Japan is financially screwed right now, and nobody is willing to make sacrifices. I have been asking people lately about their views on the economic situation, and it has caused me to realize that everyone is thinking only about their own situation with no regard to the society as a whole.
Example 1:
One woman advocated cutting government expenditures, and was fine with raising the consumption tax, as well as a tax on alcohol, but disagreed that tobacco taxes should increase (it currently costs 410 yen, or $5.40). The reason? Because she smokes.
Example 2:
One man was fine with cutting government employee wages and increasing consumption tax, as well as a tobacco tax, but he thought it was a bad idea to raise the tax on alcohol. When asked why, he replied that he liked to drink.
Example 3:
One young lady declared that she hated prime minister Noda because he intends to decrease public salaries. Her motivations, like everyone else's, were purely selfish: she works in the public sector.
These voters actually oppose policies that they KNOW are good for the country. When half of the people vote AGAINST the interests of the country, and the other half are too uninformed to hold an opinion either way, democracy cannot function. Indeed, it has not been functioning in Japan for years. Voters have no knowledge of important issues in government or the rest of the world, so they openly criticize policy which is clearly good for the country and, in many cases, necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment