Japan is Much Freer Than the United States #2

This part two of an article I wrote about how the USA is not a free country at all anymore and that Japan is a much better place to live hands down.


I received several mails from irate Americans who just can't handle the truth about how much of a hellhole that country has become. One guy even wrote::


I find it amusing that this blogger constantly ballyhoos the importance of facts and then writes an editorial with the provocative headline above without any exercise of facts save you can smoke in restaurants and drink at the beach-- if that's your definition of freedom, then I feel sorry for you. This is black-and-white writing, emotional, if not hysterical.

If you're going to be provocative at least put a little effort into it. This just feels like lazy writing. And your characterization of Japan is maudlin.


Look who is talking about being maudlin! Check the rear view mirror for knee-jerk emotional reactions, my friend. Why do I need to re-state old facts that everyone - who has been paying attention - already knows? Take off the rose-colored glasses and read on....


Here's some selected tidbits from Lew Rockwell.com from an article entitled, "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Here's your freedom facts. (Read them and weep): 


#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.


#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.


#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.


#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.


#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.


#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.


#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.


#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.


#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.


#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.


#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.


#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.


#20 The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.


I'm being maudlin when I rail on what the USA has become? Ha! I'm maudlin!? These facts I have linked to above are old news. It is astounding, though, that many Americans seem blissfully unaware of them. If anyone should know these facts, the Americans should.

Oh, and if that's not enough, at Lew Rockwell.com there's more. Read: "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Also,   a reader wrote to Lew and added on the blog:

About that USA #1 article you published. Curiously the author didn't mention the USA as:#1 in nuke and other WMD stockpiles.

#1 in WMD sales to other countries

#1 in lawsuits and lawyers per capita and, of course,

#1 in invading other countries!

Smoking & drinking are small things? Yes. That's why Japan blows away the USA for freedom. In the USA you can't even do these small, trivial things. Is that my definition of freedom? Yes. What's yours? (Feel free to choose from the multiple choice list above). 

Japan is Much Freer and a Much Better Place to Live than the USA

Recently, I went back to the USA. I briefly mentioned it in passing on this blog as I went there to help a dear old friend take care of business because his wife passed away. Bless her soul. I wasn't there for vacation.


I didn't write about "that place" (USA) because, after living in a peaceful and civilized country (Japan) for so many years, and watching the USA turn from the world's worst aggressor nation into the world's worst aggressor nation and fascist police state, I've come to despise everything about the USA. And make no mistake about it, America has become what it has and that is the fault of average Joe-blow Mr. & Mrs. America. 


As Ted Rall writes:
"For all the admirable qualities of the American people - love of rock 'n' roll, deep-fried food, and hugely impractical cars, and ridiculous movies featuring numerous explosions - Americans are not the smartest. They are an easily confused lot." 


They've also let their country go to hell while still believing that everything is OK.


My friend asked me why I didn't write about my visit in detail this time and I thought to myself, "what can I say that I haven't already said?" In 2005, I wrote an article entitled "America is Bankrupt" which Lew Rockwell told me was the #2 most read article on his web site for that year... When I wrote that article, I got blasted by many Americans saying that I was wrong. If you read that article now, it sounds like "same old same old" nothing special or nothing new. I told him that I have nothing good to say about America so it's just best for me to ignore the dead.


Japan blows the USA away for a great place to live. There's a million and one things about Japan that is better than the USA and much more free than the USA. The USA is a busybody nanny state.


I won't go into specifics. Why bother? I've done that a hundred times. 


Here's a short vignette by my friend who is from San Francisco and living in northern Japan. Read this and think deeply about what is being said. It is about freedom and the fabric of society. If you understand this, then you can see why Japan is a much better place to live than the USA.


Here is his letter:   

Dear Mike,

Went to the beach with my 9 year old and 2 of her friends this Sunday afternoon.  It was a warm day and the beach wasn't crowded.  No cops anywhere in sight;  the lifeguard was there, but hidden from view and totally unobtrusive.

I drank a can of ice cold beer that I bought at the corner liquor store a block from the beach.  Just one can.  No one said a word about it.

The children went in the ocean and I kept an eye on them.  Everyone was well behaved on the entire beach.  No loud radios, drunks, bums, or slobs.  No trash. No one allowing their dog to run around unleashed and harass people.

An 8-ish year old girl shows up with a 2-ish year old looking child, probably siblings.  The 8-year-old wraps the child up in towels just like a Japanese mother would do, to keep the sun off the child's skin.  I looked closely to see, yet no parents are in sight.  The older child places the younger child in an inner tube and they spend several hours floating around and enjoying themselves.  Another Dad and I take turns keeping an eye on the nearby children, but they never need to be admonished, playing respectfully together and laughing.  When I go in the water I leave my valuables in a waist pouch on the beach, with no fear at all that anyone would steal anything.

We all wash off at the public beach shower and walk home.  Stopping for ice cream along the way.   At 5PM, a friend of my 9-year-old rides her bike home, about a 15 minute ride to the other side of town.

Admittedly, it's not exciting like Tokyo and I hope you are still awake.     If you read between the lines, you may understand how this vignette represents a very particular way of life in many respects.  It would be easy to contrast this to my experiences in America, many of which were good as I lived in San Francisco, a most beautiful part of the world.

There's more to this letter, but in each paragraph, there's a list of mundane everyday things that are done in civilized, sane countries yet they cannot be done in the USA anymore.

The USA the freest nation on earth? How wonderful it is to be overweight, drugged out, addicted to TV and seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. 

Read the rest of this letter and more wonderful insight at Andy's Japan Adventures: http://andysjapanadventures.blogspot.com/