Xref: utzoo alt.flame:29411 talk.politics.misc:65455 comp.sources.d:6638 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: alt.flame,talk.politics.misc,comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Email posted at author's request re: AT&T patent claim article Keywords: when is it "bashing"? Message-ID: <1991Mar11.174646.20202@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 11 Mar 91 17:46:46 GMT References: <1991Mar7.045031.13940@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1991Mar9.172935.2783@mtek.com> Followup-To: alt.flame, talk.politics.misc Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 75 bbh@mtek.com (Bud Hovell @ Mtek) writes: [the subject is Japan] > You may want to consider that if you believe that someone is trying to > do you in, and they really *are*, then that belief rests not in > paranoia, ethnocentrism, racism, or a need to "bash". > If someone is trying to do you in, and you refuse to accept that this > is even a possibility, then Darwin will once again be proven right. > But I also recognize that among those values is stoic perseverence and > dedication to a long-term goal. The Japanese take the long view, > unlike Americans, and fully recognize that winning the *important* > battles determines the outcome of the long-term campaign. And > "winning" is a big deal, whatever their current Constitution may say. The Japanese are doing an _excellent_ job of running a national economy with a focus on prosperity and the national well being. They have struck a good balance between regulation and cooperation between industry and government. They have struck a good balance between social welfare and requiring an active contribution to the economy from each citizen. They have struck a good balance between competetion and cooperation within industry. They have assured that their banking system supports, rather than preys upon, their economy. They have struck a good balance between personal liberty and social harmony. They have struck a good balance between respect for the past and an eye to the future, and made both innovation and preservation explicit, legislated national efforts with funding and supervision. They are excellent at deferring present consumption in favor of future well being, and also stockpile for bad times. They plan far beyond the next quarterly earnings statement. They have a tax system that promotes prosperity while funding the government and maintaining the collective national physical plant. They have given up adventuring on foreign shores or trying to tell the rest of the world how to run its affairs (except by example), and run a minimal armed service that is a limited drain on the national economy. They provide education on a competitive basis, and make it a high ideal, so that each citizen is motivated to pursue and accept education to the personal limits achievable. In each and every one of these areas the US has fallen down as a people and as a nation. Our stupidity is not the responsibility of the Japanese, nor do they owe us the courtesy of slowing down while we catch up. They need not do anything at all to see to the downfall of the US economy except keep out of the way, wait patiently, and look out not to be in the path of the damage when we do ourselves in by greed, laziness, corruption, stupidity, inefficiency, bad law, and short-sightedness. To try to warp their looking out for their own best interests and us failing to do so into a conspiracy on their part to do us active harm is bigotry of the highest order; it says that they are _incapable_ of acting on their own behalf out of "pure" motives of self improvement. Sure the Japanese economy is scary; it is a scary reminder of how rotten a job we are doing here, and how much better we could be doing. Kent, the man from xanth.