Solution: “All you need is to grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” says the editor of The Indian Express.
“We will buy up all the subprime homes; we will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2% nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
Problem: February 6, 2009, the US Senate unfortunately voted to restrict financial institutions that receive taxpayer bailout money from hiring high-skilled immigrants on temporary work permits (H-1B visas).
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Hmm Lila, so unlike you to print something that is rather flawed and riddled with self aggrandizing stereotypes….perhaps the 2 million should stay and figure out what to do with the 300 million indians who scrounge on less than a dollar a day or the thousands of babies that die from intestinal parasites. As an normally objective person and fellow indian I am surprised you published this nationalistic indian rant–it is an unfortuante tendendcy of many in india to have developed a superior attitute toward the U.S. and even China–no basis yet for that…
Hi Robert –
You’re right. It’s unlike me to publish nationalistic self aggrandizing rants.
Ergo, this isn’t one.
I saw it on an American blog. And I agreed with it. Couldn’t find the link , but I will.
I don’t believe that I said anywhere that Indians or Chinese were superior to Americans…
Just a thought..I wonder if you know anything about professionals in India? I think I have a pretty good handle on how Indians are helped…by whom…and when they are not.
Restricting immigration for no good reason except to maintain the status quo is anti-libertarian
My feeling is that most people who object to these sorts of measures are not really worried about poor Indians. They’re worried about the impact on their own living standards but this is how I see it:<br />
1. Emigration reduces population pressure in crowded Asian cities…which reduces crime…and brings down prices.
2. It allows for dollar repatriation and investment in India by the emigres…which helps people there and provides money for charity that Indians who are making rupees can’t afford..
NRIs (non resident Indians) fund a lot of charity and contribute higher fees at universities..which lets people there earn more.
3. It will hold up the housing market and allow borrowers here to recoup their losses. That means bond funds and pensions won’t suffer. Which means your pensioners wont face bleak retirements. Seniors here are suffering right now.
4. It means banks will be able to lend without government money, so you wouldn’t need bail-outs and give-aways.
5. That reduces the indebtedness of the country…future debt is wiped out.
6. That strengthens the dollar.
7. That makes other countries want to do more business with the US.
8. It reduces pressure on land in India – which is now out of the reach of most people because of the population.
9. By holding up the housing market here, the rest of the US economy is held up, consumption resumes, US businesses don’t collapse.
10. By reducing indebtedness, interest rates don’t have to be kept at an artificial high, which means that money doesn’t depreciate.
11. When the currency is stabilized, people won’t buy up agricultural land or speculate in commodities just to keep up with inflation.
12. That will bring global food prices down.
And high food prices are the biggest single problem for the poor in India and world wide.
So your conclusions don’t follow at all..
I think people who object to immigration are afraid either of the cultural impact of larger scale Asian migration, or of competition in jobs.
Don’t like Indians and Chinese? (Nightmare! Lots of brown and yellow people with kimchi and curry on their breath turning the suburbs into Little Calcutta! )
Then, invite Eastern Europeans or Latins or anyone else with a cultural or racial profile more acceptable to the mainstream here, who will save more and work for less and live in undesirable parts of the country….(you could invite Aussies and Canadians, if they’d do it..but they won’t, because they can do better in their own countries).
BTW, did you know that there is very stiff competition for every job in India, so emigres aren’t usually missed…unless they’re exceptionally skilled..
Also, since the poor have to depend on donations and charity, increased emigration helps them too, because the more money people make, the mre money they can donate, right?
To turn your comment back on you, the only reason I can see for objecting to this win-win scheme is nationalism… not my Indian, but your American. (there – that’ll be my last mean comment)
What I said and what is perfectly true is that the Asian middle class does have the savings to buy many of these houses….Americans don’t.
That’s just a fact….not a criticism.
Foreigners are right now buying US treasury debt, which you wouldn’t object to, right? You shouldn’t, because if they didn’t, the dollar would collapse. ….
So why would you object to foreigners buying something tangible and solid? No gloating about it one way or other….
Americans go in and buy up companies in India – do you object to that too? You should, if you’re going to be consistent..
You should also object to Americans buying emerging market stocks and driving them up high in price and then leaving so the economies takes a hit…
But you’re OK with that, right?….
Now that hurts the poor a lot more than a few professionals emigrating (most of them software people, of whom we have an oversupply)
It’s unwarranted to be so over-sensitive that when I post one thing positive about India (that Indians are savers), you assume it’s a sneer at Americans.
I think I’m a very fair person..
So fair that I don’t need to be unfair to other people just to prove my fairness to America.
And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
and
not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here.
Mot considered a sneer?
Its not clear that its a win, win and why is any objection to large scale immigration depicted as racism? No objection is not based on nationalism–timing really. Hmmm, lots of unemployed poeple why of course lets bring in more and what a great poltical move–yes? Any grasp of basic politics and human nature will tell you that the tide has turned for acceptiing large scale immigration in the U.S. Is it racism, is it fear of unemployment, the high expense associated with new entrants who knows–in effect not a good idea at this time. Oh–yes I am a dark immigrant and well there is lots o tension out there. Besides these guys are such great savers and so smart the marginal gains they can produce in India, Korea or China is fabulous. There is of course the idea (and I include you) the good ones came early and well the average of all peoples is well average and the stars are staying home. Whether French, african or anything, a lot of people showing up is well a lot of people. Also, why is it that its OK for India and most other countries to make it very hard?
Indeed rather than all going to the states or uk (ah the horrible racist in me–o.k Italy as well) why not develop policies to allow the majical 2 million to thrive “back home”.
I’m pretty dark.
Anyway, sorry to have hit a nerve, but you are wrong on this one and will glaldy chat with you in B-more or D.C.
Hi Lila–this really responds best to you response.
Given the 30 million immigrants admitted in the last 7 years (legal and illegal) would not the “crisis” be averted completely? Are the two million somewhat more special than the prior 30? Is it that the Indians, Koreans and Chinese are superior to the predomintsly Latino immigrants? Just wondering what the logic is of assuming that 2 miilion will succeed where the prior 30 failed–and I guess that assumes that the current residents lack any and all ability to sort things out…Would not the current stock of 2 million Pakistanis bail our the hapless Brits? ..Again–not like you to embrace such a silly notion–libertarian or not lets not let dogma blind us to data–again so unlike you.
Love your work!
Cheers,
Robert
“And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
and not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here….”
Mot considered a sneer?
Lila:
Honestly, I don’t think that’s a sneer at all…I just think that it hit YOUR raw nerve…..
The writer was just stating that in India it would be considered horribly wrong to default on a mortgage loan…
Obviously, people here don’t feel that way about debt..Why would they?
They’ve been told that shame isn’t a great feeling for decades…so now they aren’t ashamed….
They’re supposed to be proud all the time, right?
Why do you feel sensitive if someone points out that other people don’t think that way?
I don’t depict objections to large scale immigration as racist. Not at all…
I’ve supported restrictions on some immigration (of unskilled labor that is moving here because of the lure of welfare …which is a subsidy).
I’m not talking about subsidising immigration..
I’m talking about allowing a natural market remedy to a huge global problem, largely caused by American banks and regulators.
There’s some special moral culpability here on the part of the US too.
You didn’t hit any nerve with me…
But you did just resort to ad hominem for no reason:..by using the term “sneer”
Besides, I don’t see why people should stay in some place merely you think they should. Should you stay in DC and not move to New York if you could find better work there?
Should I tell you not to buy emerging market stocks..
Should Amish farmers buying cheap land in Brazil be sent home by the Brazilians because Brazilians can’t afford the price increases?
Your reasoning lacks consistency. When an argument lacks a consistent principle..it is irrational.
The great source of irrationality is fear..
Fear of what?
Change (fewer jobs, more competition
Welcome to the market
It’s the great leveler….
Also, you proved my point.
What criteria were used to let the immigrants in over the recent past? That’s the important point.
If immigrants were highly skilled, spoke English or were willing to adapt and learn, I bet they caused no problem.</p>
The problem is we changed the criteria for immigrants under political pressure…
We admitted vast numbers of unskilled people, subsidising their movement with welfare (free schooling, free medicine etc)…and that caused problems…
There’s also the issue of crime. We allowed in a lot of people with criminal pasts/connections.
So you are conflating very different things.
And I didn’t bring up race. You did.
I only mentioned Asians because of the higher savings rate in Asia, and because Asians (among others) are holding US bonds and dollars which represents a claim on the US govt…they are our creditors
By every moral and legal criterion, they have a claim on us.
I argued from principles. These are the principles I used:
Moral culpability (The US made the mess, so the US should take the responsibility to clean it up; plus Asia has in the past suffered from currency crises and speculation in land) largely driven by the West (Greenspan’s central bank interest rate policies and major investors and commercial funds based here)
Legal Obligation (you should make good on you contracts and make good on your legal obligations – these include debt, money, credit, and government bonds mostly held by Asian governments)
Subsidiarity; (You should generally prefer the near to the far – encourage people closer to the culture to immigrate; prefer English speakers and people with entrepreneurial ability; well, Asians have a track record of being good at business and a history of being merchants; Asian religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as Asian Christianity – do uphold values quite compatible with American culture.
Rational interest (Prefer people who can benefit the economy, work for less, by becoming owners of property and businesses; prefer savers)
Humanitarian obligation: Asia has some of the poorest and most crowded parts in the world
Highly skilled Asian savers fits several rational criteria – ergo, suggesting their immigration here is not arbitrary but principled.
And I am not suggesting any policy geared to driving immigration…I am simply saying, if employers want to employ people from other countries, don’t let the government set arbitrary limits on it through denial of visas or quotas or restrictions…it’s libertarian to say hands off the movement of people as driven by economic need. It’s non libertarian to advocate a redistribution of population for social engineering purposes
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The last thing America needs is another 2 million people. We are overcrowded already, and the strain is showing in our schools, hospitals, and roads.
American law provides debt relief to people who are overwhelmed by circumstances beyond their control. Such as your job going to India. Since Microsoft and IBM are dumping thousands of workers in America, I suppose you feel they should be ashamed of the poverty that results. Perhaps they should take up robbing American banks so they can pay their mortgage?
No, what we really need to do is what every other nation, especially India, is doing for their own people – protectionism! How bad can it be if everyone else is doing it?
That’s because of public subsidies. If people had to pay for services, there would be less crowding and over use. And if there were no restrictions on the supply of doctors and nurses there would be enough people to cope.
I am not sure what the rest of your post means. Who’s robbing American banks? The banks are robbing people.
Protectionism exists in India because Western countries don’t play free trade, they just preach it. In reality they subsidize agriculture and a bunch of other things.
What we need is the exact opposite. Get rid of fake free trade (mercantilism) and get the real thing. Then other countries will follow suit.
State intervention is the root cause of all our problems.
There is no field in which that is not true.
The rest is propaganda by people who need money from DC to live.