Convincing Ourselves

Introduction The tragic and unforgivable killing of Shinzo Abe put a spotlight back on the defining characteristic of his time as Prime Minister i.e. Abenomics. The success of his economic policies is still debated due to mixed results over a number of years. Personally, I don't think judging an economic policy is that simple. A country like Japan does not operate in a vacuum and is affected by unforeseen events around the world. However, I still believe there is a lot we can learn from the shortcomings of his economic policy   Abenomics and why it couldn't fulfill the promise: The 1990s and the 2000s were a two-decade period of Japan essentially stalling. Its industry, once the envy of the world, stopped innovating, and its trade surpluses, once the biggest in the world, stopped being so big. On top of that Japan, started suffering from degrading living standards and demographic problems.  Abenomics was an attempt to use, easy monetary policy, loose fiscal policy, and structu...

The below discussion was a result of an argument between me and an Indian nationalist on Quora.  This might be considered controversial, however, I feel facts or more important than nationalist feelings and propaganda.  Feel free to leave a comment. In my discussions with many Liberal Indian Nationalists, I have come across a sort of victim mentality and bitter resentment towards the British Raj on the subcontinent. The 'complaints' are of two nature in my experience. The first is that the 'Indian Subcontinent' was looted and it was this money that financed the Industrial Revolution in mainland Britain. The second is that if the British had not 'looted' the subcontinent, it would have been a far more developed and prosperous land. More conservative Indian religious nationalists also make a similar argument against 'the Muslims'. However below I am only going to discuss the claims against the British. To begin with, it is important to understand that when...