The Economy

I'll never forget visiting Japan in 1988 and 1989. Some worker could be doing the most menial task, yet you could see it was being done with care and pride toward doing it right. The work ethic was visually obvious. Maybe not coincidentally I bought my first Japanese car in 1988.

 

There's a new scam in my town, checks removed from letters at the post office, the payee digitally changed and e-deposited in the thieves' Bank. A local bank manager has been removed and P.O. employees are being investigated.

 

Not at all a FoMoCo sort. My previous purchase puts me at five different Japanese makes over the years. Granted, I don’t do the “trade them in every 18-24 months” These vehicles are bolted together pretty well, and with even half-decent maintenance, they’re not falling apart too quickly. The current one is known to hold value exceedingly well and have a mechanical iron horse reputation, though the ergo could be a little better.

But it IS a lot of fun.

 

If you have never visited Japan do it. The cleanliness. the friendliness of the people and the utter lack of crime make it feel like you are on another planet. There are simple thing s that I found amazing. The Japanese love to buy things from vending machines. So there are unattended vending machines everywhere, in dark backstreets. Spotless unattended public bathrooms.

 

When we asked how to get somewhere we knew to be within walking distance --- say, the nearest metro station --- the passerby would take us by the arm and walk us there.

And the people are, er, more like my size. Loved it.

 

- Hasui, Twenty Views of Tokyo

 

We built engines at Honda and I would’ve eaten off the floor. Spotless.

 

More bad news for Biden

 

When they say X people quit their jobs in a given month, do they factor out Baby Boomers who are retiring? Is there a form employers send where they check one box for quit and a different for retirement?

 

No, they don't, and IMO the statisticians, the economists and all the rest of us are not allowing for the numbers of persons who took or are taking early retirement due to the pandemic. If you were 60 or over (large slice of the work force) and were separated from your job or were a remote only worker for the last 20 months, the incentives to say, "why fucking go back to this job if I can possibly do otherwise" were strong.