9/25 (Tue.) Happy to be a loser (Host:Tanya)

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Anne Lin
YOYO member
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註冊時間: 週日 10月 02, 2005 2:51 am

9/25 (Tue.) Happy to be a loser (Host:Tanya)

文章 Anne Lin »

Introduction of the book:
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010730713

Loser n.
The losers have no ambition to be successful, no intentions of keeping relationships, and no plan for the future. They avoid taking risks and responsibilities of their own lives, most of their livelihood depends on income from part-time jobs or allowances from their parents.

In the book "low desire society", written by a famous Japanese economist Kenichi Ohmae, he points out some facts of the society in Japan, and says these young people are a burden to the society, because they don’t need to pay taxes. Their working hours are so low that the utility of the labor force can’t be maximized and besides the lack of workforce, those young people even minimize the consumption of commodities.

Maybe the phenomenon is caused by their parents, as a negative example. They live with a suffocative workload just to earn a pitiful amount of money to pay mortgages. Lust for materialistic things and for titles of higher positions in the companies they work for. Being unable to reach these goals they may in turn, give up and focus on other things such as spirituality. Their children may accuse them of being incompetent and being slaves to their lifestyle.

Due to the lost 20 years after the Japanese asset price bubble, long term deflation, soaring prices and stagnant wages, certain individuals would rather adopt an indifferent attitude towards their personal accomplishments than investing more time in their careers. When the future looks dim, you should never think about taking a leap in the dark. Instead, just lay back and have some cheap meals from the convenience store is way better.

Kenichi Ohmae gives out a “prescription for society”, such as improving the economy by implementing policies, increasing the birth rate by providing guides for students in schools for cultivation of values of marriage and diligence, bringing back the gluttonous appetite for greater wealth, just like in the good old days. He also illustrates some other factors and possibilities in the future. One of the reasons that Japanese young people are difficult to develop aggressive spirits and satisfied with the tolerable lifestyle, due to a lack of external stimulus.

At the end of the book, Kenichi Ohmae warns that if they let the low desire phenomenon deteriorate, the consequences will weigh everyone down, having an impact national development, and in the end, the nation will sink. At the same time, he also declares the purpose of writing these articles is not to condemn the young people, but to encourage everyone in the society to work together to restore the economy. Anyway, someone gotta do the work, right?


Questions for discussion:
Session 1
1. What do you think about the low desire young people? Does the government need to do something about it?
2. Do your friends or families have similar condition? Are they in numbers? What do you and the people around them perceive the low desire phenomenon?
3. What do you think about Kenichi Ohmae’s opinions?
4. Low desire is a little bit different from Minimalism, can you tell it?


Session 2
5. Taiwan is also an island country(low external stimulus), with similar factors like cheap meal prices, stagnant wages, low birth rate, and the number of
freeters is increasing. Do you think the number of low desire young people in Taiwan will increase?
6. The declining of population growth in Taiwan, and probably negative growth in the future, do you concern about Taiwan’s global competitiveness? Should
we make extra efforts to promote economic development?
7. Are there other options except being a productivity labor or an unproductivity labor, earning or consuming the money?

*******************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:50~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:20pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:20 ~ 8:00pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
8:00 ~ 8:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:30pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:30 ~ 9:10pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:10 ~ 9:30pm Summarization / Concluding Remarks / Announcements (20 mins)
********************************************************************************************************************************************
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Iris Wu
YOYO member
文章: 894
註冊時間: 週二 5月 20, 2014 4:33 pm

Re: 9/25 (Tue.) Happy to be a loser (Host:Tanya)

文章 Iris Wu »

There are two types of low desire people – voluntarily and involuntarily.
The involuntarily low desire mostly resulted from all the factors described in the article. Most fundamental reason is that the advanced technology makes many things available, including abundant and cheap food, basic necessities, affordable healthcare and even the free entertainment and accessible global information. What else do you need to live “comfortably”? Even you cannot afford the city life, you can easily move to country side, but still enjoy almost all the same stuff mentioned above.

Hence, when most of the resources and power are possessed by the previous generation who are still energetic and active in the society, the youngsters are very much likely to involuntarily hide out and enjoy their low cost but comfortable life style.
From human revolution and advancement point of view, this phenomenon may need to be addressed and resolved. Based on our history, I am not too much worried about it. Things always bounce back. It may go from this extreme to other extreme, but that’s another issue.

I am more interested in the group of voluntarily choosing low desire life style (minimalism?). This group may have sensed that the losing humanity is pervasive in our societies. They may keep low desire in material side but pursue high desire in spiritual side, which could be a good balance for human progress.
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Rock
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文章: 2162
註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

Re: 9/25 (Tue.) Happy to be a loser (Host:Tanya)

文章 Rock »

Hey, my topic. :lol:
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
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Gloria Lo
YOYO member
文章: 367
註冊時間: 週一 2月 04, 2008 7:51 am

Re: 9/25 (Tue.) Happy to be a loser (Host:Tanya)

文章 Gloria Lo »

Attendees(17)

Tanya(host),Wen-han, Felicidad, David, Miller, Iris, Norman, Rock, Liwen, Gloria, Atthur, Kooper, Yvonne, John, James, Anne, Devry

:like: :ssmile: :yes:
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