[lbo-talk] The Myth of Japan’s Failure - NYTimes.com

[Nathan]

On Mon, Jan 09, 2012 at 03:42:41PM -0500, Wojtek S wrote:
> Joanna: "2. What you see depends on where you look. There's Detroit,
> and there's Manhattan."
> 
> [WS:] The problem is that Manhattan and similar places are palaces
> amidst slums or places that are becoming slums - just like in the
> Third World.  You do not see many slums in Western Europe.
> 
> In other words, it is not how the rich do, because they do well
> everywhere, even in third World countries, but how the vast majority
> of the population does.  The latter is what makes the difference

When you say "you do not see many slums in Western Europe", how much of
that is a result of the planned suburbanization of the gastarbeiter and
immigrant populations away from the urbanized population? That said, the
same certainly happens here in the US.

As far as the "second world" (in the $$$ meaning of that phrase, not the

    cold war), it's hard to disagree with that. Amenities are few and
far between and US tech infrastructure has become a joke in the past
fifteen years.

-- 
Nathan