Chapter 6 don't consider yourself middle class
Japan's advocacy of "paying attention to the people" began in 1993 when Hosokawa formed a cabinet (the seventy-ninth prime minister, the Democratic Party).But after all, these words are just political slogans, and no one has seen any real implementation of them in terms of policy or legislation.
Later, in the "lost decade", the government called for "recovery of the economy" and "handling of bad debts". Under the grand purpose of "industrial regeneration" at the expense of national well-being, the rulers rushed desperately, resulting in the highest public debt in the world .
Although Japan is the world's largest saving country from the perspective of the personal financial sector, under the zero interest rate policy, the government is actually taking money from depositors' accounts to bail out banks.When public works lack financial resources, the relevant units use the guise of "repaying the money slowly" to issue housing loans indiscriminately, trick office workers into buying houses, and ask office workers to assist the government in coping with the sluggish economy.
As a result, what is life like for office workers?As soon as the prices of land and houses fell, these middle-aged office workers with loans on their shoulders immediately fell into the vortex of debt.Banks openly say they want to help, but they can't come up with policies to rescue these office workers from their nightmare.This is the current situation in Japan where provider logic is rigid.
Recently, office workers are worried about being laid off, allowing the company to cut wages and extend working hours, making life difficult.
Relying on the effects of hourly wages, increased contract workers, and layoffs, the company's performance has indeed recovered, but the remuneration due to the people has decreased.After entering 2005, Japan's stock prices rose and the economy recovered, but most citizens, especially office workers, did not feel any real experience.
Of course money is concentrated in retirees (old people).According to statistics, there are more people living on pensions than office workers, because they have "saved 30% of their pensions".
"As long as you work hard, you will get a raise and a promotion" is a major premise of the post-war Japanese society, but this major premise has completely collapsed.Today's office workers must realize that the peak of a person's salary is around the age of 40 on average. After this peak, there are few opportunities for promotion or salary increase.So what we have to do now is to formulate a life plan that is in line with the actual situation.
While Japan was lingering in the economic downturn, countries such as China and India have quietly raised their heads, and the rising countries are catching up with low wages as weapons.Comparing the two, it is obvious that the reason why Japanese wages have not risen is not because of the economic downturn, but because once they rise, they will fall into a vicious circle of increasing unemployment, which shows that there is something wrong with Japan's economic structure .
The median age of Japanese people (the age of the most central population in the population structure) is 43 years old, and by 2025 the median age will exceed 50 years old.I searched all the schools in Japan, but I couldn't find a school with a complete curriculum, enough to cultivate talents who can be active in the era of borderless economy and digital economy in the future.
Seeing this situation, I think no one would think that Japan "can still prosper by ignoring its problems like this"!
If you look at those countries and regions that are thriving now, none of them rely on their own funds to attract capital, enterprises, technologies and talents from the world.And the inexhaustible money in the world just does not flow into Japan. In other words, Japan relies on its own money to build its own prosperity, which also leads to a vicious circle of economic recession.
The biggest feature of the economy in the 21st century is the transformation from a nation state to a regional state.Various forms of economic exchange between already independent regions and regions of the world to promote prosperity is a serious warning to Japan's strong and rigid centralization system.Japan uses the method of "whack-a-mole" to reduce redundant staff in government agencies by 5%, and merge financial institutions under the government system into one, but it still cannot completely solve Japan's problems, so Japan urgently needs to directly and solemnly change governing body.
Therefore, we should not only make a good life plan for ourselves, but also put forward reform proposals to the government.
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