The General Economics Thread

The Japanese economy is on-topic, and we had a bit of a discussion about that a while back, regarding their sales tax policy.

Here's The Other Wiki's article on Keiretsu — it's notable that if you work within a Keiretsu you're supposed to use their products, up to and including their beer.

Their beer is crap though

Ooh, now now now, that's a very sweeping statement about Japanese beer. Nothing wrong with a Kirin or an Asahi. Obviously, they can't make beer like the glorious Caledonian master race, but they make a decent crack at it. For foreigners.

Isn't a large part of Abenomics to do with structural reform and doing away with some of the more hierarchical and problematic aspects of Japan's business culture.

From what I hear, yes but it's got to be pretty tough to break through their entrenched cultural barriers to change. The Japanese have cultural entrenchment down to a science.

edited 17th Apr '14 12:38:36 PM by Fighteer

Once they start actually letting people immigrate, they should get shaken up a bit. Of course, that's part of the reason they don't let people immigrate, but between their declining population and the fact that the younger generations (who will be in power soon enough) like foreigners, they'll have to let it happen eventually.

Maybe. But Japan has a very Conservative culture — for example, the Japanese prefer to pay in cash and some cash machines are only open office hours.

Yes, but the younger generation is developing a somewhat-more-visible version of the Millenial counterculture (more visible because of Japan's conservatism).

After all, a lot of Japanese talking heads are calling it a crisis when young men refuse to get involved in the rat race; they're not looking for "good jobs" and they're not aggressively pursuing women for marriage. (Think there was a link to an article on "herbivore males" upthread.)

And as the Sixties showed, never underestimate the power of a good counterculture.

During Holy Week, let us remember how Jesus felt about moneychangers....http://azspot.net/post/82991705725/amen-and-amen

It is weird as hell how few places in Japan took credit. But then, their vending machines took absurdly high bills and made change for them (would you feel confident putting equivalent to $50 in a pepsi machine in the US?), so they made a cash-heavy society convenient.

One of the bigger problems (thread relevant) is that the Japanese tend to do a fair bit of mattress-stuffing, which is even worse for their deflationary tendencies. One anecdote i got in my "Anthropology of Japan" class was this old woman who died and they found piles of rotting money in her house.

"Would you feel comfortable putting a 50 in a vending machine?"

<Is reminded of a scene from To Aru Majutsu no Index>

Looking at the system, it makes sense to look at a single Yen like a cent or a penny, not a dollar or pound.

He's not saying a fifty yen note (which doesn't come in notes, it comes in coins), he's talking a 5,000 yen note, which is roughly equivalent of fifty dollars.

Yeah, using a 50 dollar bill in a vending machine seems kind of alien, but then again, so does using paper money. Because Canada has 1 and 2 dollar coins, it's extremely rare to find a vending machine that takes bills, and they're usually right on the border.

I want 1 and 2 dollar coins to be a thing here.

And plastic bills.

That smell like maple syrup

America still has $1 bills? What the hell is the point in that?

I remember them when I was there, and they were a pain in the bloody arse. I assumed you'd have jacked it in by now, like Britain did with the £1 note.

edited 18th Apr '14 9:04:18 AM by Achaemenid

That's just an urban legend. But yeah, the 1 and 2 dollar coins are actually kind of convenient, and the different bill denominations are really easy to tell apart at a glance. It's a common "pastor-joke" around here that they wish we used American type money because then they'd get 50s and 20s when people intended in giving one dollar bills.

Probably inertia. "It's the way it's always been, so that's how it will stay."

edited 18th Apr '14 9:04:08 AM by Zendervai

A lot of people are irrationally attached to their $1 bills. No idea why.

I don't like them.

Not enough to buy anything but I can't exactly just take it out of my wallet and put it somewhere like I could some spare change.

Just sits there, mocking me. Reminding me that I can't afford anything

Doesn't help that a lot of places still aren't set to take dollar coins. I have to either dump them in the lottery (where they set endlessly), or beg customers to take them off my hands at work, because we literally have no way to dispose of them (other bills go in the safe. Through a bill reader).

I don't think the campus vending machines take credit cards. They do take the campus "Pirate Card" things, so there's no reason to NEED paper money.

Honestly, I'm better off not using them anyway, so I typically don't carry much cash on me. But I do need some cash for, like, riding the bus.

I love dollar bills and hate dollar coins. They take up space, weigh too much, changes something that works perfectly well for no reason. What we do need to get rid of are pennies.

I love dollar coins, but I also realize that they're damn heavy to carry in a pocket.

But yeah, dollar coins are far more economically efficient to make than bills. And pennies are a blight upon humanity. Keep the $2 bill, though, it's too much fun.

I vaguely remember doing a bit of research not too long ago and finding that the US Dollar is pretty much the only currency that uses paper bills for its $1-equivalent.

Damn straight... and we're never converting to metric either...