Hey, I like the sound of this quite a bit. And I got an idea where some of that idle Japanese capital could go. Japanese television could begin airing public-service "Save a Western Consumer" spots modeled on the save-hungry-children commercials. They could be narrated by Sally Struthers (no--this needs someone who looks hungry in *every* way: Calista Flockhart, say) reading from a phonetically translated script:
"This is Steve, a 40-year-old American. His Japanese car is eight years old, it burns oil, and if it breaks down, he doesn't have a cell phone to call for help. He doesn't own any of the Billboard Top 50 CDs. Most of his stereo components are more than 10 years old. The only DVD players he has seen are on showroom floors.
"He wants so much, and it would cost so little. For just US$100 a day, you could support a Western consumer like Steve--and the global consumer economy--and receive a photograph and letters from your foster consumer in return. Won't you help?"
---------- From: Tom Lehman Sent: Monday, February 08, 1999 12:08 PM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Poor, Helpless, Weak Japan
Dear Doug,
Let me see if I got this straight, what your saying is that accumulation at this point in time isn't in the best interests of the Japanese or for that matter the rest of the world and that the Japanese should start spending a little bit of that accumulated cash on a world -wide basis. Or am I putting words in your mouth.
Your email pal,
Tom L.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Rob Schaap wrote:
>
> >G'day Doug,
> >
> >You write of Japan:
> >
> >>For sure, the talk of collapse so fashionable in the English-language
> >>press is >way overdone, but you can't run an accumulation engine on sub-5%
> >>profit rates.
> >
> >Er, why not?
>
> Because: 1) it's not worth the additional risk of investing in production
> when riskless assets, like U.S. Treasury bonds, pay almost as much, and 2)
> over the long term, since tomorrow's investment is funded from yesteray's
> profits, you couldn't sustain the high levels of investment necessary to
> keep the accumulation engine running with such low profits.
>
> Doug
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