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I can't tell if you're being sarcastic but I'll reply anyways.</p>
<p>LoL, Japan is decaying. Its going to be half the population in about 2 generations at its current rate and its economy is in constant sclerosis, a fact which I attribute to the lack of political vigour and perspectives in the Japanese political system. Japan could really use some immigration but is too racist and refuses it.</p>
<p>I had no problems in Texas which is suppose to hillbilly country according to Gentleman. Everyone's pretty nice when they're churchgoing IMO.
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<p>Oh so now modern culture is decadent? Who are you to define what social decadence is? It seems to me like YOU are making "logical sumersaults and focus[ing] on those parts of the argument which agree with your preconceptions."</p>
<p>But maybe it's understandable that someone from Texas might feel this way. After all, it is the state which willingly elected a monkey-looking Bushie drunk to run their K-12 system into the ground.</p>
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UCLAri...you know what my friend said. He says that most Caucasian people who go to good universities are Jewish, because the rest are too dumb to get in. What do you think? (And if this is offensive in any way, feel free to have the mods delete this message.)
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<p>Well, considering that my white roommates were never Jewish, it must be true! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I guess, and it was also a colonizer of Taiwan, Korea, and China and massacred millions of people in China in the 1940s through its brutal war tactics. </p>
<p>But Japan does have strict immigration policies to keep ethnic homogeneity. However, I don't believe Polite said that it was because of ethnic homogeneity that Japan's economy is so crap. He was just saying that immigration may potentially help Japan's economy, not that the lack of immigration is the sole cause of a declining economy. Japan's government also spends expenditures on worthless things, like highways in the middle of nowhere, etc.</p>
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Well, considering that my white roommates were never Jewish, it must be true!
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<p>Well okay. That's what my friend said. But I swear practically all the guys I've had crushes on at Berkeley have been Jewish . And I swear I crush on a lot, a lot of guys.</p>
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I guess, and it was also a colonizer of Taiwan, Korea, and China and massacred millions of people in China in the 1940s through its brutal war tactics.
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<p>Red, f'ing, herring. China brutalized millions of its own citizens during the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward. What does it have to do with its own non-performing loans issue? Keep the ad hominems out of the argument. </p>
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But Japan does have strict immigration policies to keep ethnic homogeneity. However, I don't believe Polite said that it was because of ethnic homogeneity that Japan's economy is so crap. He was just saying that immigration may potentially help Japan's economy, not that the lack of immigration is the sole cause of a declining economy. Japan's government also spends expenditures on worthless things, like highways in the middle of nowhere, etc.
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<p>Yes, but it's not the source of Japanese economic problems. People forget that the bubble burst throughout Northeast and Southeast Asia almost around the same time. The early 90s were a bad time for most of the major Asian and "Tiger" economies. </p>
<p>Japan does have strict immigration laws, and would most certainly benefit from improved attitudes toward immigrants. However, South Korea also falls under the same category in many ways. The only difference is that it receives less spotlight right now, so nobody gets on their case for their own racial issues.</p>
<p>And wasteful spending? How about an Alaskan bridge to nowhere? The Japanese don't have a monopoly on that.</p>
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Is there a big jewish population here? I'm willfully ignorant of that kind of stuff.
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<p>At some point, Jews, while a relatively small minority in America, made up a disproportinate population of elite American universities as students and faculty. It was something like 20% of American Nobelists were Jews at one time. </p>
<p>One of the epithets used against UCLA by USC students when USC was a "good ol' boys" network was "JewCLA." These days, I don't think a single USC student would even dream of using that, considering the large Jewish population at USC now.</p>
Red, f'ing, herring. China brutalized millions of its own citizens during the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward. What does it have to do with its own non-performing loans issue? Keep the ad hominems out of the argument.
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<p>I don't disagree with this statement, considering members of my mom's family were killed, but I'm just saying...Japan wasn't exactly the "model" Asian country. </p>
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Yes, but it's not the source of Japanese economic problems. People forget that the bubble burst throughout Northeast and Southeast Asia almost around the same time. The early 90s were a bad time for most of the major Asian and "Tiger" economies.</p>
<p>Japan does have strict immigration laws, and would most certainly benefit from improved attitudes toward immigrants. However, South Korea also falls under the same category in many ways. The only difference is that it receives less spotlight right now, so nobody gets on their case for their own racial issues.</p>
<p>And wasteful spending? How about an Alaskan bridge to nowhere? The Japanese don't have a monopoly on that.
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<p>Its lack of immigration is ONE source of Japan's economic problems. But Japan's government is notorious for mismanagement of funds. The thing is that while the "Tiger' Economies --I suspect you are referring to China and Indian--are now growing, Japan's economy hasn't recovered and seems to find trouble doing so.</p>
<p>Oh and CA_girl..it's not about race, it's about hot guys. I thought they were non-existent at Berkeley, but I guess I just need to party more...heh</p>
<p>Well, I guess I should be more careful because greatest and gentleman are ready to jump on me at every typo.</p>
<p>I do try to clearly state things which I think are opinions and fact but whatever, I make mistakes and get labelled a racist.</p>
<p>The biggest problem is the huge number of bad loans and the paternalistic nature of the banking system. Tons of Japanese companies lose money but they keep getting propped up with loans. The lack of political perspective hurts this (since there's one dominant party by far). Japan spends much more than America does on bridges to nowhere (at least it did during the 90's) to little effect. Also Japanese consumers tend to save too much to really spur aggregate demand as well.</p>
<p>For the immigration question; a controlled amount of immigration is good for new viewpoints and for demographic reasons as well. If America didn't have a lot of hispanic immigration it would go grey the same way Europe is, but too much immigration definitely has a lot of bad externalities.</p>
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I don't disagree with this statement, considering members of my mom's family were killed, but I'm just saying...Japan wasn't exactly the "model" Asian country.
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<p>ECONOMICALLY. ECONOMICALLY. ECONOMICALLY. </p>
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Its lack of immigration is ONE source of Japan's economic problems. But Japan's government is notorious for mismanagement of funds. The thing is that while the "Tiger' Economies --I suspect you are referring to China and Indian--are now growing, Japan's economy hasn't recovered and seems to find trouble doing so.
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<p>No, the "Tiger" economies were the Southeast Asian economies like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The fiscal crisis that affected Japan was REGIONAL. It was due to bad practices throughout the whole region.</p>
<p>Japan's economy has actually been performing decently on and off for the past few fiscal years. In many ways, a lot of economists argue, Japan's just done with its unnaturally high rate of growth up until the bubble's burst in the 90s. In fact, most articles these days are quite optimistic about Japan.</p>
<p>Just as an aside, can you please not change your name so often? Or if you do, could you at least say who you are when you get a new one? Because its unfair to us that you can start an argument, then leave and come back as someone else without us having any knowlege of it.</p>
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The biggest problem is the huge number of bad loans and the paternalistic nature of the banking system. Tons of Japanese companies lose money but they keep getting propped up with loans.
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<p>Agreed.</p>
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The lack of political perspective hurts this (since there's one dominant party by far).
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<p>This makes me wonder if you really understand LDP politics.</p>
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Japan spends much more than America does on bridges to nowhere (at least it did during the 90's) to little effect. Also Japanese consumers tend to save too much to really spur aggregate demand as well.
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<p>Arguably, Japan's "bridges to nowhere" are a social security net. Instead of handing out doles (which are comparatively rare here), the government hands out jobs filling potholes and building dumb bridges and covering hills with concrete.</p>
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Also Japanese consumers tend to save too much to really spur aggregate demand as well.
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<p>Again, because there's little in the way of social security. Trust me, the Japanese spend. Just go to any large city, and yen are flowing like water. The problem with the domestic economy ISN'T spending, its high prices and over tarriffed goods being driven to the point of price absurdity.</p>
<p>And anyways back to the comments about why Berkeley is so good, it has a very distinguished faculty and you can get a lot out of them if you can find one to mentor you because a prof at berkeley is the equivalent of any prof at harvard, yale, whatever (probably better than Yale, Berkeley has more nobel winners). </p>
<p>The problem is that they try to cram so many people here and certain organizational things which arguably make a lot of things difficult.</p>