U.S. President-elect Joe Biden can learn a lot from Japan.
I say this not because Japan-style capitalism does not have its share of problems, but because the overall result generated by the Japanese economic system is extremely positive. Japan is the global best-in-class for balancing both income growth and income distribution. The result is not just extraordinary socioeconomic stability, but also strong resilience against the temptations of divisive populism ¡ª a la Donald Trump.
Creating and sustaining a stable society is one of the fundamental goals of economic policymaking. For this, an economy must both grow and distribute the spoils of wealth creation in a fair and equitable way. So what¡¯s the score? How wealthy are the people and how is that wealth distributed? At the end of last year, the median net financial wealth ¡ª all financial assets minus liabilities ¡ª for households in Japan stood at $104,000. In the United States, it was $62,000.
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