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Jobs and businesses have vanished because of the coronavirus. It seems that many individuals live from paycheck to paycheck. Why do you think so many workers have no nest egg?

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The cost of living, youthful exuberance for living, what else is there? Financial thrift comes from maturity and is always directed by absolute need, before want.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Late Stage Capitalism, wages stagnant for 40 years while corporate profits and executive salaries ballooned and Increases in worker productivity were siphoned off to the .01%. Coupled with massive inflation particularly in the areas of real estate, education and health.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

This is one question that is very hard to give a general blanket statement to answer. Just from what I notice, I can just say that people who don't have a nest egg are:

1.) they really have no extra cash to save up and are really living from paycheck to paycheck. My co-worker always had to borrow money just to buy groceries every month just to make ends meet.

2.) they handle their finances very poorly. Sure, you probably really needed that latest iPhone even if it would set you back a few paychecks. Sorry for being judgmental there but you get the idea.

3.) they are usually not emergency preparedness-minded. My grandmother who survived WWII would always save up whatever and whenever she can, pretty sure those from the same generation would have that mindset too.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

It seems that many individuals live from paycheck to paycheck. Why do you think so many workers have no nest egg?

Wrong frame. Why do 40% of Japanese people have irregular employment? B/C companies--thanks Koizumi--are allowed to exploit workers. The correct question question would be why are employers so stingy, resulting in nearly half the country being unable to save.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Living to excess is the main reason. Most of us have what we need times twenty and think it will always be sunny or that we deserve it. We don't even appreciate that just being born in a richer place has put us on a path to success that the vast majority of people in the less fortunate parts of the world will never see. We've sold our goods at exorbitantly high prices to the less fortunate and forced them to abide by our demands while acting as if we are superior and should get more respect because of our wealth, "smarts" or status. We've polluted the oceans, overheated the globe and chopped down the life-sustaining forests at alarming rates and have had the world on the brink of nuclear holocaust. The wages in countries like Japan and the U.S. are some of the highest around regardless of the COL and many people have someone helping them or government backup in tough times. .Do you really need that/those (insert just about anything here x 20)? We have been spoiled and I know I definitely have been living high on the hog. Maybe we find out just how people in the so-called Third World can survive on so little every day and still be happy and content ( in many cases). Not saying I want that, just being a realist. I have no one to blame but myself.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Personally, I was able to easily save money 20-30 years ago and did with around the same pay.

But these past 20 years, no matter how much I try to save it gets quickly funneled out by really expensive yearly expenditures: disaster insurance (80,000 yen), property tax (50,000), city/prefectural tax (100,000), septic tank cleaning (50,000), vehicle inspection (100,000 /2 yrs), and there are a few more.

Cost of living for products have gone up a lot in the last 30 years but my salary hasn't. I usually just about break even no matter how much I try to save. If the above expenditures were a bit lower, I'd easily be able to save 200-300,000 yen a year.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Well, besides all of the reasons that other people have said above...

If you want a good job, you have to live in the city (usually).

If you live in the city, you'll only be able to afford a matchbox sized apartment on most salaries.

If people live in small, depressing living spaces, they will spend much less of their free time at home.

So people spend their free time out, which costs money.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Being at home, in Japan, is generally unpleasant unless you're quite wealthy. It costs a lot to quell loneliness.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Low pay, rising cost of living and many having temporary or zero hour contracts are the reasons why.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Why do 40% of Japanese people have irregular employment? B/C companies--thanks Koizumi--are allowed to exploit workers. 

Are you claiming that 100% of those 40% of those people are being exploited?

Isn't some significant portion of that 40% happy to be engaged in part-time work?

(I don't like the two-tier employment system, I think the playing-field should be leveled, but I do question any claim that 40% of Japan's workers are being exploited. Some definitely do it tough because of the two-tier system, but this is not some 3rd world country. I think the % we should be talking about is much lower if excluding those happy with their part-time work arrangements)

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Low pay and high taxes.

LDP

(Invalid CSRF)

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Start here first. Why do so many workers have no place to live away from home, and why do many give up on the idea of marriage?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan Inc has taken jobs abroad with the connivance of the government.

The LDP has 8%-10% tax on food - unfair taxes stifle saving.

The economy was shattered long before this virus came about.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

8-10% tax on food is lower than even glorious places such as Sweden, where it is apparently 12%, even at a reduced rate.

It never makes sense to look at tax rates in isolation. Taxes are part of the contract. The government spends money on people too, as a part of that contract. Taxes are just a component of the contract. The complete contract must be looked at when questioning the "fairness".

If everyone were paying 10% tax for food (and everything they consume), but people with no salary were paid 10mm yen a year by the government, would the 10% tax be "fair"? This is how these system must be considered.

The key part of taxation is that they be simple to administer without distorting economic behavior. Japan has sadly forgotten this most simple of basics in its recent move to introduce a complicated multi-rate system

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Wages have not kept up with inflation for the last 40 years.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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