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Japan’s Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson

HAMADA, Japan — …Nor is this remote port in western Japan unusual. Japan’s rural areas have been paved over and filled in with roads, dams and other big infrastructure projects, the legacy of trillions of dollars spent to lift the economy from a severe downturn caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble in the late 1980s. During those nearly two decades, Japan accumulated the largest public debt in the developed world — totaling 180 percent of its $5.5 trillion economy — while failing to generate a convincing recovery…
..Among ordinary Japanese, the spending is widely disparaged for having turned the nation into a public-works-based welfare state and making regional economies dependent on Tokyo for jobs. Much of the blame has fallen on the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long used government spending to grease rural vote-buying machines that help keep the party in power…
Most Japanese economists have tended to take a bleaker view of their nation’s track record, saying that Japan spent more than enough money, but wasted too much of it on roads to nowhere and other unneeded projects…

Dr. Ihori of the University of Tokyo did a survey of public works in the 1990s, concluding that the spending created almost no additional economic growth. Instead of spreading beneficial ripple effects across the economy, he found that the spending actually led to declines in business investment by driving out private investors. He also said job creation was too narrowly focused in the construction industry in rural areas to give much benefit to the overall economy…
He agreed with other critics that the 1990s stimulus failed because too much of it went to roads and bridges, overbuilding this already heavily developed nation. Critics also said decisions on how to spend the money were made behind closed doors by bureaucrats, politicians and the construction industry, and often reflected political considerations more than economic…While Shimane has had the highest per capita spending on public works in Japan for the last 18 years, thanks to powerful local politicians like the deceased former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, its per capita annual income of $26,000 ranked it 40th among Japan’s 47 prefectures, he said. He said the spending had left Shimane $11 billion in debt, twice the size of the prefectural government’s annual budget.

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Depois do relatório da Entidade Reguladora da Saúde (ERS) de há um ano, que nos dava conta da prática de discriminação de utentes do Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS) por unidades privadas convencionadas com o Estado, há agora novo relatório com as mesmas conclusões relativamente aos beneficiários da ADSE: os estabelecimentos marcavam rapidamente consultas e exames a clientes particulares, que pagam na hora, e chegavam a demorar meses a atender os beneficiários da ADSE. Em causa estão unidades com a dimensão do Hospital da Luz (Lisboa), do Hospital da Arrábida (Gaia) e da Clínica Cuf Belém (Lisboa), os dois primeiros pertencentes ao grupo Espírito Santo, o mesmo para o qual trabalha a Presidente da Comissão Parlamentar de Saúde, Maria de Belém Roseira, e o terceiro ao grupo Mello.

A reguladora relembrou ainda o Governo de que a ADSE “não deverá limitar-se a celebrar acordos ou convenções” com unidades de saúde privadas sem tratar posteriormente de verificar se as condições contratadas se mantêm. A cantiga “menos Estado, melhor Estado” continua a render bons negócios para as empresas do regime.
http://www.opaisdoburro.blogspot.com/2009/06/aquela-cantiga-que-nao-para-de-render.html

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“E podemos também tentar adivinhar se é tão estúpido quanto parece ou se lhe pagam muito bem para parecer tão estúpido.
Sª Canas”

Muito bem.
Mas eu tenho a certeza que não é assim.
A realidade é que lhe pagam muito bem para parecer menos estúpido do que realmente é.

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