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It is an interesting thing to contemplate, how there really are “leading” and “trailing” cultural activities. I noticed this in Australia how culturally, they w

It is an interesting thing to contemplate, how there really are “leading” and “trailing” cultural activities. I noticed this in Australia how culturally, they were about a decade behind the US (this is not a snipe, just an observation on cultural norms). It is interesting to think that the US is culturally behind Japan. It leads me to wonder if that really will be our future as well, will we go through two lost decades? I fear we very well may do so. There at some point needs to be some method for dealing with the crushing amount of debt the US has collectively accumulated, and with internal “growth” so low (low birth rates as pointed out by the author). I see there eventually being no other choice than some sort of devaluing of currency to relieve the debt situation. The question is, what happens then? Do we go through a period of economic stagnation? If so, what happens to those “left behind”?

girvo 8y ago
Australia is indeed a decade behind the USA, if you define culture as being “that which comes from the USA”. There’s a lot of uniqueness here that doesn’t get surfaced often enough, sadly. Note: I’m not disagreeing with you! More pointing out a slightly different way of looking at the same phenomenon :)
wafflebear 8y ago
Can you give some examples of how Australia is culturally 10 years behind the US?
- coldtea 8y ago
  Only 10? Culturally it's a hinterland judging from its output.
  - TheForumTroll 8y ago
    Output of what?
    - mcguire 8y ago
      Exactly. :-) If you haven't been tracking Netflix, they have a new export from Australia, a series based on the Monkey King tale from China. It's Hercules-ish, and the accents are...odd.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      I rest my case! Though I do enjoy Nick Cave, Ed Kuepper, the Triffids, the Go-Betweens, and Tsiolkas -- not much of Australian-specific bunch most of them though. Cave is mostly a dark take of US blues and celtic folk for example...
      - thedailymail 8y ago
        Tame Impala and King Gizzard are two new and influential bands from Oz.
- aerophilic 8y ago
  I probably should have been more specific. As with all things, even in the original article, there are both examples of both leading and trailing examples of culture. However, you asked for a specific example. For that, I refer to when I was living in Australia around 2009. What I distinctly remembered, and which still sticks in my mind was male/female interactions and cultural expectations. In particular, what is “acceptable” in the work place. refer to societal norms as it comes to what is “acceptable” in the work. I recall a situation where a “secretary” was spoken to in such a way that I thought I was in a “Mad Men” episode. She was put down/treated such that if it had been in the US, would have been grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit. What was worse, this seemed to be the “norm” and nothing out of the ordinary. I even recalling talking to a female colleague and her intimadating that this was “par for the course”. Another cultural difference, which I suspect is remedied by now, mostly had to do with availability of technology. Talking with/being around students and young professionals, at least at the time. It was very obvious that they had less exposure to information through the Internet. This wasn’t due to lack of interest, but more lack of infrastructure. It cost 10X to get the same technologies we took for granted in the US. Also, some things simply would not be available at any price. I really hope it has changed since then, but those are my memories. All that said, Australia remains one of my favorite places in the world. I have often thought of moving back.
panarky 8y ago
> will we go through two lost decades? Growth rates in US and Japan are remarkably similar. https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:USA:JPN&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&... > the crushing amount of debt the US has collectively accumulated The US has far less debt than Japan. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-t... https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/government-debt-to-gdp
- simsla 8y ago
  Doesn't mean it's not crushing.
- digi_owl 8y ago
  Wrong debt. The problem for Japan is the amount of household debt that was accumulated during the 80s (Most of it, as with USA, Australia, and a bunch of other nations, went into housing). This put a hard clamp on domestic consumption. Only being a strong export nation has alleviated the problem until recent years, where SK and China has undercut Japan.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

girvo 8y ago

Australia is indeed a decade behind the USA, if you define culture as being “that which comes from the USA”. There’s a lot of uniqueness here that doesn’t get surfaced often enough, sadly. Note: I’m not disagreeing with you! More pointing out a slightly different way of looking at the same phenomenon :)

wafflebear 8y ago

Can you give some examples of how Australia is culturally 10 years behind the US?

coldtea 8y ago
Only 10? Culturally it's a hinterland judging from its output.
- TheForumTroll 8y ago
  Output of what?
  - mcguire 8y ago
    Exactly. :-) If you haven't been tracking Netflix, they have a new export from Australia, a series based on the Monkey King tale from China. It's Hercules-ish, and the accents are...odd.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    I rest my case! Though I do enjoy Nick Cave, Ed Kuepper, the Triffids, the Go-Betweens, and Tsiolkas -- not much of Australian-specific bunch most of them though. Cave is mostly a dark take of US blues and celtic folk for example...
    - thedailymail 8y ago
      Tame Impala and King Gizzard are two new and influential bands from Oz.
aerophilic 8y ago
I probably should have been more specific. As with all things, even in the original article, there are both examples of both leading and trailing examples of culture. However, you asked for a specific example. For that, I refer to when I was living in Australia around 2009. What I distinctly remembered, and which still sticks in my mind was male/female interactions and cultural expectations. In particular, what is “acceptable” in the work place. refer to societal norms as it comes to what is “acceptable” in the work. I recall a situation where a “secretary” was spoken to in such a way that I thought I was in a “Mad Men” episode. She was put down/treated such that if it had been in the US, would have been grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit. What was worse, this seemed to be the “norm” and nothing out of the ordinary. I even recalling talking to a female colleague and her intimadating that this was “par for the course”. Another cultural difference, which I suspect is remedied by now, mostly had to do with availability of technology. Talking with/being around students and young professionals, at least at the time. It was very obvious that they had less exposure to information through the Internet. This wasn’t due to lack of interest, but more lack of infrastructure. It cost 10X to get the same technologies we took for granted in the US. Also, some things simply would not be available at any price. I really hope it has changed since then, but those are my memories. All that said, Australia remains one of my favorite places in the world. I have often thought of moving back.

panarky 8y ago

> will we go through two lost decades? Growth rates in US and Japan are remarkably similar. https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_kd_zg&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:USA:JPN&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&... > the crushing amount of debt the US has collectively accumulated The US has far less debt than Japan. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-t... https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/government-debt-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/government-debt-to-gdp

simsla 8y ago
Doesn't mean it's not crushing.
digi_owl 8y ago
Wrong debt. The problem for Japan is the amount of household debt that was accumulated during the 80s (Most of it, as with USA, Australia, and a bunch of other nations, went into housing). This put a hard clamp on domestic consumption. Only being a strong export nation has alleviated the problem until recent years, where SK and China has undercut Japan.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]