Thread

1. shoobiedoo · 1789687401 · focus · HN ↗

   This article calls it a "quiet emergency" but even as a foreigner living in Japan there are alarm bells everywhere. And the government buying 150 F35's is just a slap in the face when there's a massive chunk of the population that is, very quickly, going to need extra care.

   I looked into becoming a care aid myself as I'm tired of office culture in Japan and have some experience in that field. I was shocked to see that they start at less than 10USD, and working your way up takes years, decades even.

   Continuing to kick this can down the road is going to be an absolute disaster.

   1. rightnutwingjob · 1789689669 · focus · HN ↗

      [dead]

      1. PorciiVorbesc · 1789690719 · focus · HN ↗

         >Why do people think The Government™ is able to, should, or can, solve everyone’s problems?

         Where do you see them demanding the government solve $ALL their problems?

         >The Government™ probably can solve defence.

         Agree.

         >It probably can’t solve your lack of desire to do the right thing and look after your aging parents.

         Is there a lack of desire? Or a lack of resources resulting as a consequence of how the modern developed economy works, where youth need to move away from the family to get a college education and skilled jobs, and in return the government taxes you to take care of your parents and your kids so that you can focus on maximizing your skilled productivity at work? Isn't this the modern (faulty) social contract?

         Sure, I can move back with my parents to take care of them, but then I won't have a job to earn money because all the industry in that town was hollowed out and moved abroad (also thanks to government actions of maximizing shareholder value).

         Now , if the government admits it can't solve elderly care and wants us to take care of our parents on our own dime, the it should also stop taxing us for a welfare state it can't provide and just focus on what it can, like defense. IIRC Switzerland works like that.

         Unfortunately, in our modern post-industrial economy we can't all go back to tribal/village lifestyles of our ancestors where we all lived on farms in multi generational households and we all took care of each other and lived only off the land. That would sound nice in theory, but it's not feasible anymore the way nations and economies are set up to work and compete against each other, unless we can somehow agree to fight wars from now on only with bows and arrows like our ancestors, instead of AI drones and cruise missiles needing cutting edge chips and SW made by singles with phds and no kids. We built this faulty societal system and now we're forced to live by it whether we want to or not.

         1. jll29 · 1789693154 · focus · HN ↗

            The Japanese fail to produce enough children.

            The country will either have to change or it will disappear soon.

            Most European countries have the same issue, but it is less visible due to immigration, which Japan does not have.

            1. shoobiedoo · 1789694394 · focus · HN ↗

               The population of Japan is projected to be 64 million in 2100. In 1930, the population of Japan was 64 million. Did it not exist back then?

               1. Danox · 1789696781 · focus · HN ↗

                  Japan can easily operate with 60-80 million people in a country slightly smaller than California. And expand again in the future why not?

                  1. PorciiVorbesc · 1789860845 · focus · HN ↗

                     This. You CAN recover from an economic decline, you can recover from a demographic decline like what Japan is experiencing, but you CAN'T recover from demographic replacement, which is what the EU is experiencing.

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