In Japan:
> free and open national and local elections which are very competitive across several parties, ruling party provides prime minister in the Diet.
> national health care, full coverage at $125 per month (upper middle class income level compared to US), no rejections.
> 3%-5% unemployment ongoing, during most recent US-caused recession maximum at 5.6%:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/Unemployment-rate.aspx?symbol=JPY
> under 10% personal income taxes (mine are 6%, above-average income level)
> 40% corporate income taxes
> 22,000 licensed lawyers as a cap with little to nothing to do (0.01% of population) (while US 1,200,000 lawyers or 0.4% of population) – people solve their own problems rather than working-class leeching courts.
> public transportation provided at no charge to all workers – paid by employing companies (PLUS – I have never needed nor wanted an automobile, and instead save ALL the plethora associated costs, taxes, and fees)
> oligopolized, inter-cooperative banks operating under missions “to benefit society” rather than “to earn profit” (no working class gouging ATM fees) (no checking accounts to gouge workers) (low interest and generous forbearance)
> setting 10% product price mark-up typically across-the-board by sellers (voluntary based on honor and missions “to benefit society”), heedless of fluctuations in demand – effectively discourages consumer price gouging.
> subsidized staple food products to the end consumer, regulating ongoing fair pricing.
> no abusive sin taxes (cigarettes at ~$3 a pack since 1997, exact same brand price at ALL vendors).
> most equitable wage distribution in the world ([a] of course extracts threat of executive thievery/ [b] worst is the US and UK) (executives earn double staff salaries across the board)
> lowest crime rate in the world (due to no rich class oppression) (AND only 1.8 police per 1000 people vs. 2.85 per 1000 in the US)
> even the very, very few homeless in Japan WILL NOT beg – perfectly debunks vacuous accusations that socialism creates dependency, and rather displays that socialism heightens personal honor.
> free to carry a beer into a theater or onto a train (just threw that in to exhibit daily freedom from fascist abuse) (Why can we do this? We can because (1) law books are logical rather than oversize for working class thievery, and (2) competition is not a forced philosophy here.)
> $28 trillion in national savings ($13 trillion of which held by households):
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UM6BU00&show_article=1&catnum=0
“As far as government debt is concerned, we should not worry about it for at least another three to four years. Accumulated government debt is very large, close to 190% of GDP, but the financial wealth of the Japanese household is 300% of GDP in gross terms. Even in net terms it is around 240%, so we still have room to finance government debt… The Japanese purchase 94% of Japanese government debt, so this is not an unhealthy situation at all. It is much healthier than the United States situation where close to 70% is being purchased by foreigners. However, the Japanese savings ratio has come down; it is below 5%, and the amount of government debt is increasing much more rapidly than savings, so we cannot have this kind of situation for long. Maybe within the next five to ten years we need to have fiscal consolidation. Within the next five to ten years we should raise the consumption tax.”
- Mr. Eisuke Sakakibara (a.k.a. “Mr. Yen”) / Former Japan Minister of Finance / July 2010 ]
P.S: I’m a Filipino working in Japan and I’m proud to be Pinoy.
@flipperr
You see, Japan is an export country. Everything here in the Philippines are mostly Japanese.
Playstation = Japanese
Toyota = Japanese
7 Eleven = Japanese
Anime = Japanese
The underpass at Makati = Japanese
MRT = Japanese
I wish we Filipinos would do the same thing as the Japanese, rather than hanging out with (foreign) dirty old men.
@ragdefender
True China is the 2nd largest economy in the world behind U.S.A and in front of Japan. But in reality, the workers in China are overworked and underpaid. But in Japan, the people there have a higher standard of living compared to people living in China.
