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Oops.

Saturday, April 17th, 2004

Japan’s version of Social Security is apparently semi-optional. Consequently, young people aren’t paying in, realizing that there’s a pretty good chance they’ll never see their contribution returned to them. That led to this delicious scenario:

The Japanese Government has suffered embarrassment after it was revealed that a popular actress it hired to persuade reluctant citizens to pay their contributions to the state pension scheme was not paying hers.

The case of Makiko Esumi, who starred in the 380 million yen ($4.8 million) poster and television campaign, has highlighted the delicate state of a pension system creaking under declining income and rising payouts.

Anyone else find it amusing that the Japanese government wasted $4.8 million on a campaign to eliminate budgetary shortfalls?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 17th, 2004 at 5:13 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Oops.”

  1. #1 |  Frank N |  April 18th, 2004 at 9:12 am

    Sort of ironic but then again it’s the classic spend money to make money, but in a twisted form because it’s government.

  2. #2 |  PoplersRpplrs2 |  April 19th, 2004 at 5:12 am

    No.
    Only because the parellels are too similar to a million programs run in the US.

    Remember the multi-million dollar ad campaign to introduce the country to the “radically new” $20 bill?

    Fucking ridiculous.

    No biggie… it was only fiat currency anyway.

  3. #3 |  Garth |  April 19th, 2004 at 10:23 am

    There is a silver lining here: flirting with deflation, the japanese govt needs to find ways to increase the money supply. If they simply print the yen needed to pay the soc sec benefits and do not receive the contribution from the young (which like a tax constrains money from the system) the net-net will be an injection of liquidity.

  4. #4 |  Chris |  April 19th, 2004 at 1:09 pm

    That lining is only dipped in silver paint. Yes, it may lead to deflation, but the bill will have to be picked up eventually. Before they know it, they’ll end up with an enormous national debt, as we have, if they haven’t already. Tax cuts without cutting operating costs will never lead toward the positive in the big picture. Economies may thrive, but the debt only continues to increase.

  5. #5 |  Squidgey McSquodger's Big Tock Eating Piss Filth My Momma Rokks! |  April 20th, 2004 at 5:54 am

    Why is Radley such a leftie anyhow? What is with this endorsement of peeps like voting and shite?

    Why not be true about stuff?

    And get a real libertarian viewpoint like Rothbard? Or is he too extreme for you peeps?!