Is a house in Japan less or more than most average homes in the U.S.A?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by GoNative

If even a small percentage of the money spent on such projects was put into helping out towns to have a facelift it would make a huge difference. But of course with how the political system works in Japan the huge amounts of pork barrel projects that go on means there's little money to go around for anything else.

You`re right.

The money for roads comes from a national pool - they`re perceived to "benefit the entire nation". The money for doing projects that are perceived to benefit the immediate area only (as beautification, etc, would be) is up to the local area.

The local government doesn`t have to pay for building new roads, and judging by how often they oppose them being built... have absolutely nothing to do with the decision of where to put them.

It`s all silly really. The budget is split and calculated in such a way that they have to use all of their bit or receive much much less the next year instead of ... I don`t know, accumulating for when they need it. I don`t know why the government can`t just save the surplus and save up for when they need more.
It would make far more sense to, say, have some sort of thing where if you need 50 in running costs each year and 500 for a large scale project every 5 years, that you could receive 150/year instead of 500. But as the way they do the budget stands, if they don`t get and keep spending all 500 every year, they won`t have the 500 when they really need it.

This is the same style of budgeting as in the US, and I have seen countless other countries that are this style. It`s a mystery.

[Cayla]

Originally Posted by MMM

A condo is an apartment you buy.

An apartment is an apartment you rent.

Oh really? I thought you rented a condo. Well, thanks for telling me.