66 years later, unbelievable (unbelievable indeed)

[mgc1961]

I received yesterday a forwarded e-mail from a friend. It's not unlike some previous distortions he gets from someone on his address list. This one begins thusly:

If this doesn't put your political thoughts in order...nothing will !!!!

Subject: 66 years later, unbelievable !!!

Something to think about, when you go vote next year.

STATEMENT AT THE END SAYS IT ALL !!!!!

66 years later !

What is the story here? What happened to the radiation that lasts thousands of years? HIROSHIMA 1945

Then, there are a series of photographs. One of a mushroom cloud and two photographs of ruined Hiroshima followed by some nighttime photographs of

a brightly lit modern city (presumably Hiroshima).. Then this:

"DETROIT - 65 years after Hiroshima" followed this time by photographs of ramshackle houses. Then:

What has caused more long term destruction - the A bomb, or U.S. Government welfare programs created to buy the votes Of those who want someone to take care of them?

Japan does not have a welfare system. Work for it or do without !!!!!!

These are the opening paragraphs from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs page about Social Security followed by the link:

The origin of social security dates as far back as the poor law in England (1601). In Japan, an equivalent law (Jyukkyu Kisoku) was introduced in 1874. Another important origin of social security is the social insurance system introduced by Otto Bismarck in Germany in the 1870s. In Japan, the first social insurance was the health insurance system that was introduced in 1922. The pension system for workers was introduced in 1941. The Ministry of Health and Welfare was founded in 1938.

Development of universal social security began after the end of World War II. The new Constitutional Law (1947) states that all Japanese people have the right to enjoy the minimum standard of living and decent life. The Government Council on Social Security was established and in 1950 the council advised the establishment of universal social security system. A new public assistance law was enacted in 1950, following the Child Welfare Law (1947) and Welfare Law for the Handicapped (1949), before the Social Service Law (1951). In the 1960s, the social security system aimed for "from selectivism to universalism" and "from relief to prevention." The pension and health insurance systems were reformed and the new systems were implemented in 1961. Since then national pension and national health insurance systems cover all Japanese.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/japan/socsec/maruo/maruo_5.html

Disclaimer: Not responsible for poorly counted exclamation points. :silly:

[rurallib]

1. Ya gotta love how they can tie two entirely unrelated things together

and get half the country to believe that they are cause and effect.
And ya gotta be amazed how half the country is so fucking dumb that they can believe shit like that, but can't seem to make the connection between Reagan and the Bushes and the incredible greed of the filthy rich to their current conditions.

[baldguy]

2. Social welfare in Japan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_welfare_in_Japan

Japan has nationalized pensions, nationalized health insurance, unemployment insurance, and accident insurance for workers - all managed by the govt.

The destruction of Detroit and other manufacturing cities in the US is due to corporate greed and THE LACK OF THESE BASIC SERVICES that other Western industrialized nations (including Japan) offer to their workers as a matter of course.

[Sal Minella]

3. Nice post. Thanks. (More facts with a liberal bias, I see . . . ) n/t

[treestar]

4. Right wingers have a shallow logic

:rofl: that they did not even investigate whether Japan had social programs first!