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Japan in the 1980 didn't have any better access to natural resources than it has today, yet it didn't have the labor market problems described in the article. M
by brazzy 6y ago
Japan in the 1980 didn't have any better access to natural resources than it has today, yet it didn't have the labor market problems described in the article. Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and are not having these problems.
- roenxi 6y agoMy basic argument is Japan (might have, I did see a few convincing counters in other parts of the thread that were convincing) too many people for the amount of land they have. Your counterargument is that they didn't have a problem in 1980, when they had less people and the same amount of land. I can't disagree with that, but it isn't relevant. > Many, many other countries don't have a lot of natural resources and are not having these problems. They have the 3rd largest economy in the world. It goes US, China and then Japan. 30% higher GDP than the next contender, Germany. If there are any non-linear economic effects at all between size and labour market, Japan is going to find them first.
- brazzy 6y agoJapan has a smaller population now than they had in 1980, and a much smaller working age population: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan
- roenxi 6y agoYou may have misread the numbers slightly; population of ~117 million in 1980 and a population of ~ 125 million today. And the chart in that article shows that they basically stopped having children in 1980 which would be consistent with a "running out of resources" hypothesis as a root cause. If they hit a wall in economic carrying capacity circa 1980 that chart would supporting evidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan