5 ms·
Forget about what might happen in decades into the future, Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio is 275% right now and the sky hasn't fallen.
by panarky 4y ago
Forget about what might happen in decades into the future, Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio is 275% right now and the sky hasn't fallen.
- teaearlgraycold 4y agoWe value companies at 10x their annual revenue and beyond. A country like the US is surely worth decades of its GDP at least. It won't be in the red at 200% debt to GDP.
- qeternity 4y agoThis is really inaccurate. TFA is just referencing public debt. If you want to treat the US like a company, you should include private debt as well. If we do that, you will end up with a figure that is 5-10x GDP (depending on what you include). Then for some reason you're comparing 10x valuations with debt loads...which aren't comparable in the slightest. Do you know how many companies have outstanding debt at 5-10x their revenues? Go look at most major debtors and you will find they have debt loads under 1x revenues.
- teaearlgraycold 4y agoFair enough
- radicaldreamer 4y agoQuality of life in Japan keeps improving because their population is falling while their "slow" growth economy continues to improve life for the remaining share of the population.
- bioemerl 4y agoJapan is not an enviable economic environment.
- 4wsn 4y agoJapan isn't the US, though. The effects of Japan's stagnation and economic woes are very real on the ground, and in terms of quality of life. I'm not praising Japan as being somehow superior in that regard, but Japanese culture _does_ have traits that allows the Japanese to bear hardship with a measure of grace and calmness. I can't imagine the US being in the situation that Japan is in without far more severe political consequences.
- noobermin 4y agoCan you specify what you mean by "quality of life." Japan has quite a high quality of life, in fact they beat the US in life expectancy, for example. The poster is right, while they are not the US, the sky hasn't fallen.
- qeternity 4y agoJapan has been economically stagnant for decades now. Japanese GDP per capita is lower now than it was in the early 90s. The sky already fell.
- panarky 4y agoIf life in Japan is what catastrophe looks like, then they've proven that a high rate of economic growth in perpetuity isn't required for decent living standards.