declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
> <newsgroups trimmed>
> TXZZ wrote:
>> REally, it does make sense.<snip>
>
> No it doesn't. As the negi explains, this is just a straight forward
> economic issue.
>
> Analysts are closely watching a trend that is disturbing the delicate
> balance of Japan's once egalitarian society. While 15 years ago it was
> possible for even the most lowly paid workers to own a 200,000 yen bag,
> that common staple of life is becoming increasingly out of reach for
> the growing lower strata of Japanese society. While blame is with the
> post-bubble economy, it doesn't make it any easier for those earning an
> amount per hour that could feed a family in Chad for a month. Ten years
> ago, that was almost unthinkable, with newly graduated students making
> enough per hour to feed a family in Chad for at least 6 to 8 months.
> Some seek to cope with depressed wages by altering spending patterns,
> buying Louis Vuitton wallets instead of bags. An office worker in
> Shinsaibashi admitted to The Negi that "I just haven't been able to
> make enough with my day job to subsist, so I've been working nights
> giving hand jobs to elderly men."
> Interestingly, one elderly man told The Negi that "I've had to let
> thirty-four non-essential staff go at my company to cut costs because I
> just haven't been able to afford hand jobs anymore." While no one is
> sure what effect this class imbalance will have on the future, analysts
> predict that Japanese will remain unable to pronounce the letters on
> the bag, "L" and "V", for many more years to come.
>
> http://www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/724

Thanks for the thought-provoking analysis. I wonder if the hand-job
enconomic metric applies to other parts of the world?

Dan

--
It must have been some unmarried fool that said "A child can ask questions
that a wise man cannot answer"; because, in any decent house, a brat that
starts asking questions is promptly packed off to bed.
                -- Arthur Binstead