Jim D. wrote:
>BTW, I think one way that Japan could recover is to imitate an old
>US practice. Give aid to a poor area (such as East St. Louis,
>Illinois) but "tie" it so that it can only be spent in Japan.
It takes a real burning ambition to become _the_ global hegemon -- as
opposed to a junior partner in U.S.-led imperialism -- to come up
with a Marshall plan. More crucially, recall that the actual
Marshall plan was implemented with a view toward making Communism
unpopular in Europe. In the absence of Communism, what would be the
point of a Marshall plan for the ruling class?
Some segments of the Japanese governing elite may have had a little
ambition to use the Asian crisis in order to re-make the area more in
line with their imperial vision, as opposed to Americans', but after
their proposal to create the Asian Monetary Fund met U.S.
disapproval, they beat a hasty retreat, I remember.
>This encourages Japanese businesses to expand without relying on
>Japanese people to spend (something they've been reluctant to do).
They don't spend because they, on the average, live _very long_ but
old age pensions are dreadfully inadequate. Consumer credit is
underdeveloped also.
Instead of spending money on public works, much of which nowadays
seems to neither strengthen economic infrastructure nor create many
jobs, merely supporting bad old ties of patronage linking politicians
& construction companies, the Japanese governing elite should go
social democratic & build up the social safety net (esp. unemployment
insurance & old age pensions), _but they won't do so, since it's not
in their interest_. At the same time as waves of deflation, the
political elite were & still are making a move to cut back "wastes" &
"frauds" from national health care (which wasn't even truly universal
to begin with, divided into three different parts: Shakai Hoken [for
employees], Kokumin Kenko Hoken [for the self-employed & others who
do not qualify for Shakai Hoken], & Rojin Hoken [for the elderly]).
Take a look at this:
***** Health insurance crisis
_Mainichi Shimbun_ 6 February 2000
The national health insurance system is on the brink of a major
crisis and is unlikely to remain solvent over the next two or three
years if the status quo is maintained. Since the wages of workers
who pay health insurance premiums have fallen for three consecutive
years, imposing a premium hike at this time is not an option.
Therefore, the only alternative is to implement fundamental reform as
soon as possible to increase the efficiency of the health insurance
system.
But the recommendations in the report submitted by the Council on
Health Insurance and Welfare on Feb. 3 to Health and Welfare Minister
Yuya Niwa are a far cry from fundamental reform. The report
recommends that patients shoulder a greater burden of medical
expenses, hospital meal fees be increased and urges the Health and
Welfare Ministry to undertake reforms promptly....
<http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/200002/08/opinion.html> *****
With this sort of ruling-class attack on social spending (esp. on
health care), and in the absence of consumer credit, how are Japanese
workers to feel like spending in a mad-cap American fashion, instead
of _saving all they can to survive old age, diseases, accidents,
etc._?
Yoshie
