Is 'Good Business' Good For Society?

Remember back in the early 80's, when American businessmen was looking to Japan for answers on how to properly motivate and cultivate a quality workforce? Guess what? The Japanese had it wrong all along. Here's the proof.

The bottom line is that "good business" may end up destroying the fabric of a society. Japanese companies thrived by focusing on the bottom line instead of on the lives of the Japanese people, and now the entire Japanese nation suffers. This culture in Japan produces people who are very disciplined and will suffer in silence. Americans aren't disciplined, and they're more likely to hunt down and kill the people who bring this kind of hell to their lives.

Maybe somebody had better warn somebody who will listen, if the business culture in this society is still determined to pattern 'good business practices' on the Japanese model of 30 years ago - which, by all indications, it still is. Maybe 'good business' doesn't square with a viable society?

Then again, maybe the Japanese are just a bunch of whiners who won't get off their lazy asses and get a friggin' job. I don't know. They seemed like the perfect workforce when we adopted their work ethics and professional labor structure.

Japan's Lost Generation

Japan's Economic Stagnation Is Creating a Nation of Lost Youths

By CHARLES HUGH SMITH Posted 7:00 AM 08/06/10 Economy, Careers


What happens to a generation of young people when:

• They are told to work hard and go to college, yet after graduating they find few permanent job opportunities?
  
• Many of the jobs that are available are part-time, temporary or contract labor?
  
• These insecure jobs pay one-third of what their fathers earned?
  
• Poor economic conditions persist for 10, 15 and 20 years in a row?
  
• The low pay makes living at home the only viable option?
  
• null
  

For an answer, turn to Japan. The world's second-largest economy has stagnated in just this fashion for almost 20 years, and the consequences for the "lost generations" that have come of age in the "lost decades" have been dire. In many ways, Japan's social conventions are fraying under the relentless pressure of an economy in seemingly permanent decline.

While the world sees Japan as the home of consumer technology juggernauts such as Sony and Toshiba and high-tech "bullet trains" (shinkansen), beneath the bright lights of Tokyo and the evident wealth generated by decades of hard work and Japan Inc.'s massive global export machine lies a different reality: increasing poverty and decreasing opportunity for the nation's youth.

[edit on 9-8-2010 by NorEaster]

[edit on 9-8-2010 by NorEaster]