Japan Loses Its Spot as Third-Largest Economy as It Slips into Recession

Eh, the stock market was _always_ out of touch with reality. It's just that the rapid acceleration of income inequality (and thus, capital inequality) as made that way more visible than it used to be.

This is because the stock market has always been a measure of "how well are corporations doing?", _not_ a measure of "how well is the average individual doing?"

When economies shift harder to benefiting corporations in a way that disproportionately benefits those at the very top of the corporation and aggressively shrinks the benefits to those lower down in the corporation, the question of "how well are corporations doing?" has less and less to do with the question of "how well is the average individual doing?", except _maybe_ to have a negative correlation (although even when corporations aren't doing well, the average individual still sometimes gets screwed, like in the bank bailouts of 2008, or the PPP loans during COVID -- the whole "privatize the profits, socialize the losses" game that is now a core part of US corporate economic strategy).

That would be really nice. I've known several Japanese people well during my travels and the conservative and family pressure is really heavy on the young people. When abroad they tend to go pretty wild because that huge pressure is temporarily lifted and it causes this reaction. I've seen the difference, really open and wild people enjoying life abroad turn into solemn workers without much self-expression overnight. The year abroad is all the self-exploration they got :'(

It really made me sad seeing that as I've never stopped self-exploration and it's the most important thing in my life. I'm sure some people love a solid family life but it's clear to me that people like me don't get a chance to live their life as they wish in Japan.

Some individualism is good in my opinion. Life can't be all about servitude.