India: Quietly Destroying the U.S. Economy
Signs of our economic decline are everywhere. From closed down manufacturing plants to our high unemployment numbers, it is no secret that there is something very wrong going on in our country. One of the primary culprits behind our economic crisis? “Free trade.” It is our unfair “free trade” agreements with other countries such as India that have led to our current crisis. India’s predatory trading practices are resulting in the off-shoring and outsourcing of U.S. jo
bs through the use of visas, and the U.S. is facing an alarming decline in high-paying, professional jobs here at home.
India has spent much of its existence as one of the richest countries in the world. However, as they became colonized during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, that wealth dissipated to be replaced with crushing poverty. The British Empire’s implementation of “free trade” into India’s economy did nothing to combat the poverty; in fact, it fueled it. As J.R. Martin explains in his book, Selling U.S. Out, “during the span in which colonization and the implementation of ‘free trade’ occurred, India was transformed from an exporter of processed goods to being an exporter of raw materials and an importer of manufactured goods”—just like what is happening with the “free trade” agreements between the United States and China.
JOBLESS AMERICANS IN MILLIONS
India underwent a change soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain and collapse of the Soviet Union, though. India became closer to the U.S. and thus began to steer their economic practices towards capitalism. In the 1990s, they experienced full-blown economic liberalization that resulted in a new national economic strategy that has proven disastrous for the U.S. economy.
Part of India’s new national economic strategy was much like the predatory trade practices employed by nations like China and Japan. It was and still is a strategy that takes advantage of our open markets and lack of “free trade” barriers. While our trade relations with China and Japan have resulted in the loss of manufacturing jobs, trade with India is resulting in the loss and outsourcing of higher paying, professional services jobs. J.R. Martin eloquently points out that “at the center of India’s national economic strategy is the development of information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries by primarily targeting U.S. corporations and government entities—replacing their American workforce with lower-cost Indian workers.”
The primary tool that India is employing as one of their predatory trade practices against us is the use of visas—the L-1 and H-1B visas, to be exact. As J.R. Martin explains it, “these visas are the golden tickets to America for low-cost foreign workers and they are easily obtained by U.S. and foreign-owned corporations from the U.S. government. They are used as tools to replace millions of American workers with low cost foreign workers.” Ultimately, these visas are fueling the outsourcing of our valuable businesses and assets to India.
With U.S. unemployment numbers as high as they are, the government needs to stop issuing the L-1 and H-1B visas responsible for taking good paying jobs away from United States citizens. Call your congressperson and ask what they’re doing to stop the issuing of these visas and the outsourcing of our businesses to India. We cannot continue to stand by and do nothing while foreign entities continue to strip jobs and resources from our country. If we do so, there will soon be nothing left for foreign entities to take!
