Static Inheritance, Constructors --- Classes as objects

Question

First I asked myself why constructors are not inherited.
Then I asked myself why Static Methods are not inherited.
And it all seems to come down to, why Classes are not objects in Java as they are in Smalltalk?
Is there any reason I'm missing?
I would love at least inheritable static methods.

Answer 1

That's OK, but that method would not be inherited, and would execute in the context of the superclass.
Picture this (a simple "template method"):
class SuperClass {
     public static void staticMethod() {          
          System.out.println("Static in SuperClass");
          other();          
     public static void other() {          
          System.out.println("other in SuperClass");
class SubClass extends SuperClass{
     public static void other () {
          System.out.println("other in SubClass");
Here, I just want to redefine other() in SubClass, but it calls the SuperClass version.
Let's test:
public class Test {
     public static void main(String[] args) throws DatabaseErrorException, TableUpdateException {
          SuperClass.staticMethod();
          SubClass.staticMethod();
Output:
Static in SuperClass
other in SuperClass
Static in SuperClass
other in SuperClass
First line calls static in SuperClass, which calls other (found in SuperClass and executed), the output from other is second line.
Then, the third line shows calling staticMehod in SubClass, which doesn't redefine it, and executes the SuperClass version, that's ok, but when staticMethod calls other, it doesn't look for it in SubClass, but it directly executes the one in SuperClass (which is shown in line 4).