Modern Civilizations: Comparing the USA with Japan

[Marduk]

If they are doing so well, why does the USA have so many homeless people?
There might be lots of wealth, but if it's all going into only a few people's pockets, that's not healthy.

The people who are homeless on the streets in USA are very visible. In average third world country most would be dead or confined because they don't play silly games with junkies and crazies there, so there would appear to be less.
USA does have a plague of free roaming junkies and unconfined crazies, not a poverty driven homelessness problem, those are a tiny fraction of the homeless and one easiest to fix by usual measures.

 

[SoliFortissimi]

If they are doing so well, why does the USA have so many homeless people?

It doesn't matter. The US has a larger GDP, the best Universities, more aircraft carriers than everyone else put together, dominance or near dominance in every major field of science, and alliances with every major economic and military power of note with the exception of China.

And the current US/Western culture is degenerate, destructive and narcissistic.

That's just natural because of the wealth and security of empire.

 

[DarthOne]

It doesn't matter. The US has a larger GDP, the best Universities, more aircraft carriers than everyone else put together, dominance or near dominance in every major field of science, and alliances with every major economic and military power of note with the exception of China.


That's just natural because of the wealth and security of empire.

And when you have marginalized and fucked over the most likely source of canon fodder, they will be less likely to fight for what they see as a corrupt, evil, broke government that now depends on them.



When Rome fell to barbarian invaders, there were less than five hundred qualified Centurions. Not because Rome had fewer people but because it had fewer willing to make the sacrifices. And the last Centurions left their shields in the heather and took a barbarian bride.

-John Ringo, The Last Centurion

 

[SoliFortissimi]

Your argument is....quoting some weirdo who wrote some BAEN thriller?

Be serious.

 

[DarthOne]

Your argument is....quoting some weirdo who wrote some BAEN thriller?

Be serious.

Read the damn quote instead of attacking the source. Because nothing in that is false.

 

[SoliFortissimi]

Read the damn quote instead of attacking the source. Because nothing in that is false.

And what makes you think it isn't false? I'm not in the habit of blandly accepting any emotionally charged political rant.

 

[DarthOne]

And what makes you think it isn't false? I'm not in the habit of blandly accepting any emotionally charged political rant.

Because nations tend to fall when no one is wiling to fight for them anymore.

 

[Largo]

If they are doing so well, why does the USA have so many homeless people?
There might be lots of wealth, but if it's all going into only a few people's pockets, that's not healthy.

As I touched on earlier, the US and Japan actually really aren't in the same class in terms of wealth. You can argue that Japan has other advantages (they actually have a sensible housing policy, among other matters), but arguing on this front is not a winning move.

 

[SoliFortissimi]

Because nations tend to fall when no one is wiling to fight for them anymore.

What fallacy is it when you are asked to prove your claim, but instead give a soundbite that vaguely relates to the topic?

To the OP: America is much wealthier and better off than Japan. If Japan is at peace, it's only because it's dying and doesn't have the energy. Don't envy this living corpse.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

By far the biggest difference is that Japan is a united ethnostate, whereas the United States is an empire made up of multiple different racial and cultural groups that hate each other. White people don't go to East Asian neighborhoods in Long Beach or else they're going to get stabbed in the back 20 times and killed by a gang initiation ritual. You don't walk into an Islamic no-go neighborhood or else you're going to get killed. You have next neighbors who don't speak the same language as you and you don't trust them. You have unlicensed roofing contractors who speak spanish and openly mock a man's wife right in front of him and you're wondering how they're going to cheat you this time. Low trust societies are horrible, where you have people trusting the state more than each other. Children ratting out their parents, neighbors ratting each other out. You automatically assume people might be your enemy or might be trying to cheat you. Humor is dead. You can't say anything humorous or uncertain outside of your circle of friends, because you can't be certain any fellow "citizen" you meet will share the same values as you.

Japan is a homogenous ethnostate and doesn't have this problem. Everyone shares the same culture and values and there is no division between groups. People automatically trust each other and are okay with allowing their kids to walk to school unsupervised and interact with strangers knowing they will be alright.

The internet websites and social media that the Japanese see also seems to be different. In the US, on the front headlines of news websites and on twitter, you have posts about some far off event, be it a shooting in another state or a protest in Britain or some earthquake in Chile or whatever the current crisis is. Americans are having crisis being downloaded into their brains 24/7 and it agitates them and makes them more anxious and on edge. Meanwhile, Japans news media and twitter is preoccupied with just sharing fun domestic events, so I'd imagine that they are much less anxious and nervous than your average American.

Japan's aversion to mass immigration his has also protected Japan from the insanity that plagues America. Much of our problems began when foreigners came here and began using the education system to propagandize our youth on a mass scale, resulting the situation today where people graduate with arts degrees but don't know how to make a living making good art, meanwhile people are switching to anime/manga/JRPGs/visual novels/etc because Japan knows how to teach people to create good art.

 

[Scottty]

I think it is possible to have multiple ethnic groups in one society without this leading to mutual hatred and bloodshed. But not the way that America is doing it.

What would people here say to the idea that this dissolution of the social fabric was all along the foreseen and intended outcome in the minds of the people who were pushing for open borders and endless immigration?

 

[Marduk]

I think it is possible to have multiple ethnic groups in one society without this leading to mutual hatred and bloodshed. But not the way that America is doing it.

I have doubts if that's possible in long term and large scale. Are there any societies that do?
I guess if the groups are similar enough, government dominant enough or the minority is negligibly small the problems can be *managed* in scale so that they aren't strikingly obvious or even paralyzing, but still, Belgium for example was a political mess even before third world migration. Catalonia in Spain is a source of political conflicts since ages. In China the Han just put any minorities under the boot, a pretty common answer to this question all over the world.

What would people here say to the idea that this dissolution of the social fabric was all along the foreseen and intended outcome in the minds of the people who were pushing for open borders and endless immigration?

For some, possibly, especially the leftists, maybe technocrats too, divide et impera. For others, it was just an unimportant part of the calculation where economy is grown by population increase.