Bailout? Best would be more H-1B visas.
In my last post I wondered what, if anything, our stimulus bent President and Congressmen were stimulating to make our country more productive, because only new production, or GNP growth, will provide new wealth and along with it more jobs.
As things now stand the jobs that the stimulus package would create will not be paid for by new growth, or new production, but by borrowed money, by our going even further into debt.
There seems to be no attempt, other than over the very long term by costly improvements to our infrastructure — public education, roads, and bridges and the like — to promote entrepreneurship. This is unfortunate for only entrepreneurs, those who are ready to start new businesses, or give new life to old ones, will slow down if not stop the hemorrhaging of jobs that at the present time bedevils our markets and our people.
In a current op ed piece Thomas Friedman is thinking along the same lines. But he has gone a bit further than I. Once again he is at his favorite watering hole, Bangalore, India, and he is speaking with Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper.
Here, Friedman says, is Gupta’s solution to our economic depression: “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans. 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 percent 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.”
And Friedman himself reminds us, “Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn’t through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing free trade. No, the formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat.”
I wonder if our President, our politicians read Thomas Friedman, and if they do, what they think about what they’ve read. No less than Friedman I am convinced that our country has always been propelled forward by the contributions of successive waves of immigrants. Why wouldn’t today also the new arrivals to our shores be those most ready and willing and able to lead us out of the current mess we’re in?
February 12, 2009 at 10:02 am
I love Friedman’s recipe! The jobless rate here and the dependence on our government is frightening. I also think loans should be standardized and low for everyone (i.e. in India). No more balloons, arms etc. No more greed on the part of banks. They’ll still make money. This is my dream.