Adding to what DougJ said, I’m old enough that I remember it was an outrage when you called American workers lazy:
Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa`s remarks Monday that American workers lack drive and a strong work ethic not only elevated the war of words between the world`s two biggest economic rivals, they highlighted a growing gap in perception that afflicts U.S.-Japanese diplomatic relations.
Speaking during a parliamentary discussion of the declining American economy, Miyazawa said:
“I have long felt that (Americans) lack a work ethic . . . to live by the sweat of their brow.
“Because so many American university graduates were recruited into Wall Street, the number of engineers in charge of developing goods has declined.“ The Bush administration and several American politicians known for their tough stance against Japan responded quickly and forcefully.
“These kinds of comments are probably helpful in the sense of stirring the rages in all of us,“ said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.
“Beyond that, I would say that the American work force is second to none, that the American work ethic is legendary and has promoted the greatest prosperity in the world and throughout the world, including countries like Japan.“
House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) was more emphatic in his denunciation of the Japanese leader`s remarks, calling them an “ignorant expression of Japanese racism. . . . Americans work hard every day, and our productivity is higher than Japan`s.“
When the angry reaction began rolling in from Washington, Japan`s Foreign Ministry quickly issued a statement saying that Miyazawa “has no intention whatsoever of criticizing American workers“ and that the term “work ethic“ was used only to explain the “philosophy of work.“
Fitzwater said Washington regarded that as an “apology.“ President Bush said Miyazawa had “gone out of his way to make clear he is not denouncing all American workers.“
That was 1992, which in America is like ancient history. Interesting that what used to be called an insult is now the received view among our Galtian overlords.
Looks like Miyazawa wasn’t wrong about his Wall Street v. engineers remarks, either, was he?
DougJ®
A buddy of mine from Detroit said autoworkers he knew had bumper-stickers and tee-shirts with mushroom clouds on them and the caption “brought to you by lazy American workers”.
Just Some Fuckhead
I am personally killing the productivity of this great country.
A Farmer
Furriners ain’t allowed to ever trash on American workers, especially if they have darker skin, funny eyes or are from lazy socialist countries like Europe, only good Real Americans (don’t know how to add the trademark) are allowed to mock said lazy Democrats. See GOP playbook.
A Farmer
also, they must speak American.
p.a.
how’s Tunch?
A Farmer
@p.a.:fat
Zifnab
@DougJ®:
You know, it’s funny, because if you look at our military budget you really would think we were still living in a WW2 economy.
Yutsano
Miyazawa only got in hot water for saying this because he was a foreigner criticizing the US. At the time I recall this was treated with outright hostility and calls for punishing the Japanese for their insolence. After all, we MADE them after WWII, how DARE they be such ingrates!
Though I curious as to which Galtian overlords denounce the earning of an MBA over an engineering degree. That’s like the first step for making it in their kingdom I thought.
El Cid
@DougJ®: Funny enough, that was exactly what came to my mind.
Here’s a reminder.
Of course, if you really wanted to respond callously to Hollings and his audience, you could have cynically mocked that view by pointing out that there were only a small number of workers who built the atomic bombs as “tested” in Japan, so maybe all the other American workers not so carefully selected were the lazy and illiterate ones.
[Or you could have specified that it was primarily the dumbass rednecks of the South who were the laziest and least work-ethic-possessing of the country, sitting around eating their lard-burgers and handling their snakes and keeping their Klan outfits nicely pressed in the closet.
I mean, if you just wanted to be mean and didn’t care about how sensible your comments were.]
aimai
Holy shit! When I saw Marlin Fitzwater’s name I thought I’d had a stroke and was waking from a dream of an imaginary present in which we had a Black President.
aimai
Maude
This was after Reagan got paid for delivering a speech in Japan and after all that Japan bashing. Remember when they used to take sledgehammers to Japanese cars?
Of course, George H.W. Bush wasn’t known to work all that hard. He was best suited to being a social butterfly. And throwing up in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap.
When the Righties call workers lazy they are sitting on their rear ends while they do so.
The Righties are very close to saying, It’s hard to get good help these days.
New Yorker
Yeah, it was back when we had a sane, pragmatic Republican president who raised taxes when necessary and didn’t try to impose Utopian fantasy governments on Iraq.
beltane
I think it was always been fashionable among the right-wing to call workers lazy. What has changed is that attitudes that used to be confined to the far-right fringe have now metastasized to the supposed mainstream
In the long term this may be a good thing as it will end up promoting class consciousness and worker resentment. After all, we can’t all be talentless hacks living off of wingnut welfare.
Villago Delenda Est
Because so many American university graduates were recruited into Wall Street, the number of engineers in charge of developing goods has declined.
You mean, actually MAKE things, instead of engaging in glorfied three card monty games?
Of course, in order to MAKE things, you have to pay people to do it, and that’s the last thing our parasite overclass wants to do. Because, as you know, if you pay them something, the Galtian overlords will have a minscule amount less, which would cause them unbearable pain.
cleek
if you make the assumption that the right is the domain of employers and the left is the domain of labor, it’s not very surprising to hear wingnuts complain about lazy American workers.
Southern Beale
Speaking of workers, it may have escaped your notice but 10,000 people are marching on the capitol in Wisconsin to protest the governor and no one seems to fucking care in the news media … or among the liberal political leadership.
I mean shit, if I were a liberal politician and 10,000 of my base were rallying in a swing state like Wisconsin I would FUCKING BE THERE with bells on. Just sayin’
different church-lady
Here’s an utterly categorical and unprovable statement, which is nonetheless entirely true: the real reason this country’s screwed up is that there are too many g-dam MBAs. Like, an order of magnitude too many.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: Since morality is passe, one wonders what the justification is for the little people allowing their Galtian overlords to exist. Other than silly, sentimental reasons having to do with outdated concepts such as respect for human life, is there a valid reason?
Napoleon
@DougJ®:
I grew up in a steel town and recall bumperstickers saying “Mitsubishi, from the people who brought you Pearl Harbor”.
(for those of you who don’t know they manufactured the A6M “Zero” fighter in WWII)
Morbo
Can’t tell you how many of my fellow engineering students went on to get MBAs with that exact hope.
beltane
@Southern Beale: 10,000 people < than 100 teabaggers in the eyes of the media. Maybe 100,000 protesters taking over a local TV station would send a message, who knows.
different church-lady
@Villago Delenda Est: Making things? Isn’t that what foreigners are for?
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
We proles are supposed to have empathy for the miserable guy who can only get a new BMW every other year, due to the economic downturn.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
We proles are supposed to have empathy for the miserable guy who can only get a new BMW every other year, due to the economic downturn.
different church-lady
@Morbo: I rest my case.
cleek
@Napoleon:
my father in law refused to buy any Mitsubishi cars, or any cars with Mitsu engines (some Hyundais and Jeeps) because of their history with Zeros. he refused to buy any Japanese cars, for that matter, but the Mitsubishis were especially loathed.
not sure how he felt about German cars.
rickstersherpa
This is a wonderful example of how right-wing politicians (and Hollings was a classic, conservative “Southern Democrat and Miyazawa was a PM in the long time ruling, very conservative, oxymoronically named “Liberal Democratic” Pary in Japan, and this was still in the bubble of renewed Japanesee Nationalism that occurred in the late eighties as the Soviet threat disappeared and before the consequences of the lost decade was fully felt. And of course it is a matter of blaming the “furner” for your problems, a tool that is beloved by the right everywhere (and a reminder that we humans are cussedly stupid across many language and cultural barriers.)
Dean Baker has a column in “the Guardian” about how are awesome elite is celebrating the awesomeness of Alan Greenspan, despithe his and their just awesome spectacular failures in making decisions about the economy these last fifteen years, and that these elite decisions, made the Galtian Overlords Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson, Rove, Summers, and Rubin, might have more to dow with our lousy economy than those “lazy, illiterate, hick workers.”
Southern Beale
@beltane:
One year ago nearly to the day the national news media descended on Nashville for the first Tea Party convention at a level of one reporter for every three attendees. There were 200 news media and 600 registered at the convention.
I mean, fuckit. I’m seriously ready to lose my shit.
But I really do reserve most of my antipathy for the Democrats. THEY NEED TO BE THERE. This is their base. Why the fuck isn’t Nancy Pelosi there? Minority leader? Hello? Why isn’t the labor secretary there? I know they are supposed to be above politics but YOU ARE POLITICIANS and this is a political moment. Jesus fuck, Orange John would be there in a heartbeat if this were Teanutties rallying.
I’m so over the epic fails. OVER it.
Joel
People who are retired, and do not work as a result, represent a much larger segment of our population (and especially our media-consuming and voting population) than did in those day.
Dennis SGMM
American workers aren’t lazy, American companies are lazy and obsessed with the next quarter’s P&L. Instead of spending the R&D bucks to figure out how to make things that are so good that everyone, everywhere, wants them and then paying Americans decent wages to make the stuff they took another path. They spent their energies substituting plastic for metal and then cardboard for plastic. Once that was done they shipped the manufacturing overseas to maximize profit.
There are countries that pay good wages and benefits while maintaining a strong export-driven economy. Ours is not one of them and we keep electing pols from the same two parties that made it that way. Imagine the joy on both sides of the aisle when they realized that no matter how hard they fuck us they’ll still get our votes.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Southern Beale:
Yes, yes, that’s all very interesting. But do they look magnificent, as if making the statement: “Throw off the yoke of authoritarianism and accept democracy, and you, too, can dress this well.”
If not, well, you know.
Pooh
Southern,
I’m almost beginning to agree with the RW critique that dem leadership at least is just a bunch of pussies.
Not totally on topic, but how have we not yet realized that GOP screeching is a sunk cost of any and all actions/inactions? This defensive crouch bullshit seriously gets fucking old. The sad thing is, Obama really looked like he understood this in the campaign (both primary and general), yet seemed to forget it pdq.
Calouste
@different church-lady:
And lawyers. I remember reading somewhere that in America 1 in 400 people is a lawyer, where in Japan it is 1 in 10,000. (And in Congress it is about 2 in 3).
Cat Lady
@beltane:
Maybe they should all walk like an Egyptian.
johnsmith1882
@Southern Beale:
Because our media is owned by a mega-corporation oligarchy. Media coverage of a bunch of doofuses in tri-corner hats protesting paying taxes two f***ing months after a Democrat becomes President is mandatory and patriotic, while covering ten thousand union employees protesting their governor’s campaign to slash their benefits is rabble-rousing. I mean, how can they gut everyone’s benefits without gutting the unions first?
As for the lack of backing by our fearless Democrats, that’s because they are a bunch of inept pansies who couldn’t politic their way out of a paper bag. They’re so spineless (how spineless are they), they couldn’t pass one single piece of liberal legislation in two years of the Presidency and a majority in both houses.
As an Illinoisan, I couldn’t believe what WI did to themselves last November. Voted out one of the strongest senators in recent history in Feingold to install Senator Teabag, and vote in Walker for Gov, who promised to do this very thing during the campaign. Something about a whirlwind and reaping. Problem is, we’ll all be reaping it.
Kryptik
@Pooh:
Sadly, this feels like more of an internalization problem. They’ve been called pussies so much, they believe it.
But obviously, union protests aren’t important. What’s important that a dozen teabaggers stood in front of a state courthouse to demand Obama’s impeachment. That shows you what REAL America wants.
Bleh. Is it too much to say that I’m really starting to hate this country, considering the country seems to relish in reminding everyone how much it hates hippies like me?
Barb (formerly Gex)
In 1992 the phrase “Americans” was more lily-white than it is now. Now you have to say “Real Americans” to get the same effect. Which is why back then you couldn’t insult Americans that way. Now you can, just not Real Americans.
Nemo_N
Wow. I’m surprised Nanking wasn’t mentioned; everytime mushroom clouds are brought up as a defense against “those insolent japanese” (who apparently should be grateful to the great american master race) the Nanking non sequitur is usually not far away.
Restraint at work I suppose.
Silver Owl
The mantra of the “lazy overpaid sloppy American worker” started back when the Auto companies started outsourcing. I remember the comments in justification to start plants in Mexico.
Ironically enough we pay 10s and 100s of millions to arseholes to wreck companies, but everyone else is nothing but a lazy bastard compared to them. lol
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Morbo: I went to college as an adult for my computer science degree. Most other adult college attendees were MBA candidates. The best I can figure is people who go directly to business aren’t interested in ANYTHING other than squeezing profit out of someone else for their own pockets. The business itself doesn’t matter. I could be anything. In fact, we just spent a decade having MBAs make money by exchanging pieces of paper unrelated to the underlying business. Utterly useless.
ETA: These adult MBA people were pieces of work, too. They approached college as consumers, not students. They would routinely make stupid demands. They wanted to get out of requirements. MBAs didn’t want to take the math classes that were required. I suppose there really isn’t any risk of devaluing that degree…
johnsmith1882
@Kryptik:
No, they just are pussies. They snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like it’s their job. Managing to turn the election of a Democrat President and majorities in both houses into talk of gutting everything the Democratic party has stood for since FDR in just two years is what, the work of a strong, united group of political behemoths?
Tom
Sounds like the Republicans could use a special screening of Gung-Ho.
The Other Chuck
You know why the Japanese had a work ethic? Because their fucking employers did too, that’s why.
Less true now, but I suspect it still hasn’t caught up to the outright contempt management has for workers on these shores.
Shinobi
@The Other Chuck: Word.
How hard should I really work for a company that is going to fire me as soon as they possibly can?
It seems to me that all corporations really want to be is the people in charge and some very poorly paid assistance to keep the people in charge happy. They Expect to make money this way. Every other job is expendable and probably unnecessary.
Mnemosyne
@Tom:
That’s the very first movie that I can remember watching and thinking, “Wow, this is really racist.” It had never really impinged on my consciousness before that.
Tom
@Mnemosyne
Yeah, basically any ’80s movie featuring Gedde Watanabe left that impression.
JenJen
Reminds me of that classic Saturday Night Live skit from that era. Can’t find a clip online, but it was a Japanese version of “The McLaughlin Group” and it was hysterical.
different church-lady
@rickstersherpa: http://xkcd.com/859/
robuzo
Miyazawa wasn’t wrong about his Wall Street v. engineers remarks, but I lived in Japan at the time (still do) and am old enough to remember what a bunch of racist pricks the LDP leaders were/are. Miyazawa was proud of his English fluency and “international” outlook, but when his daughter married an American diplomat he showed his true colors by refusing to attend the wedding.
bob h
We are cautioned (often by those Wall St. types) that the US must never allow itself to become “another Japan”. Having been there recently, this is what being “like Japan” would mean: no poverty, affordable, universal healthcare, great infrastructure, no violent crime, lower unemployment, fantastic mass transport, reverence for the aged, etc.