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Foreign policy is not decided based on consistency. Every democratic government has a responsibility to defend it's own citizen's interests. USA does this also
by simula67 11y ago
Foreign policy is not decided based on consistency. Every democratic government has a responsibility to defend it's own citizen's interests.
USA does this also, it wants free trade when it wants to export goods and services to other nations but opposes it when it comes to importing labor ( H1B VISA cap etc ).
This is not evil, it is this competition between nations that improves standard of living for people everywhere.
- mattmanser 11y agoLabor is not trade.
- simula67 11y agoMind elaborating ? If you should be for free trade, should you also not be fro free exchange of labor ?
- mattmanser 11y agoReally? It's pretty obvious. If you're working in another country, you're not spending money on tax, rent, food, utilities, etc. in your home country, you're spending them in the host country. Most of your income is spent in the host country. For your own example, most H1Bs want to live and spend their money in the US, not send money back home. So it's actually a terrible 'trade' for the originating country, they lose skilled workers to the US, workers they paid to train and educate, for nothing in return. What's the 'trade' you talk of? Labor is not trade because what does the home country get out of it? Free trade is a completely different kettle of fish to free labor markets.
- mc808 11y agoEverything you say also applies to foreign trade of goods or capital with just a little tweaking. Would you consider it "trade" when capital flows out the country, builds facilities in a foreign country, employs people in the foreign country, sells goods to people in the foreign country, and then stores most of the profit in the foreign country?
- shripadk 11y agoI'm sure you have heard of Jaguar/Land Rover (the luxury car brand). Do you know who owns it? It is an Indian company called the "Tata Group". Tata Group acquired it from Ford Motors when the luxury brand was on the verge of bankruptcy. This is a brand that is "Made in Britain". Even though Tata Group is an Indian company, it operates the Jaguar facility in England and employs locals rather than Indians for its facilities. The profit is also stored by the foreign country (UK in this case). Do you also know that many hotels in the USA are acquired by the Tata Group? The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Boston is one good example. Again, the group employs only locals and has it's profits stored in the foreign country (US in this case). There is no reason to believe that trade of goods or capital is lopsided to only harm the United States.
- mc808 11y agoI was really just illustrating that the same incomplete (bordering on dishonest) portrayal of the movement of labor can also be applied to the movement of capital.
- icebraining 11y agoRemittances from emigrants account for ~4% of India's GDP.
- pm90 11y agoRemittances are possible only once you have savings. By necessity, a certain percentage of immigrants' income will be spent locally.
- icebraining 11y agoSure, but considering the differences in wages, that percentage may be greater than the whole income that worker would have made in their home country.
- _ati 11y agoAlso adding to that most of the intelligent people who are moving out and settling else would have studied with governments money from premium institutions
- seanmcdirmid 11y agoOpposes the importation of labor? Inspite of importing more high-end labor than almost any other country? How can they be opposed to it?
- nkoren 11y ago> Inspite of importing more high-end labor than almost any other country? On a per-capita basis, I don't believe this is anywhere nere correct.
- seanmcdirmid 11y agoOn a per capita basis, any rich country in the Middle East or city state in SE Asia that imports all its workers wins by default. But out of the major economies, the USA is at least up there with Europe per cap, and definitely in raw numbers.
- arihant 11y agoWell it's not about quantity but attitude. India might be the leading importer of a lot of things given the population. But that doesn't negate the defensive attitude towards imports.
- seanmcdirmid 11y agoThere are a lot of people in the USA, some don't like immigration and are particularly loud about it, but they are nowhere in the majority, and definitely not the politicians who are in power making all the rules.