Birth, School, Work, Death...
Hmm...
Did Japan actually find a way to avoid the seemingly inevitable deflationary
implications of a conservative, aging, saving population. It would seem so.
However, the problem, as I see it, is that the "solution" (worked out over more than a decade) is:
1. punish savers by providing zero yield on Japanese treasuries
2. promise even more draconion punishment by threatening a savings tax (reverse/negative interest) by the banks
3. essentially bankrupt the national government (by comparison, Japan's national debt at 150% of GDP makes our $8T debt -- a mere 55-60% of GDP -- look positively frugal).
4. promote, at seemingly any cost, the growth of a young, spendthrift consumer class addicted to fashion and gadgets (high margin consumer goods).
So the real issue is this: if you create a world economic system dependent on price inflation (aka devaluation of your savings), then what are the longer/larger implications as both human life expectancy and population increase at current levels?
1. no retirement
2. no financial independence (you are a slave to the machine and you will always be a slave to the machine -- at least until you die)
3. meaningless, masturbatory consumption, leading to worsening global climate/environment
4. the human race never bothers to create a sustainable economic system that actually works -- at least without working to death.
Well WHOOP-DE-FUCKING-DO!
So I guess happy days are here again and we should all therefore invest in the stock market and fill up the auxillary tank in our SUV with E85 (which consumes more fossil energy per gallon produced than the "A-Rab" gallon it replaces) -- at least until all the polar ice is gone and the Great World Fire of 2012 begins...
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid. -- Nietzsche
Did Japan actually find a way to avoid the seemingly inevitable deflationary
implications of a conservative, aging, saving population. It would seem so.
However, the problem, as I see it, is that the "solution" (worked out over more than a decade) is:
1. punish savers by providing zero yield on Japanese treasuries
2. promise even more draconion punishment by threatening a savings tax (reverse/negative interest) by the banks
3. essentially bankrupt the national government (by comparison, Japan's national debt at 150% of GDP makes our $8T debt -- a mere 55-60% of GDP -- look positively frugal).
4. promote, at seemingly any cost, the growth of a young, spendthrift consumer class addicted to fashion and gadgets (high margin consumer goods).
So the real issue is this: if you create a world economic system dependent on price inflation (aka devaluation of your savings), then what are the longer/larger implications as both human life expectancy and population increase at current levels?
1. no retirement
2. no financial independence (you are a slave to the machine and you will always be a slave to the machine -- at least until you die)
3. meaningless, masturbatory consumption, leading to worsening global climate/environment
4. the human race never bothers to create a sustainable economic system that actually works -- at least without working to death.
Well WHOOP-DE-FUCKING-DO!
So I guess happy days are here again and we should all therefore invest in the stock market and fill up the auxillary tank in our SUV with E85 (which consumes more fossil energy per gallon produced than the "A-Rab" gallon it replaces) -- at least until all the polar ice is gone and the Great World Fire of 2012 begins...
At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid. -- Nietzsche