Monday, May 16, 2011

Stagnation and Inflation

Here's Paul Krugman's article. That's awesome!

Worry Makes Us Happy!?

...worry about success causes students to study harder to gain admission to better universities. It makes assistant professors work harder to earn tenure. It leads film makers to strive harder to create the perfect scene, and songwriters to dig deeper for the most pleasing melody. In every domain, people who work harder are more likely to succeed professionally, more likely to make a difference.

Good post! If we face difficult situations to tackle, we should remember that this is the next step we should take.

自殺について

自殺についての詳細なデータである。

(1)自殺死亡率の年次推移をみると、明治32年の5,932人から昭和11年の15,423人までは増加傾向を示しているが、昭和12年から戦時中まで減少傾向となっている。戦後についてみると、ドッジライン以降のデフレ不況(1949~1950)、なべ底不況(1957~58)と第1次平成不況(1991~93)、第2次平成不況(1997~2000)では特に高い推移を示しているように見える。明治以降一貫して、自殺率は増加しているように見える。

(2)性・特定年齢別自殺死亡率をみると、自殺死亡率は男性の方が多く、男性の50~54歳台の自殺率の増加が目に付く。

(3)性・年齢階級別死亡数に占める自殺死亡数の割合、自殺の死因順位をみると、平成15年の自殺死亡数の総死亡数に占める割合は、男女とも「25~29歳」が最も高くなっている。

(4)死亡曜日別にみた自殺をみると、月曜日が多く、死亡時間別にみた自殺では、男は「0時台」「5時台~6時台」が多くなっており、女は「5時台~6時台」「10時台~12時台」が多い。月別にみた自殺では、多くの年で4・5月がピークになっており、配偶関係別にみた自殺では男は平成7年・12年ともに「離別」がすべての年齢階級で高く、女は40歳以上については、「未婚」が「離別」と同程度となっている。

(5)都道府県別にみた自殺では、 最高は男女とも秋田県、手段別自殺死亡数割合では、「首吊り」が最も多く、男女ともに14大都市では「飛び降り」が多くなっており、郡部では「縊首」「薬 物」が多くなっている。

(6)職業・産業別にみた自殺では、
「就業者総数」では男32.9、女8.9、「無職」では男70.8、女21.9となっており、特に男の「無職」が高くなっている。また、就業者を職業別にみると、男女ともに「第1次産業」が高くなっている。男では特に「サービス職業従事者」が高くなっている。

非常にラフなまとめであるが、「男で、20歳代後半、未婚か離別、無職または第1次産業かサービス産業従事者、秋田県在住で、4月か5月の月曜日の明け方5時ぐらいに自殺しやすい」と言う結論が得られる。これが何を物語るのかは分からないが、傾向として見られるようだ。

Thursday, May 12, 2011

On Suicide

I am used to watching the newspaper reporting the suicide of the well-known in Japan. I am interested in this social problem because there are some people who don't want to live longer even in one of the economically well- developed countries in the world, Japan.

The Economist seeks the cause a little bit, though it seems to be somewhat frequently pointed out by western people:

The samurai tradition views suicide as noble (though perhaps out of self-interest, since captured warriors were treated gruesomely). Japan's main religions, Buddhism and Shintoism, are neutral on suicide, unlike Abrahamic faiths that explicitly prohibit it.

As is known in Japan, Japanese people have not been more religious. Rather, that may be possible to think of as one of the causes: they are less likely to think that life is something blissful given to us from the heaven, or, that committing a suicide is morally a bad thing as the above excerpt implies.

The Economist goes, Financial concerns are cited in one-fifth of suicide notes; almost half of all suicides are unemployed.

However, the unemployment rate is much higher in France(7.4%) and Germany(7.5%) than in Japan(4.0%). (Data is as of 2008, OECD) It seems to me that unemployment is not so closely related to suicide rate. Economic reason is one of the influential, but is not most influential in the suicide behavior. Anyway, this suicide rate tells that something is wrong with the Japanese society.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, and Youtube

Ten years ago, we never had blog, twitter, facebook and youtube. Now we enjoy them everyday and, for many people, joining facebook has became part of their everyday life. Recently I've been busy dropping comments on the facebook and haven't updated this blog.

What does this change in informational technology bring to us?

While updating the blog, I am wondering if we've really changed the world view by using facebook, twitter, youtube and blog: We can so easily catch up with what is happening in the world by using them.

We don't necessarily need to find the people in other place. Use facebook to search whom you want to make friends with. We don't necessarily check up TV programs. Use youtube to find out what we want to watch most. We don't necessarily meet people at the cafeteria to chat. Use twitter to say something trivial. We don't necessarily opine to the press. Use blogger to write down what you have in mind.

Certainly we are now in the world that is different from the ten-year-ago world. Could we have imagined what this world is like ten years ago?

Now we spend our time on some activities that were never experienced ten years ago. Our society and economy must change in some different way. We never imagine what the end will be like. I don't have any pessimistic view on this technologically informational change.

Rather I would feel like writing that our future will be very bright: People talk to each other without any political constraint. In Egypt, people drew down Mubarak from the power. We never thought of it without having this informational change(How could a very large number of people get together immediately?). We now have a powerful tool to change the world view and the world itself.

I try to foresee what this technological change is bringing to us.