According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, overtime labor hours have decreased by 45.8% and overtime pay by 44.7%. Not only have commuters increased between 5 and 6 p.m., more men are taking their coworkers home instead of bars for drinks – not exactly a welcome change for housewives.

This appears to be causing all sorts of strain in Japanese households where husbands and wives are actually finding themselves interacting with each other for the first time in years.

Marital dysfunction appears to be a consequence of postmodernity. It’s widely known that American marriages are plagued by infidelity and divorce. The Japanese suffer from fewer divorces, but their marital problems are just as pronounced–the husband and wife simply stop seeing or talking to each other.

Marriage is fundamentally broken in the world’s two largest economies. The Wolf believes that modern assumptions about the purpose of marital union lie at the root of this problem. Romantics seek their “perfect mate.” A quick review of profiles on Internet dating sites reveals the outrageously high standards we have for our suitors–standards which we ourselves probably cannot live up to. The search for “true love” is really a search for someone who will solve all your problems so that you don’t have to solve them yourself.

Burdened by expectations like these, how can any relationship hope to succeed? Individuals should examine their own lives and see if they are able to live up to the high standards they expect from their mates.

Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nankang have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes.

Officials in Nankang said several hundred protesters blocked a major road while others delivered a petition to a local government office.

[...]China’s official Xinhua news agency said the local government’s plan to more strictly enforce payment of taxes from the furniture makers and dealers has been suspended in the face of the opposition.

Reports on the precise nature of the issue being protested are mixed, and sometimes conflicting. It has something to do with the furniture industry in Jiangxi–taxes being raised, or taxes being enforced, or the industry being forcibly consolidated and nationalized by the government, or something.

In some regards, the People’s Republic of China is beginning to look more capitalist than America. But it has never been a bastion of individual rights — human, personal, political, or economic.

Riots of this nature have become so numerous that the Chinese government has given up on counting them. It no longer publishes statistics on how many occur. Coupled with burgeoning government deficits, soaring unemployment, and migration back to the impoverished inland provinces, the PRC is becoming a powder keg.

Sources: China Digital Times, Danwei, BBC News

REP. CLIFF STEARNS, R-Fla.: Last September you made a statement that somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe, which at the time exceeded $8 a gallon. As Secretary of Energy, will you speak for or against any measures that would raise the price of gasoline?

SEC. CHU: As Secretary of Energy, I think especially now in today’s economic climate it would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline. And so we are looking forward to reducing the price of transportation in the American family. And this is done by encouraging fuel-efficient cars; this is done by developing alternative forms of fuel like biofuels that can lead to a separate source, an independent source of transportation fuel.

REP. STEARNS: But you can’t honestly believe that you want the American people to pay for gasoline at the prices, the level in Europe?

SEC. CHU: No, we don’t.

REP. STEARNS: No. But somehow, your statement, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” doesn’t that sound a little bit silly in retrospect for you to say that?

SEC. CHU: Yes.

The Wolf wonders why the media had nothing to say about Secretary Chu’s incredible position that the government should raise the cost of gasoline to $8 per gallon when he was confirmed as Obama’s Energy Secretary.

The Wolf does not, however, wonder why the Obama administration seems unconcerned by the energy cost hikes that would inevitably result from any carbon credit taxation scheme.

The position of the Democrat Party is that if you can afford your rent and your grocery bills, you are rich enough already. Any asset accumulation beyond what is necessary for subsistence is morally questionable at best. This point of view ignores the virtues of saving money for a rainy day, investing in income-generating assets, or generating enough profit to hire on extra workers and create new jobs.

Do not expect the nation’s debts to decrease, the personal wealth of its citizens to grow, or its economy to gain jobs while the Obama administration is in power.

Do expect gasoline to hit $8/gallon; that is part of the administration’s plan to stop you from being a polluter.

Source: Power Line Blog