tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post114093151050982300..comments2023-09-28T21:40:05.328+10:00Comments on Dr Clam's accidental blog: To be, that is the answerMarco Parigihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00702055111711651319noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141345861201158302006-03-03T11:31:00.000+11:002006-03-03T11:31:00.000+11:00There's a useful extension to your static example ...There's a useful extension to your static example of a typical Japanese female. However, what of the guilt she feels about her parents as they become old and dependent, after having been supported by them. How are the old faring under recent times?Marco Parigihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00702055111711651319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141255510864894262006-03-02T10:25:00.000+11:002006-03-02T10:25:00.000+11:00I'd attribute it pretty much to the empowerment of...I'd attribute it pretty much to the empowerment of women.<BR/><BR/>Career opportunities are now open for them more than ever before. Of course this is may not look like it from the outside, but I think this is mistaken. Empowerment for women just takes a different form here than what we're used to.<BR/><BR/>Many foreigners complain about how there are still women serving tea to their bosses while wearing a short-skirted uniform.<BR/><BR/>But that women is probably able to support herself and live away from home, which is a relativally new thing. But if she's cash savvy, she'll live at home, pay her parents almost no rent, and surround herself with brand name goods. Why would she want a baby to mess up her 20-something years? She can now work until her early 30s then catch that upwardly mobile young exec, who'll keep her in the life she spent a decade becoming accustomed to. I think they've never had it so good!<BR/><BR/>Of course then we're back to your nihilism, Dr. Clam.winstoninaboxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02639817202208983827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141102759989337012006-02-28T15:59:00.000+11:002006-02-28T15:59:00.000+11:00Don't stop at the reasons. The demographic long te...Don't stop at the reasons. The demographic long term *effects* of a low birth rate are pretty severe. Its not so much that I think Japan is destined to be doomed, but destined to become irrelevant. The symptom of deflation and low growth has a probable demographic cause (increasing dependancy ratios). Compare to Ireland which has had strong growth for over a decade, with also a demographic cause to explain it (decreasing dependancy ratios). Of course it is a little dubious to extrapolate too far into the future, but I'm betting on the US remaining in the top spot as "leaders of the free world" to give it a name.Marco Parigihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00702055111711651319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141088112003685802006-02-28T11:55:00.000+11:002006-02-28T11:55:00.000+11:00I'm not so bitter, just addicted to hyperbole! I s...I'm not so bitter, just addicted to hyperbole! I shall try to curb my weakness for extravagant exaggerations. 'Nihilism' to me means 'not believing in much of anything', which seems to fit some of your earlier descriptions of Japanese society. And by 'despair' I mean 'not having a sense of confidence about the future', which (from the outside) seems applicable to post-bubble Japan. What do you see as the reasons for the collapse of the Japanese birthrate?Dr Clamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14985493422534275997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141086996483846642006-02-28T11:36:00.000+11:002006-02-28T11:36:00.000+11:00Dr. Clam, you've got to get out of the West to a p...Dr. Clam, you've got to get out of the West to a place more suited to your ideologies - "it is societies without such ideologies, overcome by mindless nihilism and despair, like Europe in the 3rd and 21st centuries, that suffer such calamities" - this bitterness will eat you up!<BR/><BR/>Again I look to the example of Japan. Neither nihilistic nor wracked by despair (except at the loss of the bubble period), it has a birthrate that has left a big gapping hole through the floor within which it has dropped.winstoninaboxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02639817202208983827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7701411.post-1141005851224637692006-02-27T13:04:00.000+11:002006-02-27T13:04:00.000+11:00There are a couple of reasons why think the calip...There are a couple of reasons why think the caliphate should be set up first, and the reinterpretation of Islam vis value of life as a separate clerical issue.<BR/> 1) The problems of the black market in abortions. <BR/>2) The lack of systems to reliably register pregnancies, and gauge and control fertility overall.<BR/><BR/>I have at times thought that two of the problems with regards to fertility - People having children they can't afford, and people wanting childen they can't have is for the latter to buy the former's baby. A free market (luxury model I suspect like the Guatemalans) in babies or options on babies in advance of birth, may come part way to resolving that issue in an economically flexible (but ethically dubious) way.<BR/>This still won't resolve the slippery issue of - "a parent not wanting a baby, but if the choice is wanting it or losing the future chance of having them, wanting it without *really* wanting it, and forever having issues about what might have been"Marco Parigihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00702055111711651319noreply@blogger.com