I'm just noting that so we don't fall into the trap of letting our Randian overlords pre-emptively limit the bounds of our imagination.
Why would we? I note that my father is deteriorating faster now that he does not work. Is it unreasonable to think that work is actually "good for us"?
But there's a world of difference between working because it gives you meaning, and working because if you don't you'll starve to death in your unheated apartment. No older person is benefiting from having to dig through trash for bottles to recycle for nickels.
Agreed. But I think we are squandering the wealth of experience that old people can bring to the work-place by essentially aging them out. They have something to offer - and we need it - and (in Japan) the safety net, it ain't so safe!
EDIT: I lived in Japan a long time, but I realized (at some point), that no matter how much I payed into the retirement system, as a retiree, I would lose my visa and be kicked out (just the way it is). So I moved "back home", so that I would have the opportunity to work until I die.
It has been awhile since I researched this, but is becoming a permanent resident after 10 years the way to avoid that?
By law (although behaviors are changing in contrary ways to the law), I am not even allowed to sign a contract. Say - movie rental. Without a sponsor - I can not (legally) rent a movie. Now, I know, practically, I can. But not legally (with the full power of the courts behind the video shop if I fail to return a VHS tape).
What does that mean? It means that I can not and should not expect that the Japanese retirement system that I have spent decades paying into would necessarily consider it their obligation to fund my retirement.
Is this changing? Yes, it is. Slowly. Do I want to wait for it? No - I do not.
I would rather leave and become independently safe (monied) and return to Japan (because I love it) when my own ability to fund myself is in my own hands.
That sounds like the kind of a decision a paperclip maximizer would make to me.
"Societal resources" not being squandered is a perverse thing to optimize for.
Consider two worlds: 1) A world that automatically makes N widgets, and people could add an additional N widgets but choose not to 2) A world that automatically makes 0 widgets, and people add an additional N widgets because they choose to
If you're going for "not squandering societal resources" as the main metric of a society's value, world 2) is strictly superior, because people waste less time on frivolities like leisure and pleasure.
I'm open to arguments, though, that we should spread more leisure and pleasure around the age distribution instead of backloading it. I expect I'd be convinced, even.
Japan is not a post-scarcity society. Even if income we distributed completely evenly, it would be about $43,000 per year. That’s comfortable, but not so much that Japan could afford to produce a lot less and still enjoy the kind of lifestyle people associate with a developed country.
I'd go about optimising the use of healthy young workers away from endless hours of presenteeism to short more productive hours before declaring the well empty and moving on to putting old people to work.
Last time we were on a business trip together, about 5 years ago, we waited about 15 minutes to be seated at a chain diner type place. Nobody acknowledged the three of us. A group of 4 college kids walked in and a waitress appeared and seated them ahead of us within 2 minutes.
Lots of casual bullshit. It’s sad.
The more enlightening thing to look at is pervasive systemic/institutional racism. I'd recommend doing some googling on those terms if you'd like to learn more.
> is pretty taboo in most areas of society, and, even in private situations, it's rare in my experience
English is not my native language so I may be misreading the subtext, but it seemed contradictory
I don't see much outright hostile "blacks suck" racism, at least in the Bay Area, it's more people holding the wrong expectations/biases. For example seeing a person of Spanish descent at a counter and assuming they don't speak English or seeing them walking around and assuming they're a repairman or cleaner.
I think the real problem is that it's hard to break out of poverty in general and all Spanish speaking/African Americans started that way, while the same isn't true of people of European descent. Whites are also more likely to have relatively affluent friends/family to fall back on or help them out while others aren't.
Also I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it but at least working in tech as a foreigner, it's easy to develop racist biases here. When _every_ time you notice an African American is because they're shouting/yelling in the streets or asking for handouts, you unconsciously come to assume they're all like that, despite the fact that when you look around at any given time, the vast majority are acting just like anyone else.
I think what you read here on HN is not a representative sample of Americans.