dtcwee: The Value of Nothing

Is it rational for unemployed and discouraged workers to return to or stay at the family home? This boy's too young to be singing the blues Lost generation , discouraged worker , hikikomori . We view them with pity if not derision, as if they, and the millenial/Gen Y/X-er we know still living with their parents just aren't trying hard enough . We'd love to help them but we have no time left from our busy professional lives except to throw them some tips, proof read their C.V.s, and feel a little smug that at least we're on the right side of the dole queue. But money is money and unless explicitly disclosed, it is impossible to distinguish between corporate largesse and family indulgence. Who is to know whether your salary, work, or your uncle got you that smartphone? Lest we forget, patronage existed long before employment. Neither Da Vinci nor Michelangelo were subjected to psychometric evaluations by HR.

At about 2150 last night after an abnormally long wait, "jinshin jiko/人身事故" was announced over the train speakers. The packed Chuo Line Rapid remained stranded at Ogikubo station. Local trains on other platforms whittled away glum passengers who were close enough to home to attempt detours. The term, literally translated into "human accident", usually means that someone has stepped onto the Afterlife Express. For everyone else, especially non-Japanese speakers like me who have trouble with alternative transport arrangements, it means a 45 minute delay. It is in equal measures a tragedy and a ripe candidate for western-centric sociological study , but I was still fuming. Insensitive much?

Is having children to care for you in old age a good strategy? The social contract, particularly in Confucian societies, is that adults are expected to care for their elderly, reciprocating the care received as children. But how well is this expectation played out in fact?

Will having children make marriage last longer? Children, it is supposed, so enrich a marriage that it is more likely to endure over time. They bring a unique stimulus, necessitate close teamwork, and foster intimate communication. While some would argue that they could seek such stimuli elsewhere, and others would say that they can do without that sort of personal development, the naysayers are not strong enough to displace a nuclear family ideal that has persisted despite change in the 20th and 21st centuries.