From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: sci.environment,talk.politics.misc,alt.activism
Subject: Re: Idiotic Japan Bashing
Date: 28 Dec 1992 19:19:57 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1992Dec28.080944.7939@pegasus.com>, tleylan@pegasus.com (Tom Leylan) writes:
>mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman) writes:
>  >jgacker@news.gsfc.nasa.gov (James G. Acker) writes:
>  >>but Japan supposedly has a 100-year enviro-industry plan
>
>>I keep hearing this kind of bullshit.  Does anyone out there really
>>believe it?  After all, can you imagine the hundred year plan that a
>>business or company would have come up with in 1893?  
>
>Michael, May I suggest that your difficulty in believing any particular
>thing is due to more to your upbringing and environment than anything
>else.

May I suggest that you don't know what the hell you're talking about?

>You take a trip to Germany and you sit yourself down in a brewery that
>has been brewing beer for 600 years and you get yourself a sense of
>continuity.

I suppose they're still using exactly the same sort of vats they used 600 years
ago?  And exactly the same processes?  I rather doubt it.  I suspect that
public health laws have caused significant changes in those breweries.

>There are places throughout Europe that existed when Columbus sailed
>to the U.S. still operating... though to be honest the management has
>changed hands.

Yes, they may still be operating.  Are they still lighting the places using oil
lamps?  Is all work accomplished either via manual labor or through the use of
draft animals or waterwheels or windmills?

Just because a place of business stays in business for over a century does
*NOT* mean that at any point in its history the management of that business
was able to plan 100 years into the future.

>This is surely the case in Asia.  A company that made steel for swords
>hundreds of years ago is probably still in existance.

Still using the same sort of equipment?  Not likely.

>You're trying to wedge your own definition of "100 year plan" into the
>works and if you mean "show me where they say how many units they will
>sell in 2092" then by all means there is no plan by your definition.

Just because a business survives for more than 100 years doesn't mean that it
was possible to plan for 100 years.  You're confusing continuity and
prescience.

>In short they plan to exist 100 years from now, and they plan to serve
>their customers and to have employees and your stock certificates will
>still be worth something.

So what?  What particular products will they be selling?  What will they be
using for inputs?  How many trucks will they have in their delivery fleet? 
Will they even still *HAVE* a delivery fleet of trucks?

>Get it ?

Do you?  An intention to stay in business is *NOT* the same as a 100 year plan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
Newsgroups: sci.environment