The rationale is that the more successful divisions of corporations support the existence of less successful divisions, and more successful corporations support the existence of less successful corporations.
This is socialism -- social ownership of risk. The rising tide lifts us all.
There are fewer winners and fewer losers, and it's only sustainable when everybody buys into it and nobody gets greedy or envious. Such success is only seen in homogeneous societies, and Japan is largely homogeneous.
Conversely, this is the reason for Europe's clinging to socialism for the better part of the last century (homogeneous society), and it will most definitely change over the next one. Europe will start to look more like Canada and the US -- a melting pot of sorts -- and maintaining a Euro-centric identity will be far more difficult as many scramble to align themselves with a nation-centric identity. A strong EU that leans to the right is inevitable, and national identity will fall by the wayside as they come to the crushing realization that national identity doesn't put food on the table or keep the lights on when you have already given up so much.
> Conversely, this is the reason for Europe's clinging to socialism for the better part of the last century (homogeneous society)
Europe is a continent with 50ish countries and dozens of widely spoken languages. It is in no way a homogeneous landmass.
> a melting pot of sorts
Which it has been since folks started invading, warring and immigrating across the continent thousands of years ago.
> maintaining a Euro-centric identity will be far more difficult as many scramble to align themselves with a nation-centric identity.
There hasn't been a dominant Euro-centric identity across Europe, however. Current trends in politics favoring the messages from conservative (or very conservative) parties is interesting news for the pundits to discuss. Different countries in Europe have been quite conservative and quite liberal over the last century, but they all are nations first (as is evidenced by how difficult it can be to effect change through the European Council/Parliament.
> A strong EU that leans to the right is inevitable
Unfortunately I'm not sure this can be concluded from the preceding arguments.
Martin: Yes, [the Napolean prize] is a NATO award given once every
five years: gold medal, big ceremony in Brussels, £100 000. The
PM's the front runner this time. It's for the statesman who's
made the biggest contribution to European unity.
Sir Humphrey: Since Napoleon. That is if you don't count Hitler.
It's a joke, but has some truth to it: there isn't a single homogeneous society, but each country did become much more homogeneous in the post-war, after millions were "returned" (often against their will) to their countries of origin. And social democracy was and is the de-facto model in most countries, even if occasionally threatened.
> national identity will fall by the wayside as they come to the crushing realization that national identity doesn't put food on the table or keep the lights on
You know, every other nation in Europe has a period in history when they were persecuted and being deliberately destroyed, both physically and psychologically. Sometimes for hundreds of years. We've got "killing fields" and battlefields everywhere - please, do take into an account a legacy of more than 2000 years of non-stop, all-out wars - and more than one such a field was created specifically for people of one nationality. On the other hand, almost every single nation in Europe has a (mostly real! but sometimes imagined) "golden age" in their history they can cling to; a period where that nation was (possibly a part of) a global superpower.
Given that, I don't believe nationalism is going to die just because people are getting hungry. I mean, lots and lots of death, torture, persecution, as well as preaching, propaganda, and education didn't kill nationalism - why do you think lack of money would? Some European nations are practically built upon martyrdom and, if anything, it made European nationalism even harder to leave behind, change or even soften a little.
> Europe will start to look more like Canada and the US
I'm repeating myself here, but discarding more than 2k years of history is dangerous when making predictions about the future. Europe already was a melting pot of cultures for a while, back when nation-states were not fashionable yet. A few times, at that, in different ages. Never once did this make Europe a peaceful continent or made nationalism disappear.
US and Canada are unique in that, historically, it's a bunch of people getting together and promising to leave the past behind. That, of course, doesn't take into account American natives, but whatever: that's NOT happening in Europe. You'd have to demolish most of the cities to destroy thousands of buildings and sculptures still, remainding Europeans about just how heinous their neighbour is or just how just was their neighbours massacre. And that's the easiest part, because then you'd have to destroy and eradicate a good part of culture and art. And then, after a couple of generations under heavy propaganda, maybe you'd have a place roughly comparable with US.
This is socialism -- social ownership of risk. The rising tide lifts us all.
There are fewer winners and fewer losers, and it's only sustainable when everybody buys into it and nobody gets greedy or envious. Such success is only seen in homogeneous societies, and Japan is largely homogeneous.
Conversely, this is the reason for Europe's clinging to socialism for the better part of the last century (homogeneous society), and it will most definitely change over the next one. Europe will start to look more like Canada and the US -- a melting pot of sorts -- and maintaining a Euro-centric identity will be far more difficult as many scramble to align themselves with a nation-centric identity. A strong EU that leans to the right is inevitable, and national identity will fall by the wayside as they come to the crushing realization that national identity doesn't put food on the table or keep the lights on when you have already given up so much.