The thread linking Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia is lack of an overarching sense of national identity. We do not want to go down that route:http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/406096-us-joins-ranks-of-middle-east-with-fierce-identity-politics …
Is Japan really having problems, though? In 100 years, the world will have changed, technology will be unpredictably different, Japan will still be Japan, facing that world as Japan.
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The government is taking on even more debt than the USA to fund pensions because the pyramid is inverted. Old people are commiting petty crimes so they can be taken care of.
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Things in Japan have to change, no doubt, but replacing the Japanese people with African or European or other people seems like it should be near the bottom of the list of possible solutions.
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In European countries, especially the Anglosphere, and extra-specially America, mass immigration has become more of a religious belief than a mere economic solution.
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And the US has never had a stable enthnic identity and the economic hardships that restricted immigration/falling population would run counter to the economic prosperity at the heart of the concept of the USA
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I'm not concerned with ethnic identity, but with how to maintain and value a shared story. A country with permanent mass immigration lives in a perpetual present with history falling over the horizon every generation or two.
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So is there an amount of immigration that still maintains the story but allows the dynamism immigration brings?
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What worked for us in the past was a generation-long rush of mass immigration followed by a generation-long break. But we no longer have a continent to fill and certainly don't need more people. Would love to see us gradually back the population down to 300 million or so.
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That immigration itself brought the dynamism, rather than that we had an empty continent and lots of opportunities, seems to me part of the religious belief. Postwar Japan, Germany since 1870, etc were plenty dynamic without immigration. Not convinced of causal link.
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Think about it. Things like pension funding are minor historical bumps that can be worked out. If the population collapsed fully by half, would those islands be bad places to live with a mere 60 million people? Must think historically.
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This does seem to be the choice Japan is making so I guess we will find out in 100 years
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