Japan and the US are very different culturally. Where the Japanese are more nationalistic, the US is clearly multicultural. In Japan, politeness, order, rule-following and process are the way. In America, friction, freewheeling styles and disruption are the norm. Where the two country's overlap is in a high standard of living and significant aggregated wealth.
As stated in Post 6, the Japanese created immense wealth in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan, today, seems to equate with a very wealthy person who has been living off of their core wealth for a number of decades, unable to ramp up past high earning patterns. In essence they are asset rich and earnings poor. The Japanese are very smart and hard working people. And there are many entrepreneurs and freethinkers. There is just not an abundance of them.
I greatly appreciate most elements of Japanese culture and society - their consideration for others in Japan is impressive; the whole is more important than the individual; honor and relationship are of utmost importance; hard work and diligence is expected; senior citizens are revered; collaboration, coordination and teamwork are of paramount importance and the list goes on. So why is their economic stagnation of epic proportions?
Japan has a well-intentioned governmental bureaucracy. Even with all of their "good intentions", the prolonged stagnation of their economy is predominantly due to the Japanese government squeezing out the proper evolution of free market principles (and the masses politely supporting that path). In addition, the government's quest to protect the "home market" and in particular the banking system has led to essentially zero economic growth for a long time. Interestingly, given the politeness and the aggregated utilitarian view of the Japanese people, the economic malaise that has existed for decades doesn't show up in protest or overt citizen unrest.
So what lessons can we learn in the US? There are many positive lessons the US can learn from Japan, but I will cover those ideas in future posts. What I am going to cover presently are some powerful trends in America that are very similar to what has been at the core of Japan's stagnation. These are the most critical lessons to help the US produce more robust growth and more importantly to help close the Have...Have/Not gap.
Here are the lessons we should learn from Japan:
1. Too much government insertion and influence is not good. Overtime in the US as the ratio of government sway and leverage over the American people tips past 50% vs. free market enterprise, the US economy will stagnate further; Have--Have/Not gap grows; our "turnaround" becomes more difficult.
2. Don't over-manage and over-protect our citizens and markets. Competition is good and makes us stronger, more knowledgeable and more capable. There are two main types of protection I'm speaking about: firstly, is economic protectionism and secondly, is Uncle Sam is over nurturing citizen. Economic protectionism may make a situation look better in the short term but it diminishes the competitiveness of a country, industry or company in the long term. Protectionism creates complacency. Secondly, a helping hand for those in need is a given. But continuous and life long "protection" ends up hurting Have-Nots. They don’t learn to do it on their own. The old adage "give a person a fish and they can feed their family for a day, teach a person to fish and they can feed a family for life" rings true in the real world. I would add in: why stop at teaching the parent to fish, teach the whole family to fish and encourage them to learn other skills.
3. Don't keep the US citizens in the dark. In Japan, it is important to be polite and not stick out. Everyone must "follow" along and stay in line with the overall governmental/societal plan. "Don't rock the boat." In the US there is more of a melting pot of individual thought but not as much as you might think. In the US we need an overhauled education model to prepare young people/citizens to have a more dynamic vision and understanding of the United States and the world. The vast majority of our citizens are educated in public schools (by definition -controlled by the government). Public education makes up over 90% of the education model in America. The lions share of important "Have lessons" are not taught there. Also, other important life lessons are not taught across our country in public or even private schools. "Not rocking the boat" of education will produce the same stunted individualized effect that we see in Japan.
4. Japanese culture produces an idea crushing internal politeness. Friction is good. However the kind of friction we have at the federal government level between Democrats and Republicans is not healthy friction. It is more staged and theatrical with the attempted effect of trying to hoodwink and "red herring" (distract) the masses. For example, "we are helping you and protecting you" - translation-"we are here to take care of ourselves and we are trying to look smart and we are fooling you - the people".
The US politician-driven insertion of the government into our daily lives continues unyieldingly every day. There is a gradualism to it that to the naked eye makes it look and appear normal. Crisis can help to dramatically accelerate the US governments "help" it provides. Politicians love a crisis as it helps them to appear to "be desperately needed" by the American people. Have's are the biggest beneficiaries. This governmental "creep" or sometimes "dramatic advance" occurs at the federal, state, county and local municipal level every day, every year, every decade. Essentially the message to the American people is that we are incapable of helping ourselves or maybe we are too dumb and need our elected leaders to guide their "flock of sheep". American society bounces from problem to problem and the end game is that government/politicians win and the average citizen becomes more beholden to them. The issues/problems become so grand and complex that we as citizens debate amongst ourselves without really understanding the vastness and growing complexity of the situation. Then we watch politicians (attempting to appear helpful) inject themselves only to create more problems. The mess our US healthcare system is in is a perfect example of this.
Chaos, complexity and confusion amped with some highly charged emotion and some sensationalized media reporting leads to citizens (typically Have-Nots) throwing their hands up and essentially giving up trying to understand what is going on and then allowing politicians to continue down their self-serving path. Wow, this sounds a little rant like. LOL. It is not a rant. Many Haves know what is going on and see the chaos, complexity and confusion as an opportunity. These posts are not a rant but someone pulling back the curtain to show what is really going on. My goal is to lay out a clear picture of some important topics/issues that play a significant role in all citizens’ lives. Then I will lay out an optimized fix/adjustment/overhaul of each of these topics/issues.
I'll keep repeating this: you may not like Trump. You may despise him. You may disagree with him. You may cringe at the way he presents his ideas. But he is one of the best chances we have at changing the unhealthy, government/politician dominated path we are on in America. Ignore the person and focus on the "rocking of the boat" and changing the paradigm dynamic.
