The Japanese Miracle

The tiny island nation of Japan provides many fine examples of what a country can do if it is not bogged down in futile wars and is intelligently governed. Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and China have copied Japan’s model and have become extremely successful.

The U.S. is a great country with enormous potential. However, mismanagement and poor economic decisions, have squandered the power and wealth that previous generations worked so hard to create. To put this in perspective, this is how the U.S. compares with a country as small as Japan:

• Japan only has 4 percent of our land mass (smaller than California) and is 90 percent mountainous and infertile.
• Japan has minimal natural resources - no oil, no coal, no iron ore, not even timber, just fish!
• To manufacture a product, Japan must import all of its required resources. Even after these expenses, they have a huge annual balance of trade surplus with the U.S. and has also accumulate one-third of the world's savings recorded in previous years.
• Few Americans realize that Japan generates on par or higher average wage rates than the U.S.
• The average Japanese family has a consistent yearly savings while the average American does not have any savings.
• Japan had a record $236 billion current account surplus (trade plus interest income and other receipts) with the rest of the world in 2007 - while the US had a record $731 billion balance trade deficit to the rest of the world during that same period.

Japan must be doing something right! Better planning, direction, and a more responsive government are keys to their success. They have learned a great deal from us and have improved on it. Perhaps it would be wise for us to study their improvements for our own benefit.

Compare this to:

• As of April, 2008, the U.S. has borrowed nearly $600 billion from Japan and $502 billion from China to keep our government running. This Money is also used to give ourselves tax refunds, pay for our internal budget deficits (over $10 trillion), and our external balance of trade deficit (2008 alone estimated to exceed $800 billion).
• The U.S. has two-and-a-half times Japan's population, plus much more land and natural resources, but we are producing less, importing more, and borrowing more than ever before as well as selling our irreplaceable assets to pay for imports and debt.
• The U.S. is presently relinquishing much of its manufacturing power to outsourcing (giving away our technology and jobs to foreign companies and have them produce for us in their country; thus totally dismantling our industrial base) and insourcing (subsidizing foreign companies to manufacturer in the U.S. to produce for their benefit and their profit, which quickly displaces many of our factories).
• We are becoming vulnerably dependent on foreign companies for jobs and products. In Central Ohio alone (a seven county area within 60 miles of Columbus), there are 74 Japanese owned and 67 European owned American corporations that control a large percentage of the manufacturing in the region.
• American owned manufacturing is becoming obsolete and second rate. We are no longer competitive with Japan, China and others.
• The U.S. is the only major industrialized country that depends on foreign suppliers for large amounts of steel and other critical inputs needed by strategic industries.
• The U.S. is selling many of its best companies to foreign corporations (example: Arco and Amoco oil companies are now British owned, IBM PC is now a Chinese company, Lucent Technologies and RCA are now French, Zenith is Korean, Frigidaire is Swedish and Westinghouse Nuclear is Japanese). All this is happening while the U.S. is trying to fight four wars; the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, the international war on terrorism, and an Economic War at home, which we are losing. We are incurring massive debt and are dependent on foreign sources for funding to continue these wars.

Every American should think about the direction towards which we are heading and the dangers and vulnerabilities we face if this course is maintained. Major changes must take place or we will face unimaginable problems and soon see an America we won't recognize.

Can't America Do Better?

MORE OF TODAY'S NEWS | Comment on this Article | Read Comments

Please Donate to EconomyinCrisis.org today

Please do your part, send a donation of $5, $10, $15 or any amount by PayPal or major credit card.

Download our Podcast from iTunes

Follow us on Twitter

Donate Today