How much are you worth?

[Bigkahuna]

Can I have my Koku in Saki please???

[MacBean]

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

You'd be about right about the price of Key West = new car. Use the above link to the inflation calculator.

Best

AA

My Dad bought his Ford car in 1946 for $350. That would be $3,800 in today's dollars by the calculator. I realize cars were simpler back then, but that seems out of kilter.

[Gryphon noir]

Before taxes, I'd be a samuri, after taxes.....oh dear.

I suppose my benefit package at work would be worth a fair bit of rice: maybe the drug plan could be measured in warm sake.

Seriously--without getting too political here--it begs the question of what value a public medical system [such as we have in Canada] might have to the individual, when measured in rice.

I like the idea of measuring values according to the cost of tartan: that could become an underground currency among kilties.

[Wompet]

Sheesh - after 1600 posts, I'm a Kilted Samurai again.
But given what my salary would have been in, say 1800, I'm not complaining (unless I don't get my daishō).

[CDNSushi]

Sheesh - after 1600 posts, I'm a Kilted Samurai again.
But given what my salary would have been in, say 1800, I'm not complaining (unless I don't get my daishō).

Lol! Touché. This.

But just to briefly comment on what Gryphon noir said... Again, without getting too political, socialized health care isn't without its drawbacks. I have almost $500/month in deductions here in Japan. Of that, $300 are for health and pension, $100 (roughly) in federal taxes, $100 (roughly) in municipal taxes.

My health benefits cover 70% of all necessary medical (no cosmetic, or elective stuff), incl. dental, and 70% of prescription meds.

I don't know how much you Americans pay on average for your private health insurance, but I know that compared to Canada, I pay a lot more in Japan.

[Lachlan09]

What demographic level would I be ? Perhaps a fugu-tester or the katana equivalent of a test-crash dummy.

[Lallans]

I have a question about Clavell's novel - I know it's fiction and doesn't represent actual events, but how does his description of 17c Japanese culture stack up? In other words, is the world of Shogun very like the actual Japan of the time, wildly different, or somewhere in between? I love history, but know very little of the history and historical culture of that part of the world.

It's regarded as totally off base in Japan, as is every such novel written by Westerners that I've ever discussed with them. I rather think that 'mild contempt' might be close to the mark. It's like writing about something you know nothing about- only worse because you don't know that you don't know. In particular, Shogun really messed up the relationship between samurai and their leaders and it was for instance never, ever considered for airing in Japan, I mean of course the TV series based on the novel.

[CDNSushi]

It's regarded as totally off base in Japan, as is every such novel written by Westerners that I've ever discussed with them. I rather think that 'mild contempt' might be close to the mark. It's like writing about something you know nothing about- only worse because you don't know that you don't know. In particular, Shogun really messed up the relationship between samurai and their leaders and it was for instance never, ever considered for airing in Japan, I mean of course the TV series based on the novel.

True, but very often, however, the perception others have of us is very different than that what we have of ourselves. To a Japanese it may seem completely off-base, inaccurate, and even downright wrong. But to an outsider looking in, it may appear quite different. Which is correct? I'd say both have some merit and neither should be completely excluded.

As the great poet Burns wrote: "O wad some Power the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us."

For Clavell's part, he spent time in the Pacific theatre during WWII in the Royal Artillery. He fought the Japanese in Malaysia, was captured, and held as a POW in Java. His novel King Rat is a fiction book, but draws very heavily from his own personal experiences as a POW of the Japanese.

To say that he wasn't coloured by his experiences would be simplistic. Rather than calling his portrayals of Japan "inaccurate" I would call them extensively influenced by personal experiences during a very difficult time.

[CDNSushi]

As an additional note, if anyone is interested in comparing and contrasting what Clavell got right ad what he got wrong in his novel Shogun, there is a free PDF-format book available on the subject. It's called Learning from SHOGUN: Japanese History and Western Fantasy and it's available here: http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/learning/

I have not read it, but it looks compelling and I'll have to add it to my "to-read" list.