Japan's Gen X workers are struggling | Hacker News Reader

Japan's Gen X workers are struggling

economist.com

32 pointsandsoitis18 comments

This is what happens when you sacrifice a generation of people to make a "soft" landing for the rest.

Can you explain?

They sacrificed the young gen to keep older gens secure.

> The ice-agers’ misfortunes contrast starkly with those of the generation that came just before. During the bubble years of the 1980s, companies hired voraciously.

> Everything changed as the bubble popped in the early 1990s. Japan’s rigid employment system made it hard to shed existing workers, so they cut hiring instead. The ratio of job openings to college applicants fell from nearly three at peak to below one by 2000.

> Many graduates who failed to secure regular jobs ended up in temporary or contract work. Japan’s labour market sharply distinguishes between regular workers, who enjoy strong legal protections and seniority-based pay rises, and irregular ones, who often do similar work for much less money and are the first to be laid off in downturns.

Japan's economy has collapsed. The value of wages in relation to the rest of the world is dropping like a stone. So many who used to be able to take a yearly overseas trip potentially won't be able to for the next decade or two unless things change.

But it's an odd thing, the "economy has collapsed" but very few go hungry, most are housed, live with dignity, streets are clean and safe, bridges aren't crumbling, education is high, and so on. I don't wanna put Japan on a pedestal (I live here, the country has its problems indeed), but it's an interesting example of (at least currently) the possibility to "collapse" relative to other rich countries, but still maintain a high quality of life in general.

There are many societies where we can apply your description yet we could still say the economy is failing. In particular many in the former socialist Eastern Europe.

I would be curious what your description of a high quality of life is. As I don't believe that for one of the great global powers is what is considered a high quality of life.

Firstly, the worth of the wage locally has dropped by approximately a third in just a few years. I worked there for 7/8 years in recent times and can see such a change from then to now in my colleagues and now friends lifestyle. Most are significantly cutting back in their life in some way.

Secondly openly it looks as if very few go hungry but that's not the case. Pensioners, those with disabilities, and many single parent families are really struggling to put food on the table for all in Japan. For many others, I don't count eating ramen regularly, which is effectively a student diet (also because of poverty) as being satiated.

Germany economy can be considered collapsed or almost, yet the living standard is still high.

Living standards will drop in the upcoming decades unless they elect a competent government. They need drastic changes in public health insurance, retirement reforms, cut down government spending and drastic crack downs on corruption, tax evasion and social benefit frauds.

Current government already borrowed half a trillion Euros and if the trend continues that would destabalise complete euro economic area which would affect other countries as well

Wages etc are in a far better place in Germany than Japan.

Also an aging population problem I believe though right? So if nothing else changed, today might not be the 'worst' it could get, with lower GDP and increased health and social care costs.

Japan has been dealing with demographic problems for years now. If it tells us anything it is that and aging population needn’t be catastrophic.

yea, the quality of life for the average person is a better metric to say is a system is working but usually people always use GDP per capita or some other metric like that and most of that doesn't reflect inequality. America is amazing for the people at the top and they get insanely wealthy but the average person really isn't sharing the spoils of that.

Standards. It's the same thing in some European countries. Wages are down, unemployment is up, and yet the standard of living hasn't changed because there are certain standards people take for granted as being obvious and basic.

You'll still hear people complaining about things like a crack in the road that hasn't been repaired in a timely manner (timely being less than 2 weeks).

To be colonialized by ones elderly..

> An economic collapse means a massive, severe breakdown of a regional or national economy where normal trade, banking, and commerce largely stop

I think you may be using the word 'collapse' incorrectly here, as do other commenters under you - no eastern European economy is 'collapsing' in any meaningful way, maybe apart from Belarus who is quite opaque from outside and Ukraine for obvious reasons.

It's not. At most, the currency is falling too much and that's why wages are not buying the same amount as before, on the outside

They don't buy the same as before internally either. Numerous industries are propped up by tourist cash whilst many locals struggle financially.

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