all accounts NATO has been having a serious undermanning problem and according to the Washington post and Al Jazeera they're also running low on precision bombs and other munitions.
Posted in: U.S. Congress OKs big budget cuts — bigger fights await
0
TheQuestion
Raise SS age to 80, none of this stupid debate over 70. When SS was enacted almost nobody reached the original requirement age, time to either correct that error or eliminate it entirely. I'd sure like to have all the money put into it back, especially considering that at this pace I'd never see it anyway. Start winding down Medicare and Medicaid, they should only be for those who cannot under any circumstances take care of themselves either due to defect or defect brought on by old age. Revamp or remove the Department of Education which has been a colossal failure. Institute a flat tax and put some consideration to a new tax code, it doesn't need to be smaller or more understandable, just different. Stop subsidizing all forms of energy, if it's worth the money people will buy it, if it's not than it needs work. And pass something that specifically outlines that the government will NEVER use taxpayer money to bail out a private company again.
Posted in: U.S. Congress OKs big budget cuts — bigger fights await
0
TheQuestion
Neither plan cuts anywhere near enough. Start playing hardball, consider outright cutting entire programs instead of just reducing them. Institute goals for the various departments and when they don't live up to them, cut the department in its entierty.
Uh...yeah...you seem to forget the part where they all died. So yes, the idea of spending more to get out of a spending crisis will result in even more problems.
Posted in: Obama calls for $4 trillion deficit reduction
0
TheQuestion
At least in Michigan we know that we're in crippling debt with horrible unemployment. Must be nice to pass laws that will further cripple your businesses and make life more expensive for everybody in general just so that Al Gore will grace you with that creepy smile of his, maybe even take you out for a night at the primaries. I guess it's all the chems in the water over there.
Posted in: California sets high renewable power goals
0
TheQuestion
Women who opt for the veil have their passport pictures and state ID's taken with the veil off, they need to be prepared to show their face to police for identification, and they must remove the veil at a storekeeper's request or when in a government building, schools have their own rules. I've lived and worked in just about every area of Metro-Detroit until I finished college and I've never had a problem with the muslims.
It's not hard to establish reasonable guidelines or to follow them. European governments and their muslim communites are making every possible mistake in dealing with each other.
Posted in: 61 arrested over banned Paris Muslim veil protest
0
TheQuestion
I think the french are perfectly capable of stopping at a reasonable level of enforcement. While all parties involved have had a hand in escalating the issue the feeling I get is that the French see the possibilty of that next logical step as a certainty, which it need not be. The Muslim community isn't exactly helping the matter.
I think that whole country has an issue with the idea of a strong reasonable position. This represents another key item that other countries should pick up from U.S cities like Dearborn. They addressed the issue and we now have a stong, successful, very productive muslim community.
I blame Europe's welfare systems and shorter work days. People over there have way to much time to think of new and creative ways to cause trouble and create injustices where none existed before. Honestly if our American employees acted anything like our European ones they'd be fired inside 10 minutes with the sole exeption of those in Denmark, God knows I love those people. The sense of entitlement is overwhelming and I really do feel that both the French ban and the Muslim reaction to the ban are linked to that.
Deregulate labor and people will be to busy for this nonsense.
Posted in: 61 arrested over banned Paris Muslim veil protest
0
TheQuestion
I stand by my old position. They should be able to wear their veils in public but they still need to take them off for photo identification, for police, and at the request of store owners looking out for their own security. If memory serves correctly their husbands can already accompany them to their ID shots. This used to just be about police being able to inspect veiled women now it's been escalated way out of proportion.
Though, on a lighter note. I don't think our Lyon office is due for a visit for a few months. I hate being sent when the host country decides to riot.
Posted in: 61 arrested over banned Paris Muslim veil protest
0
TheQuestion
Private dispute or the guy just snapped for whatever reason. I doubt it has anything to do with nuclear power.
Posted in: 1 dead after shooting aboard UK nuclear sub
0
TheQuestion
That's pretty much what I was thinking.
The letter indicates some level of planning. If he'd gone on a rampage in a mall or public place maybe I'd just be content with him being dead. But given the victims in this instance I'd say is much more than he deserved.
Posted in: 12 children killed in Brazil school shooting
0
TheQuestion
What I wouldn't give for ten minutes with that guy in a room with a set of thumb screws and a scalpel.
Posted in: 12 children killed in Brazil school shooting
0
TheQuestion
Well thats PIG, now lets see how long it takes Spain so we can get our full PIGS.
That doesn't work. It doesn't remove toxic assets from the books, it just tries to bury it in money and artificially inflates capital for a few months. Nation's and businesses need to treat the source of their financial failures, not apply a monetary bandaid and pretend it solved anything.
Posted in: Portugal to ask European Union for bailout
0
TheQuestion
Not enough paper in world.
Posted in: Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes
0
TheQuestion
That was more a failure of popular support. Plus the soviets ended up having their own guns used against them as well throughout the Eastern Bloc and other places of soviet interests. And it was all that support they were sending out that contributed to their eventual collapse.
You're also way more likely to get killed by enemy fire. The common reaction to being shot at in a war zone is, oddly enough, to shoot back. Ends fail to justify means. Airstrikes are just flat out better in this instance.
Posted in: Libyan rebels say NATO airstrike killed 13 of their own
0
TheQuestion
It's not even idiocy, which can be largely harmless if the society in which it manifests instills proper structure for them to spout it. The government of Afghanistan and other middle eastern nations throw fuel on the fire and the culture of glorifying those that spill the blood of westerners is the problem. They could be any religion, its that whole region of the planet that's the problem.
Posted in: Afghans riot as anti-foreign resentment grows over Quran burning in Florida
0
TheQuestion
If an ambulance is moving astride a line of armed troops in a combat zone I could see it looking a little suspicious.
Thats pretty much the reverse of how it actually works. On the ground you see some armed guys, from the air you can see the armed individuals, local geography, where they're going to, where they came from, and any other units that may be moving with them a few miles away. By contrast ground troops can only see whats in front of them.
At every turn you keep saying that it would be better to clarify from the ground. It's not, ground units are no better at differentiating one group of armed people from another. Hell, we shoot at ourselves from time to time in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There you go, you've stated that if it's a choice between air and ground units you'd prefer the U.S used ground forces. That is what I take issue with, you're justifications for this preference are flawed. If you don't advocate direct action, fine, but don't go out stating that ground units would be preferable to air units in this situation. It's simply not feasible in any way shape or form.
That has never worked. They always end up getting pointed back at us. The way I see it if things go sour with the rebels and they decide to hate us at least they'll have to buy their own damn guns. We use them better anyway.
Posted in: Libyan rebels say NATO airstrike killed 13 of their own
0
TheQuestion
Refer to my 11:43 post. In the U.S and most of the west those actions would be universally condemned and the perpetrators would go to prison, as they have. No double standard, if anything the fact that so many Christian organizations have condemned abortion clinic bombings (the Catholic Church, the National Right to Life Committee, and the Pro-Life Action League have all made public condemnations) shows that Christians, while not lacking their fair share of zealots, are more likely to call out the rogue elements within their ranks.
Posted in: Afghans riot as anti-foreign resentment grows over Quran burning in Florida