Although I am not optimistic, I think evidence is mounting in abundance around the world that nothing will get better until people decide to drastically cut back on the role of government. Like, more than a 50% total cut. At least.
Let us pause here to engage in a thought experiment on the utility of an arrow fletched on both ends.
Wait, grasshopper; do not be too quick to say it would be pointless.
Leftists have an incredible ability to implement a mental disconnect. On the one hand, when there's something or an action with which they disagree, they rush to tax it, in order to have less of it. At the same time, they'll swear up and down that increasing taxes in general won't slow spending or the economy.
A normal human being's brain would explode if one tried to work that out in one's head. Maybe Michael Savage is right, that liberalism IS a mental disease.
Mark
Excellent summary.
I knew all the facts, but I did not have a clear, coherent appreciation of how all these things are related politically and economically.
There are so many nuances that would need to be discussed here if we were to get to the bottom of Japan’s doldrums, but I’m typing this while I should be working :-) so I’ll just mention one. The reason the consumption tax rise doesn’t concern most of the politicians is that in Japanese households, the wife runs the finances (it’s a Confucian thing), so the Diet raises the tax, and then hands the job of figuring out how to afford the higher tax over to the married women of Japan. The last time this happened, about 20 years ago, the SDP ran a bunch of women candidates in the Upper House in order to get the angry-wife vote, and succeeded, but that was essentially the end of the matter. What will happen this time is anyone’s guess.
How will that happen if, as the article says above, the quality of English language instruction is deteriorating?