From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Aug 30 2001 - 12:58:06 MDT
Miriam English wrote:
>
> At 12:09 PM 30/08/2001 +0100, Charlie Stross wrote:
> >...Japanese prime minister blames country's woes on demographic shift that
> >took years to recognize...
>
> This bit struck me as a bit weird. It must be just the perception of the
> writer that the demographic shift took years to recognise. I know
> politicians are a pretty stupid bunch generally, but surely they saw this
> one coming. There has been discussion about what will happen when we
> baby-boomers become an aging population since... oooh, around the late
> 60s/early 70s.
Ah, but the Japanese system is poorly structured, it protects
establishment opinion and works well doing a whole lot of nothing at
all. MacArthur encouraged this primarily to protect Japan against a
communist insurgency during the Korean era, but it does have its
problems today.
>
> Mind you they still don't seem to see global warming. [shakes head]
Neither do most scientists. In the late 60's/early 70's, most scientists
were worried we were entering an ice age. What makes you think they are
any more right now?
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