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I would like the kind of society that doesn't need to use force (legitimized by democratically elected representatives, checks and balances, and the rule of law
by MartinCron 13y ago
I would like the kind of society that doesn't need to use force (legitimized by democratically elected representatives, checks and balances, and the rule of law) to take care of the most vulnerable, but I have yet to see any precedent of that. You mention Japan, they have a very pervasive government social safety net.
Places without effective governments? Those are places where people do routinely die of hunger and treatable disease.
- zurn 13y agoFrom what I hear Japan doesn't have a good social safety net. See eg. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/asia/08japan.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/asia/08japan.html?pa... I would be happy to be wrong and the situation might have improved very recently?
- MartinCron 13y agoThat's an interesting article about how Japan hadn't yet extended their safety net (which includes things like universal health care) to the emerging edge case of mass layoffs, something that just didn't happen in their culture before.
- zurn 13y ago"the number of nonregular workers took off after an easing of labor laws in 1999" .. "To receive unemployment insurance, for instance, workers must have held the same job for at least a year, effectively excluding most temporary workers" .. "Today, 34.5 percent of Japan’s 55.3 million workers are nonregular employees" Sounds like a third of the workforce is at risk of homelessness any time their temp runs out and this has been developing for ~ 15 years.