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Demographics and Population Projections of Japan

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  INTRODUCTION   Japan gets special consideration because it is further along the demographics declining population curve than any other large country. Unless there are major changes in healthcare technology, immigration, public policy, and birth rates, most industrialized countries will follow Japan down the path of declining and aging populations, and smaller labor forces. Japan's demographics and immigration have become major political issues. In the July 2025 elections, two right-wing parties made substantial gains against the long-ruling Liberal  Democracy Party. Two of their main issues were the rapid rise of immigration and the repeal of a 10% consumption tax used to pay for the rising costs of supporting the aged. Both parties appealed to young voters.     PROJECTIONS   Japan’s current (2024) population is around 122 million people. This is the 15 th  year of population decline, down from a high of 128 million. The yearly decreases so...
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Introduction to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Start of the Great Depression

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INTRODUCTION Before reading this essay, I strongly recommend you see the PBS video on YouTube. Type in Stock Market Crash 1929. Look for US – The Crash of 1929 (PBS), ALLHISTORIES – PLAYLIST.  Documentary  broken into 6 parts to show commercials. Great documentary with wonderful photos, videos, and scenes from movies of the 1920s and the crash. Shows what a crazy time this was.    I also recommend you read Frederick Lewis Allen,  Only Yesterday; An Informal History of the 1920’s . This a wonderful popular history on the 1920s and the crash. It shows how the economic, social, and psychological changes in the 1920s contributed to the speculative frenzy in the stock market.  Author lived through it all. You can skip some of the chapters the first time through; for example, skip Chapters III, VI, IX, And X.   DEFINITIONS The Stock Market . In the 1920s, this meant the New York Stock Exchange. This is where stocks (shares of part ownership of companies...
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Adam Smith's Pin Factory

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Adam Smith - Our Founding Father ADAM SMITH VISITS A PIN FACTORY   Adam Smith’s description of a pin factory is on the first page of  The Wealth of Nations .  (Chapter 1 – “Of the Division of Labour”)  Drawings of pin factories of this period show workers using hand tools. Smith says the process can be broken down into 18 distinct steps, including packaging the pins. Smith mentions that pin factory workers were poorly paid, despite their high productivity.    Adam Smith says he visited a pin factory employing 10 men who produced 48,000 pins per day.  If each of the ten workers had done all the steps themselves, Smith says each worker could produce only 10 or 20 pins per day.  So the pin factory replaces 2,400 to 4,800 pin makers. The increase in labor productivity (output per person per day) is as high as 50 times that of individual pin makers.     This reduction in unit cost or average cost (AC) and the huge i...
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