Just a heads up: judging by the weirdly dogmatic writing style and the tendency to make completely contradictory posts in the same thread (usually one from a comically right wing point of view and then another from a comically left wing POV), I am 99% sure this is numonex's alt.

Guess that explains why they like cash so much!

Nah, that affinity is historical. You generally see it more in older Japanese (which given the aging of the population means you see it a good deal), from the time before instantaneous bank transfers. They also just seem to be a cash-happy society, despite how well-wired they are technologically. In no other country would i expect to put an equivalent to a 10,000 Yen bill into a vending machine and ever expect the machine to actually be able to give me change for that.

Hence the quotation marks.

Wait a minute, since when have the Japanese been savers?

Theirs is such a consumer culture that people live at home to save money for accessories and games, and putting off marriage until mid thirties because of a predominant mindset of, I want to focus on myself for a while. From what I've seen, the culture is so spend-crazy that it's actually causing the aging of the population. Where is this saving? Because I've not seen it.

Mr.Kahn, I mean, you are living in Japan! Is this really what you're seeing? A friend of mine was at Temple and he said all people do in Japan is shop. He went over there wearing 15 dollar t-shirts, and came back with a penchant for 400$ dress shoes, and hundred dollar bowties.

Reading about american politics is always fun, because it is so different from europen politics. And opinions seem to be so polarized when you don't have a broad spectrum of parties to choose from.

I always found it funny that you guys keep using the term "left" when talking about the liberal party, even though you only have right (liberals) and far, far right (republicans). I know they're called left because they are the left wing of the availible political parties, but it's fun to imagine what say, a social democratic party would be called if one was ever formed xD

Does it even exist any other parties than the liberals and the republicans? I mean, there used to be a wiggs party before, right? Would the american system support more than two parties if more were ever to be formed?

They always were, until the past 15 years or so. From 1997 to 2007 their average household savings went from something like 11% of income to just 2%, but historically it has looked like this:

EDIT: Oops wrong post.  Either way... that's actually the opposite of true.  Democratic families tend to have a higher average income.

lol I saw that edit old man. I often lose track of how long it's been since the millenium too.

this thread interests me because before Bush, the right and the left were not at each others's throats like this. Republicans weren't seen as ignorant or stupid, Religion was just kinda THERE rather than being the forefront of a campaign, and....

Fuck bush. he ruined the right.