Remember when Japan was going to dominate the world economy?

[MillCreek]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2014/09/24/japan-apocalypse-now-or-apocalypse-later/

Sounds like those days are a fading memory.  I have read several articles about the aging demographics of the country and the dire implications this has for the nation.

[zahc]

I always enjoyed how 80's movies often have some conspicuous Japan - related dialog or theme that always seems slightly odd from this side of the bubble. Back to the Future,  Die Hard, In the Line of Fire, of course Blade Runner, are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

[Marnoot]

I have read several articles about the aging demographics of the country and the dire implications this has for the nation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men

[Balog]

Modern Japan will be studied in history classes many years from now alongside America as an example of national suicide.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

And for many of the same root causes at that.


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[Tallpine]

Modern Japan will be studied in history classes many years from now alongside America as an example of national suicide.

I've been wondering for a while now who will make things work after the "old white guy" engineers all retire or die 

[MechAg94]

I've been wondering for a while now who will make things work after the "old white guy" engineers all retire or die  

Is it the engineers or the really experienced technicians?  

I do see a lot of talented engineers coming into our company.  The problem I see is all the smart people are pushed to college and such and there are fewer really good blue collar technicians.  A lot of trades require a lot of time doing hard work learning the trade and fewer guys stick with that if they have better options.

[Balog]

Is it the engineers or the really experienced technicians?  

I do see a lot of talented engineers coming into our company.  The problem I see is all the smart people are pushed to college and such and there are fewer really good blue collar technicians.  A lot of trades require a lot of time doing hard work learning the trade and fewer guys stick with that if they have better options.

Those options are becoming less and less better all the time. If you can start work at 18 making $30/hour with all the OT you want, the lower eventual top end salary is more than compensated for by the opportunity cost of college. Not to mention student loan burdens, the people who get a degree then can't find a job, the e people who are making on the lower end of the pays ale for an engineering  degree not the top, the people who fail out of school for whatever reason  etc.

[zahc]

I have a master's degree and 5 years experience in a poorly - chosen industry. My friends who never went to college universally make more than I do, in the oil boom. Some of them make well north of 150k, which I won't hope to see in my job unless I become an executive.

[Stand_watie]

Is it the engineers or the really experienced technicians?  

I do see a lot of talented engineers coming into our company.  The problem I see is all the smart people are pushed to college and such and there are fewer really good blue collar technicians.  A lot of trades require a lot of time doing hard work learning the trade and fewer guys stick with that if they have better options.

It's both working together that have the best results. A lot of the biggest problems in industry are from isolating the engineers from the production line.

[lee n. field]

I always enjoyed how 80's movies often have some conspicuous Japan - related dialog or theme that always seems slightly odd from this side of the bubble. Back to the Future,  Die Hard, In the Line of Fire, of course Blade Runner, are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

The dominance of Japanese high tech companies and the Yakuza, in William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy and related short pieces.

[MillCreek]

I have a master's degree and 5 years experience in a poorly - chosen industry. My friends who never went to college universally make more than I do, in the oil boom. Some of them make well north of 150k, which I won't hope to see in my job unless I become an executive.

Try two master's degrees, a law degree and 30 years experience in healthcare, and I still don't make $ 150K.  And yet I see kids a few years out of college who make more than me working in software.  It is all supply and demand, friends.

[HankB]

I've been wondering for a while now who will make things work after the "old white guy" engineers all retire or die 

Take a look at the movie "Idiocracy" for a hint . . . and I don't think it will take the movie's 500 years to reach that point. Just consider that NASA - repeatedly! - put men on the moon and brought them back in the 60s and 70s, and now, 40 years later, the USA has NO repeat NO manned space flight capability! We have to go to Russia, hat in hand, to put our people in orbit. BUT . . . NASA has diversity and EEOC goals so it's a kinder, gentler, more inclusive employer.

Or, casting your gaze abroad, look at places like Zimbabwe and RSA to see what happens when the nasty, hateful old white guys are given the boot.

[Tallpine]

Try two master's degrees, a law degree and 30 years experience in healthcare, and I still don't make $ 150K.  And yet I see kids a few years out of college who make more than me working in software.  It is all supply and demand, friends.

Never have so many been paid so much to produce such a crappy product  

[zahc]

The dominance of Japanese high tech companies and the Yakuza, in William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy and related short pieces.

Wait, Neuromancer is like my favorite book. There is a trilogy?

[lee n. field]

Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive

[brimic]

Try two master's degrees, a law degree and 30 years experience in healthcare, and I still don't make $ 150K.  And yet I see kids a few years out of college who make more than me working in software.  It is all supply and demand, friends.

+ a gazillionty. On the other hand, the software workers who are making 150K are working in areas where they cannot afford to live on a 150k salary.

[Monkeyleg]

From 1974 until 1978, I worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel repairing newspaper vending boxes, a job I did while going full time to photo school. The job paid $5.78 an hour, which is the equivalent of $28 and change today. It's been quite a few years since I made $28 an hour.  (Yes, I realize that the job is not paying $28 an hour today,  but that's today's equivalent buying power).

[MillCreek]

+ a gazillionty. On the other hand, the software workers who are making 150K are working in areas where they cannot afford to live on a 150k salary.

I live in that same area as do the software workers making $ 150 K (the greater Seattle area) and you can live quite nicely on $ 150 K per year.

[AJ Dual]

China's going to implode, and it'll be bad when it does.  Either because of a second hit to the global recession doe to bad U.S. and other countries monetary policy, or China's own internal bubbles, the real-estate bubble (entire empty cities for 2-10 Million people, all new construction) and the manipulations and cover-up by the command-economy elements of their government.

Whether there's a war put on top of it all as icing on the whole turd-cake it'll be remains to be seen.

[MillCreek]

^^^ Illustrative to AJ's point is this interesting post I read the other day:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-chinese-military-is-a-paper-dragon-8a12e8ef7edc

[Balog]

China's going to implode, and it'll be bad when it does.  Either because of a second hit to the global recession doe to bad U.S. and other countries monetary policy, or China's own internal bubbles, the real-estate bubble (entire empty cities for 2-10 Million people, all new construction) and the manipulations and cover-up by the command-economy elements of their government.

Whether there's a war put on top of it all as icing on the whole turd-cake it'll be remains to be seen.

They'll have to start a war eventually, only way to focus internal unrest on an external enemy. Or just kick the colonization of Africa up a few notches.

[AJ Dual]

They'll have to start a war eventually, only way to focus internal unrest on an external enemy. Or just kick the colonization of Africa up a few notches.

Or burn off excess male population due to the male/female disparity.

[Balog]

Or burn off excess male population due to the male/female disparity.

Tens of millions of angry, horny, unemployed, military age males with nothing to do and no one to be with. Raping and pillaging the natives to secure glory and natural resources for the Fatherland seems like a natural outcome.

[HankB]

They'll have to start a war eventually, only way to focus internal unrest on an external enemy. Or just kick the colonization of Africa up a few notches.

Just read a newspaper story about massive demonstrations and civil unrest in Hong Kong . . . news of which is being rigorously suppressed in the rest of China.

Seems the Chinese overlords aren't too keen on observing either the letter or spirit of the agreement in which Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese control in 1997 . . . and the people don't like that at all.