tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8164596450275039271..comments2024-03-29T05:14:33.223-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: More on JapanUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59076172255996148332011-03-08T14:46:12.965-08:002011-03-08T14:46:12.965-08:00Japan is a "very unequal" country in a w...<i>Japan is a "very unequal" country in a way similar to how the last place finisher in the Olympic 100m final is a "very slow" sprinter.</i><br /><br />And what do you know, people do <a href="http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/jeff-green-is-a-bad-basketball-player/" rel="nofollow">go around</a> using adjectives about professional athletes that only make sense if the comparison is other professional athletes, rather than high school intramural players. From the very beginning of the comment thread, I've made it clear that I was comparing Japan to other highly developed countries, in the context of which Japan is indeed "very unequal."<br /><br />So I trust that when I call your comment dumb, you'll realize that I'm comparing you to the other commenters on this blog, and not your average second grader.RKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-20869412041368404462011-02-27T06:06:43.608-08:002011-02-27T06:06:43.608-08:00At one time Japan was held up as an an exception t...<i>At one time Japan was held up as an an exception to the myth that only Europeans could be technical. Japan's defeat of Russia in 1905, was the first time in the industrial age where a non Euro nation defeated a Euro nation with modern arms.</i><br /><br />Russia outside of St. Petersburg wasn't very "Euro" in 1905. The Russians were pretty much Mongol hordes that happened to be white and Christian.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-773500402048986112011-02-26T09:24:12.173-08:002011-02-26T09:24:12.173-08:00Moreover, Japanese inequality was way higher than ...<i><br />Moreover, Japanese inequality was way higher than Western Europe's even in the 80's, when Japan wasn't particularly old. (In fact, its Gini coefficient in the mid-80's was higher than most Western European countries' today, despite the fact that only 11.6% of the Japanese population was 65 or older in 1989: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alwWIHsCf9g4&refer=economy)<br /><br />Japan is simply a very unequal country (especially given its homogeneity), and has been for a long time.</i><br /><br />It takes a special class of idiot to link to statistics that directly refute him. (I wouldn't put it this way if you weren't so emphatic.)<br /><br />Japan is a "very unequal" country in a way similar to how the last place finisher in the Olympic 100m final is a "very slow" sprinter.<br /><br />The Gini index over time is indicative of certain social structures in a country. Japan has been in the low 30s for many years. Calling it "very unequal" is insane.<br /><br />The Anglophone countries (low-mid 30s) are less equal than the world-leading Nordics (and close behind them many ex-communist east euros) but also provide more opportunity for go-getters. Nobody would describe them as "very unequal" either. <br /><br />Disturbing levels of inequality begin at about 40. By 50, you're talking about Latin American standards, which is true "night and day" inequality.Silvernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39067908989398594352011-02-25T10:29:17.584-08:002011-02-25T10:29:17.584-08:00"Steve, what is the point of moderating when ...<i>"Steve, what is the point of moderating when everything gets waved through, including inane and obviously wrong comments like this one? All that moderation does is make real-time exchanges between participants impossible."</i><br /><br />You answered your own question. This is Steve's low-key, SoCal way of running a tight ship. For the most part, it seems to work.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37199762124695066312011-02-25T09:09:13.311-08:002011-02-25T09:09:13.311-08:00--Eric said--
National density statistics don'...--Eric said--<br />National density statistics don't tell the whole story. Not only is Japan a very dense country, but within Japan everybody who is anybody or wants to be anybody lives in Tokyo. Fully a quarter of the country lives in the metropolitan Tokyo-Yokohama area. //<br /><br />And fully half of Koreans live in metropolitan Seoul. So that does not explain why the Japanese have smaller houses. <br /><br />Japan is a rich country with poor citizens; America is poorer, but with much richer citizens. Japan and Asia generally values face, impression, the way the country presents itself to the outside. Hence the airports, the spiffy infrastructure. In the West, we are less concerned with that. LAX, that dump, does have more international connections than any other airport in the world...Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-51935267561027053152011-02-25T05:53:04.868-08:002011-02-25T05:53:04.868-08:00My brother lives near Burlington and his wife is a...My brother lives near Burlington and his wife is a native born Vermonter. They adopted some kids whose families were deeply dysfunctional and had even been told by the "State" to have no more kids after some were abused. Oh, if only that worked. They were white, but to judge from the appearance of one of them, had some American Indian ancestry. Also Russian. So there was an alcoholoism whammy. As a result of this family exposure, I am aware of the underbelly of New England underclass, but it is still unreminiscent of the South. The higher the auto accident rate, the more third-worldish the area. Just isn't. For one thing, the auto accident rates in New England--despite all the snow and ice--the lowest in the country.charlottenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-90520174093180991082011-02-25T01:03:27.737-08:002011-02-25T01:03:27.737-08:00Somebody hates old people. What, you planning on o...<i>Somebody hates old people. What, you planning on offing yourself with nerve gas before you become a gray-head?</i><br /><br />You just don't get it. <i>Nations are men</i>, and their worth stems from the vigorous attainments of youth, which are the sole replenishment of patrimony. Not once before this era, except presumably in the kinds of cataclysms that have made historic the names Virginia Choinquitel and Boa Sr., had they ever been subjected the indignity of the real senescence -- an <i>overtaking</i> by old age, wizening-up without commensurate renewal in descendants. <br /><br />Better that Japan had never been opened, that the loved Egyptian night had never given way to coal-perfumed dawn of living steel, than this! Save that, better that Operation Downfall had obliterated the polity entirely, that the cliffs had been stained red with the pulp of a million willing leaps, that Emperor Hirohito himself had been reduced to sarira! All these possibilities are long past ripe, so only one path remains. Only a fool would let the word regeneration pass his lips, but O, that she could have been a child forever!Ortu Kanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15835792445084398302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34585600940019227062011-02-24T14:45:44.815-08:002011-02-24T14:45:44.815-08:00"Maybe some clever Japanese nationalist can c..."Maybe some clever Japanese nationalist can convince all the old people to commit mass suicide..."<br /><br />They don't need to commit suicide, they're old.<br /><br />Brutus, my sister lives in Burlington, but I do make the drive north to Montreal(North America's most underrated city)every time I go. <br /><br />I know all about Whiskey's people migrating to Vermont 300 years ago, but I have seen absolutely nothing in my trips to Vermont that reminded me of southern redneck culture. The fantasies you have of barefoot families of 12 playing ukelelis in buckskin jackets and running moonshine from the police are just that; although I'm sure there are a few theme days where the accountants who's ancestors interbed with WASPS last century, dress up to play rednencks though.<br /><br />The "rough" folks in that area of the country are the arcadians in NH and Maine, and although they "underachieve" their culture is much different than what you'd find in the deep south.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1032851467978670892011-02-24T14:36:59.569-08:002011-02-24T14:36:59.569-08:00Jerry wrote: "The higher the Gini Coefficient...Jerry wrote: "The higher the Gini Coefficient, the more equality."<br /><br />Uh, this is _completely_ wrong. The higher the Gini coefficient, the more unequal the income distribution. A Gini coefficient of 0 means everyone has the same income (i.e., the Lorenz curve tracks the line of equality); a coefficient of 1 means a single person has all the income and everyone else has nothing. (Sometimes the values are multiplied by 100.) Check Wikipedia for a basic primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient<br /><br />"On the UN measure of Gini, Japan is the second most equal after Denmark."<br /><br />Yes, it's the second _lowest_. But the figures from the UN Human Development Report aren't collected using a standard methodology, as the report itself notes on page 198: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2009_EN_Complete.pdf That's why I used OECD figures, which are comparable. (The CIA's figures tell a similar story.)<br /><br />You're entirely right, though, about how frustrating it is that inane and obviously wrong comments like yours get posted without an opportunity to challenge them in real time.RKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-42369273920216688282011-02-24T13:53:56.832-08:002011-02-24T13:53:56.832-08:00The average Korean has a much larger house, despit...<i>The average Korean has a much larger house, despite higher population density (Korea is even more mountainous than Japan).</i><br /><br />National density statistics don't tell the whole story. Not only is Japan a very dense country, but within Japan everybody who is anybody or wants to be anybody lives in Tokyo. Fully a quarter of the country lives in the metropolitan Tokyo-Yokohama area.<br /><br />If everyone in the US moved to NYC our average house size would be pretty small too.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10330712047609650184noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67266898812178488382011-02-24T13:32:27.768-08:002011-02-24T13:32:27.768-08:00"Steve, what is the point of moderating when ..."Steve, what is the point of moderating when everything gets waved through"<br /><br />One effect is to stop people getting too angry. If people are in a real-time flame-war they can escalate and escalate.Wandrinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-76042945522780067502011-02-24T12:34:17.518-08:002011-02-24T12:34:17.518-08:00"But those systems must be scrapped at some p..."But those systems must be scrapped at some point. They are mathematically unsustainable in the long term, and even in the short term. The time to figure out what to do about those so-called "obligations" is now. Hint - they're not actually obligations at all."<br /><br />Maybe some clever Japanese nationalist can convince all the old people to commit mass suicide in the name of the emperor for the sake of Japan. Japanese seem to go for the sacrifice narrative.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-82144388293321501582011-02-24T12:31:42.025-08:002011-02-24T12:31:42.025-08:00"The higher the Gini Coefficient, the more eq..."The higher the Gini Coefficient, the more equality. On the UN measure of Gini, Japan is the second most equal after Denmark. And what is with this nasty dig about "usual suspects"? Poland's Gini is much higher than a lot of other "usual suspects" that you could mention."<br /><br />I think this has a lot to do with the clunkeriness of the Japanese economy. In the US producers sell to one layer of wholesalers or directly to retailers. In Japan, there's like 7 layers of wholesalers, which makes things cost more, but keeps more people sharing in the economic activity. It's less efficient in rational economic terms but it has a way of spreading the wealth around. It's like communomics. It's not communism as the private sector exists, but the private sector is geared to employ as many people as possible through many layers of transactions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81639211408372882642011-02-24T12:26:40.376-08:002011-02-24T12:26:40.376-08:00"This is not a sufficient explanation. The av..."This is not a sufficient explanation. The average Korean has a much larger house, despite higher population density (Korea is even more mountainous than Japan)."<br /><br />Japanese prefer smaller houses and bigger public space. Koreans prefer bigger houses and smaller public space. Japanese are more self-controlled and anal--even somewhat smaller and more delicate--, so they can handle smaller space. Also, Japanese are more communal minded, so they like shared public space. <br />Koreans are more hot-tempered and egocentric, so they need more private space. And they are less civic minded so they have less use for shared public space.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-61469256518329624952011-02-24T09:30:08.503-08:002011-02-24T09:30:08.503-08:00Troofie, does she live in Burlington or Brattlebor...Troofie, does she live in Burlington or Brattleboro, the two People's Republics, land of white boy dreads and Bob Marley t-shirts?<br /><br />Or does she live in the Northern Kingdom with the "icenecks", home of outhouses and the highest rate of alcoholism in New England"?<br /><br />Compare Austin with a small Texas town 3 hours away and tell me if the people are the same.<br /><br />Ridiculous...<br /><br />BrutusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45430274206029071742011-02-24T08:10:16.075-08:002011-02-24T08:10:16.075-08:00"Dunno, sounds like Vermont, Maine or especia..."Dunno, sounds like Vermont, Maine or especially the hill country of New Hampshire to this New Englander. Go to any county fair in those areas and you'll find that a lot of the crowd, particularly when sporting their NASCAR drag, will be indistinguishable in appearance and demeanor from any Mississippi cracker."<br /><br />Well, Anon, it isn't generally appreciated, but the Maine Yankee and Southern cracker are first cousins. Actual "good-old-boys" and even "rednecks" tend to be pretty aloof in my experience, although the South seems to have developed a distinct culture of cordiality (well, one also exists in northern New England, albeit in different form).Emmanuel Goldsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10055910837943787896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-64361301699000236352011-02-24T08:02:42.248-08:002011-02-24T08:02:42.248-08:00"On the point of population decline. Urbanisa..."On the point of population decline. Urbanisation is the most consistent reason for declining fertility. East Asia is the most urbanised region in the world and has the world's lowest fertility. Eastern Europe has the second lowest fertility rate because it didn't produce enough housing during the communist era. Rural parts of France, Australia, US etc have the highest white fertility rates."<br /><br />That hypothesis seems to have some validity to it--lack of housing units appears to be the cause of declining fertility in Iran, for instance. I'd say the other way of increasing fertility is to keep women out of the (industrial) work force. I have no idea how many women work in Iran, this many years after Khomeini, but in the early days of the Revolution their number must have been pretty slim.<br /><br />Also, on my blog I have a long post about sex ratios in different countries, and the male:female ratios of the Arab world are truly appalling. I know among the Gulf states this is largely due to immigrant labor, but what is Saudi's excuse? Will these lopsided ratios, over time, have any affect on the growth rates of these Arab countries?Emmanuel Goldsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10055910837943787896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-64136087178457449902011-02-24T07:27:51.004-08:002011-02-24T07:27:51.004-08:00Severn said...
The time to figure out what to do...Severn said... <br /><br />The time to figure out what to do about those so-called "obligations" is now. <br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />Imo the time was then, stitch in time/ounce of prevention...a decade or two ago draconian measures that were politically upopular and unfeasible. Today there are no answers. Everyone has known what's wrong. The study commissions are commissioned, the recommendations are released after the elections, the chattering heads chatter a bit and that's it. Same studies, same recomendations, rinse lather repeat. Everyone knows, no one has ever done anything, no one is doing anything, no one will ever do anything. So the thing done will be from outside the process, reactionary, poste haste in crisis. Greece, Ireland, Iceland is the template. They ran out of money. Real, imagined, borrowed or stolen another check could not be cut or accepted. So now the socialized private losses bankrupting sovereign states are being hoovered up into super-sovereign levels..ECB, EU, IMF etc where complexity favors the sinister, the financially illerate policy makers do not understand themselves who is wriggling off the hook and how and where and how deep the hook is planted in whom in what ways. And what the risks are. 1. Unthinkable 2. Unimaginable <br /><br />Whatever one calls this system that outlasted the autocratic dictatorial variety is failing the world over for the same reason, bankruptcy in all but recognition. <br /><br />Amongst the herd of unmentionable elephants crowding up the room the elder statesmen pachyderm is the workability of the very concept of self government. The gods having sent down the alloted generations of success to ensure what they mean to destroy is fait accompli.<br /><br />Dr. Bernanke conjured $3,300,000 this past minute, $2,200,000,000 yesterday, today and tomorrow. <br />It is used to buy Treasury issuance. It is an example of extend and pretend and not the only example in this country and not only this country. To paraphrase Ms. Tomlin, no matter how big number innumerate you get you just can't keep up with it.<br /><br />The Greeks, the Irish, British students, Icelanders, Wisconsites have taken to the barricades in a struggle to avoid confronting the reality of being poorer than one cares to think or even can. It's called relinquishment. It matters not where repayment is imposed, through pricing chains the collection site remains the same. <br />Don't dun me or thee but the man behind the tree. He's an elusive character. <br /><br />Dr. Bernanke has conjured more since 2008 than the accumulated conjurance of any and all FedHeads that went before. It is not commonly understood that every debt is eventually repaid to the very pence if not by the debtor then by the creditor. There are hard defaults the old fashioned way, soft defaults through restructuring, stealth defaults through debasement. <br /><br />It is very expensive being poor in America, in Japan, in many places.<br />As a result of ungraspable conjurance expect an increase in both expensive and poor. Indeed, look around, despite the sales and marketing _campaigns_ to the contrary. As to what to do about it don't be caught behind the tree. It is extortion of the sensible by its opposite.Pat Shuffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50110037343416150062011-02-24T04:16:02.883-08:002011-02-24T04:16:02.883-08:00Anonymous said...
Japan has small houses beca...Anonymous said...<br /><br /> Japan has small houses because of high population density.<br /><br /> 2/22/2011<br /><br />This is not a sufficient explanation. The average Korean has a much larger house, despite higher population density (Korea is even more mountainous than Japan). There are two reasons for this: for a long time, building high-rise residential buildings was cost-prohibitive in Japan because of earthquake protection; they've only solved the engineering problem here (the tall buildings now more or less float on their foundations) in the last 20 years. And the other big reason is small land plots, and prohibitive land costs (until recently), making it difficult to assemble enough land for the floor plates necessary to build high-rises. Most Koreans live in Commieblock estates, which you will not find in Japan.Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-89940872767060099512011-02-24T04:10:28.309-08:002011-02-24T04:10:28.309-08:00RK said...
If they're paternalistically c...RK said...<br /><br /> If they're paternalistically concerned with income inequality, they're not very good at solving it. Their Geni coefficient is way higher than most of the OECD countries, surpassed only by the famously uncaring Anglophone countries and a few other usual suspects (Mexico, Turkey, Poland, Greece, etc.).<br /><br />--The higher the Gini Coefficient, the more equality. On the UN measure of Gini, Japan is the second most equal after Denmark. And what is with this nasty dig about "usual suspects"? Poland's Gini is much higher than a lot of other "usual suspects" that you could mention. <br /><br />Steve, what is the point of moderating when everything gets waved through, including inane and obviously wrong comments like this one? All that moderation does is make real-time exchanges between participants impossible. In the previous Japan thread, my comment provoked a lot of replies--to which I could not reply. We're all throwing rocks into a well, basically, with this setup. How about at least have real-time commenting by people who register?Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31164963650741830652011-02-23T21:20:47.038-08:002011-02-23T21:20:47.038-08:00An interesting time can be had by trying to buy ju...An interesting time can be had by trying to buy just about anything directly from Japan, particularly electronics and car parts, particularly "hot rod" parts.<br /><br /> You can run up a four figure phone bill and never get anyone who speaks intelligible English. Mail will be ignored. Unless you, gaijin, get on a plane and go there with yen in hand you will get nothing but a colossal runaround.<br /><br /> It's interesting too that almost all Japanese home market equipment is 100 volt only. They build one thing for export and a whole different thing for themselves. Often nothing interchanges. <br /><br /> I have a rare 1968 Toyota limousine. It's in flawless original shape, no rust, because it was a Japanese consular car. It is one of three left hand drive ones ever made. Toyota officially claims they never made it. It does not exist, except it does. It has a six cylinder engine officially only used in buses. I have to go to Japan for parts about every four years. No one will ship them. Even the dealership I go to whose clerk speaks perfect Englisn suddenly disappears if I call long distance. <br /><br /> Amazingly though most parts are available in Japan. There are no old cars to speak of over there so this is incredible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-42700076129245323402011-02-23T20:05:11.012-08:002011-02-23T20:05:11.012-08:00"Go to any county fair in those areas and you..."Go to any county fair in those areas and you'll find that a lot of the crowd, particularly when sporting their NASCAR drag, will be indistinguishable in appearance and demeanor from any Mississippi cracker."<br /><br />My sister lives in Vermont, I was there for Thanksgiving, that is most ridiculous.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-59540644338653168922011-02-23T18:23:36.091-08:002011-02-23T18:23:36.091-08:00"The way to increase fertility is to provide ..."The way to increase fertility is to provide cheaper housing not, as another poster has already pointed out, by bringing in more immigrants."<br /><br />Exactly.<br /><br />Or as some guy put it on some website somewhere sometime ago: Affordable Family Formation.Wandrinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-49484339892085212372011-02-23T18:21:40.767-08:002011-02-23T18:21:40.767-08:00Troofie, that's 93% white (latest Census).
&q...Troofie, that's 93% white (latest Census).<br /><br />"...(food, music, fiddling, hospitality and neighborliness, insularity, guns) are what you'd expect of the South".<br /><br />Dunno, sounds like Vermont, Maine or especially the hill country of New Hampshire to this New Englander. Go to any county fair in those areas and you'll find that a lot of the crowd, particularly when sporting their NASCAR drag, will be indistinguishable in appearance and demeanor from any Mississippi cracker. <br /><br />According to an old college history teacher of mine, one of the largest KKK chapters in America during the late 19th century was headquartered in Middleboro Massachusetts.<br /> <br />Re: debt rating. Let's see, would these be the same ratings crooks who said all those worthless subprime tranches were AAA?<br /><br />BrutusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56960065170480996792011-02-23T17:30:46.284-08:002011-02-23T17:30:46.284-08:00"" How exactly is this a northern state?..."" How exactly is this a northern state?"<br /><br />You must be new here. Word of advice; if you want to keep your sanity, don't try to make sense of it...just respond."<br /><br />It all depends on how you define North and South. One common convention is based on culture. However,there are plenty of rednecks across the north, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. (not to mention in the West as well). In both cases you don't hesitate to label those states not as southern.<br /><br />Another is based on sides in the civil war; this is probably one of the most common because it allows Northerners and Westerners to feel morally superior, but West Va (the state that they seem to feel most superior to) fails to fall in the south because of its allegiance to the North. This is what the posters refer to.<br /><br />Florida is particularly interesting. Some don't seem to feel this state is "southern" because they immediately conjure up images of coeds on beaches, Tony Montana, and old codgers playing golf, not of southern culture, but its chock full of rednecks (lets not forget that Lynyrd Skynyrd is from here) and was one of the first Southern states to join the Confederacy. Also, it is definitely southern by geography.<br /><br />But where do you draw the line? Aren't West Va and Va technically mid-Atlantic?<br /><br />It seems that the one that makes the most sense, given the above,is to use the historic Mason Dixon Line. By that measure the states seem to fit fairly well with most people's ideas of geography, culture and mostly fits the states that seceded from the union (but not all).Lewisnoreply@blogger.com