JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
- 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
-
- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
-
- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
0
tkoind2
Lizz. I don't support the kind of debt and spending that you refer to either. But the problem you describe here is more a middle class issue than a poor one. The poor have had little access to credit all along. It is simply not the case that this class has been driving up debt.
Now some of the middle class may have descended into the poor classes over the past few years taking their debt with them. But the majority of poor just have not had access to credit to contribute to this problem. It is clearly the middle classes that are the issue there.
I will be the first to support your contention that we have, or are on the brink of a depression. No one wants to use that word just yet for fear of where it will lead.
Roosevelt got it right in the 30's with programs to put people to work. This stimulates demand and also rebuilds the labor classes. The US and UK both need to consider this option. And consider the investment one that will pay off over time. It can begin with labor for infrastructure projects (roads, bridges, schools etc...) but it must also extend to programs to re-educated workers who have seen their jobs leave or diminish so that they can again become strong contributors to society.
Train more teachers and make salaries viable. Train more technical people especially in areas of energy and sustainability both industries that the US and UK could be strong leaders in. There are so many areas that working people could be led to working in that would benefit these nations. But we have to be willing to invest in programs to enable them to do so.
More is required, but I firmly believe in the concept of a New, New Deal and in social investment to assure a viable labor class in these countries.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
0
tkoind2
Superlib. No I am not against arresting people. I am not against charging people for crimes. These are sensible and prudent measures. Nor am I against arresting people who were found to have committed crimes. I am not at all for criminal behavior. I personally subscribe to Martin Luther King's approach to social uprising. But sadly his lessons have been lost in our much more selfish and violent age.
Hatsoff. I do think attitude is a key issue here as well. After so long a period of feeling locked out, it won't be easy to gain trust or cool anger. But it has to start somewhere.
It isn't good enough to just have programs that treat symptoms. We have to have programs that have the opportunity to yield real results. Education, for example, must begin early for children and offer strong pathways to higher eduction opportunities. But this will only work if students are safe, taught by competent teachers and given the resources to assure that home life does not disrupt learning, as is often the case.
For adults we need more means of training people to do work that will help break the poverty cycle. This must include opportunties for retraining and return to education for older people as well.
Many have pointed out that otherwise middle class people are involved here too. I believe that they are the class that has felt the increasing worry and fear over the economy in a very unique way. This community has higher expectations but has seen job loss, decreased opportunities and income and few means of change. We also have to have programs to help people in these classes retool to take new career and work paths. Especially since this class most often is the one most eager to work and learn.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
Lizz "It is created. Redistribute it from the producers, to the parasites, and you can destroy it, too.The basis of wealth is work. If everyone works hard at producing goods and services, wealth increases."
This may have been true in the Industrial growth age of the US, but it is certainly not the case today.
Your argument assumes that there is viable work for every person who wishes to work. But there isn't with a 10% plus unemployment rate in the US and much of Europe, many who want to work and contribute and grow your definition of wealth cannot.
Then there is underemployment. People who work hard at several jobs and yet remain in poverty. They are not gaining ground or wealth.
It is utter nonsense that labor results in wealth in a system designed to concentrate wealth in the already wealthy communities. It is utter propaganda and illusion that the average low or middle class worker will accumulate wealth from working. On the contrary, most workers are losing ground year on year, while the wealthy are becoming increasingly and obscenely rich.
And these "parasites" you refer to are increasingly normal, formerly middle class people who have had their jobs shipped off to cheaper labor markets.
I am sick to death of the rightwing denial that working people all over the first world are losing ground while the rich get richer. We have a world based upon greed that harms every working class and poor person on the planet and it needs to stop!
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
-1
tkoind2
Breit... LIbertarian is a wide ranging word. It can mean a form of moderate independent in US politics. But it can also represent a fringe of the right who abscond with the word to mask otherwise very right wing points of view. I think the body of criticism of that economist and his following speak for themselves. These are reactionaries and conservative "libertarians" with a clear anti-left and anti-liberal agenda.
So I stand by my indictment of his views as being strongly right in base nature and very much outside the mainstream in economics and politics.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
0
tkoind2
Proxy thank you for taking on Breit.... for his posts.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
2
tkoind2
Oracle. I did not say you have to do nothing about the violence. Obviously you need to enforce the law to the best of your ability. But you also need to be sensitive in how you do so as to not create new catalysts of violence.
It is a fine line, but cities walk that line every day world wide.
Short term you have to do all you can to reach out to those who will listen in these communities. ONLY with local partnership can you even hope to contain the problem. And you MUST avoid isolating the community as it will alienate allies to the state who exist there.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
Hi Hatsoff. Thanks for the post.
I wish there was a simple answer, but we don't live in simple times. Poverty is relative, so is social and political disaffection. Equally there are other social and economic factors that drive how people feel about society.
In the UK and in the US there are classes of people, who by global standards, are wealthy, well fed and safe. Yet by relative standards in their home countries are left outside the prosperity and social empowerment.
I grew up in a safe working class neighborhood where all the men worked hard and families tried to do better by their kids. Yet from the time I was small layoffs, pay freezes, lack of upward mobility left most of these families in decline, losing ground year on year.
Now few can afford college for their kids, crime has come to the depressed neighborhoods and once quaint little homes are now neighbors to undesirable people.
I am sure in these areas most people are well intentioned, but the areas are often brought down by a criminal few. This raises frustration and anger giving way to wider spread disaffection towards the state.
So I do think that poverty and social issues need to be looked at in the complex light of reality that they exist in.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
Short term, open dialogue with those communities. Enact programs to help get people back to work. Launch work to find out if policing is indeed leading to public outrage.
These tacit steps may help empower local community leaders to work to restrain outrage. But it must be followed by very real programs to get people out of poverty and to social invest them in society. That will cost money. A lot of it, but that is the cost of flattening society and solving the problem when considerable economic and social gaps appear.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
SmithinJapan. Amen! They would be the very last ones to fight.
Posted in: Paying their respects
0
tkoind2
There are inescapable facts that face us in the 21st century. Many of those involve the role of poverty in how the world will be this century. And it is an issue that threatens to expand as economic hardship spreads into the previously more stable developed nations.
We can no longer ignore poverty or dismiss it as a problem for the "third world." In its many forms poverty is present in Europe, America and the UK and it is not going to go away without our hard work and intervention. And if we fail in doing what is necessary to address poverty, then we invite more civil unrest and social upheaval.
Safety and security both within our domestic nations and in our international involvement will hinge upon dealing with poverty and disaffection. Those problems lead to much of the crime, gang related activity and even politcial violence around the world. And it is growing worst.
You can call me a socialist or whatever other name you feel compelled to label me with, but it does not change the fact that we have to rethink our approach to how our societies work economically. And we must confront these challenges with new vision and open minds to explore new solutions. Everything depends upon this shift from polarized, pigeonedholed political dogma, to far more practical and humanistic approaches to finding real solutions to our problems.
If we do not, then we risk inviting the same kind of scapgoating and hatred that defined the 1930's and 40's. And we risk the rise of fascism again when people choose hatred and repression over more civil and enlightened solutions to these problems.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
10
tkoind2
"We caused great suffering and pain to many countries, especially in Asia, in the war and we must deeply reflect, while paying our respects to the many victims and their families,” "
Spoken as a true stateman and leader. Kan, you have really been given unfair treatment by your party and the rest of the useless political leadership in Japan. I think you did as well as any other leader could have done given the problems with the Japanese system of governance.
Today you did well.
Posted in: Japan marks 66th anniversary of World War II surrender
0
tkoind2
AerosX. The mods want to keep the discussion fair and civil. And they have been more than open on this topic today to allow the discussion to evolve and include many related issues.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
2
tkoind2
" "Yeah, and we gotcha Tojo!" "We gotcha!" I had to smile ...."
Gotta love it!
Posted in: Paying their respects
3
tkoind2
These guys remind me of the "South Will Rise Again" Confederate types in America's south. Dreaming about the gold old days of their fallen military history and glossing over all the very negative realities of the time.
Without these militarists in Japan, the war would never have happened and the many Japanese innocents who died in the war would not have suffered and died.
But I guess it is more convenient to be sentimental for a false history than realistic about the true history. Japan should blame her militarist past for all the pain and suffering of that war.
Posted in: Paying their respects
-1
tkoind2
Proxy, thanks again, a welcome ally in this otherwise very right oriented debate.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
So your answer to a debate is name calling AerosX. I guess that is the last defense of those who are failing to win a point. Well done. Very academic of you.
Look, I am very happy for you that you have found a group that represents your point of view. Mises is a very conservative if not right wing think tank that hardly represents "Fact" in the broad sense of the word. This group has met with conserable criticism from the mainstream for unothodox views. Some examples include.
Some reviews of your source material.
"Conservative commentator Whittaker Chambers published a similarly negative review of that book in the National Review, stating that Mises's thesis that anti-capitalist sentiment was rooted in "envy" epitomized "know-nothing conservatism" at its "know-nothingest."
"A number of critics of Mises, including economist J. Bradford DeLong[26] and sociologist Richard Seymour,[27] have criticized Mises for writing approvingly of fascism in Liberalism, a book published in 1927:"
So post all the links to this guy that you wish, clearly his views are extreme and often noted for their lack of understanding or compassion for people. What is economics without compassion and care for people?
Nice try. And you may well want to come down off that high horse with some better sources before calling people names friend. Especially when quoting people who are borderline fascist in political nature.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
1
tkoind2
"The U.S. is NOT Sweden and Sweden is NOT the UK, different countries, different social structures, economy, population etc."
No kidding. But does that mean that the principles that work for one nation are impossible for another? Hardly! N. Europe has had numerous examples of how a society can flatten and lead to greater equality within a market economy. This is something that we should be looking to for clues to solve problems in the UK and in the US. Refusing to learn lessons from another culture is self destructive and counter productive to the goals our societies need to achieve.
AerosX. The Depression era should have taught us a great deal. 1.That capitalism will not selfregulate, it must be regulated by oversight. A point reconfirmed in 2008. 2. De-regulation allows banking and business to abuse the freedom to feed their greed at the expense of the people. Again both the depression era and 2008 validate this contention.
Regulation would never have allowed the exotic funds of the recent crisis to arise. It is the fault of conservative leadership in the US and other nations that empowered both the financial services and insurance industries to create the pit they all fell into in 2008. The post depression regulation was put in place to protect the people. But de-regulation exists only to protect the greedy.
Fairness and Equality are two objectives we should all aspire to. As this will invariably lead to greater social morality and consideration of all economic strata. It is absolutely possible to have a fair and free market economy, intelligently regulated and equitable to the people. The only people who believe this is impossible are those who stand to lose their power of stealing the worlds wealth. More and more people from poor on up are realizing this fact. 2008 made clear the cost of failing to change. Did you miss that time? Because you clearly failed to learn the hard taught lessons.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
0
tkoind2
Proxy. Thanks for a great post.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
0
tkoind2
AerosX "Those with your views are either Keynes or Communist/Socialist." Just because you are only aware of these two examples, does not mean that there are not other ideologies and economic models. Do expand your understanding and thinking about the world rather than trying to pigeonhole people into tiny inappropriate boxes.
Nice try anyway.
"Capitalism does* NOT * = corporatism" Prove that one exists in our modern world without the other and we can talk. They are twins attached at the hip and head.
"Your are most likely a Keynes by this quote." What is with you and the need to pigeonhole people. Expand your vision friend. Many people bring many economic and social ideas together to form their vision. You should try it.
Proxy touched on a key issue. Closing the gaps economically also close the gaps politically and socially and invite far less disenfranchisement in a society. You can have free markets and still have a socially responsible society. It is unchecked capitalism that is the problem. Not the socially conscientious programs that help close economic gaps and empower people to rise.
Just quit trying to force people into name definitions. You need to see that people have complex visions of the world that prescribe solutions to a world that is equally complex. No pigeonhole can achieve that.
Posted in: British PM clashes with police over 'zero tolerance' strategy, hiring U.S. cop
0
tkoind2
I guess Mushroom.... had no counter to these arguments.
Posted in: Geopolitics and the modernization of the armed forces of China