Immigration, Are We Helping Or Hindering.

[certain 10]

It`s interesting that the same people who complain about immigration, are those who moan most about foreign aid......

 

That's because many people are racist and both these things (attacking immigration and attacking foreign aid) is perceived to harm johnny foreigner.

 

Clearly Anna B is not criticizing foreign aid in principle but rather the corruption of foreign aid.

[Justin Smith 10]

That's because many people are racist and both these things (attacking immigration and attacking foreign aid) is perceived to harm johnny foreigner.

 

Clearly Anna B is not criticizing foreign aid in principle but rather the corruption of foreign aid.

 

I honestly don`t think many people are that racist. I think, I know, a lot of people are mildly racist, but not enough for them to think like that. I just think, as Frankie Boyle "joked", the trouble with the English is loads of them have very strong opinions based on no (or very little) evidence whatsoever.

 

---------- Post added 07-04-2017 at 16:52 ----------

 

And I wonder if it's the same people who complain about foreign aid, and how 'charity should begin at home', are the ones who grumble the most about feckless British people 'scrounging of the state', or 'not pulling themselves up by the bootstraps'....

 

Very probably, particularly the older ones who grew up when jobs were probably a bit more plentiful but, more significantly, paid better.

[melthebell 864]

An interesting video, which makes sense.

 

But he ends with 'Let's help them there (in their own country.) And therein lies the rub.

 

We don't 'help them there,' do we? We throw a bit of aid money (a very little bit) in their direction most of which is lost to corruption.

 

They are poor largely because rich western civilizations went in and raped their countries in days of Empire and took over their natural resources, and enslaved the people. These are countries awash with natural wealth. Who owns all the minerals and gold mines? Who owns all the diamond mines? The Oil. And just about every other major resource?

 

The people may no longer be slaves but unfortunately the natural resources/wealth stay largely in the hands of the Western Corporations and a few individuals.

 

When these are given back to them there might be some hope, but I can't see the Rothschilds and the Rockerfellas et al, with their $trillions of wealth doing that any time soon.

 

Instead we connive with corrupt dictators, give the people crumbs, then take it back as third world debt.

 

Nice.

 

Excellent post. Nail on head

[NigelFargate 10]

I thought Hayek had solved that one, " Leave it to the market let the market decide" or Robert Nosick " taxation is robbery" or our own Maggie " there is no such thing as society just individuals and their families"

 

me and now, me and now, me and now

 

Vote Conservative

 

 

Neither Hayek nor Maggie favoured leaving everything to the market. Their theories were more nuanced than that. Hayek in particular was a very sophisticated thinker and one whose ideas bear further scrutiny.

[Anna B 1,414]

Neither Hayek nor Maggie favoured leaving everything to the market. Their theories were more nuanced than that. Hayek in particular was a very sophisticated thinker and one whose ideas bear further scrutiny.

 

Trouble is too much thinking and not enough action. Have any of the above, or their ideas, actually achieved anything?

[NigelFargate 10]

Trouble is too much thinking and not enough action. Have any of the above, or their ideas, actually achieved anything?

 

Actually Anna, yes, to a world-changing degree. Hayek was not only a strong advocate of free markets but also believed strongly in the link between democratic open societies and wealth creation. He wrote in his famous book The Road to Serfdom that neither fascism nor communism could produce anything other than tyranny and poverty. His ideas have underpinned the development of market economies around the world, thereby creating the biggest rise in global wealth and the largest fall in global poverty in world history.

[El Cid 220]

Gorden Brown said in 2001 that free movement was a good thing, but the failure to put in place policies which protect ordinary people would lead to disaster, or words to that effect.

[Anna B 1,414]

Actually Anna, yes, to a world-changing degree. Hayek was not only a strong advocate of free markets but also believed strongly in the link between democratic open societies and wealth creation. He wrote in his famous book The Road to Serfdom that neither fascism nor communism could produce anything other than tyranny and poverty. His ideas have underpinned the development of market economies around the world, thereby creating the biggest rise in global wealth and the largest fall in global poverty in world history.

 

Tell me more about Hayek. I don't think I've heard of him.

[NigelFargate 10]

Tell me more about Hayek. I don't think I've heard of him.

He is not very well-known amongst the general public, unlike say Marx or Adam Smith. However, his ideas gained influence in the post-war era by providing an intellectual underpinning for the belief in free markets. thatcher was a disciple, although I don't think she ever fully understood his ideas, which are quite sophisticated. Although seen as an Economist, he was far more than that, because his ideas embraced social and psychological dimensions. You won't find a graph or a mathematical formula in his writings. He was an Austrian, opposed to both fascism and communism and taught at the LSE for many years.

[Anna B 1,414]

He is not very well-known amongst the general public, unlike say Marx or Adam Smith. However, his ideas gained influence in the post-war era by providing an intellectual underpinning for the belief in free markets. thatcher was a disciple, although I don't think she ever fully understood his ideas, which are quite sophisticated. Although seen as an Economist, he was far more than that, because his ideas embraced social and psychological dimensions. You won't find a graph or a mathematical formula in his writings. He was an Austrian, opposed to both fascism and communism and taught at the LSE for many years.

 

But what has he done to improve the lot of the poor? Particularly those living on less than $2 a day?

What has Margaret Thatcher done for these people?

[NigelFargate 10]

But what has he done to improve the lot of the poor? Particularly those living on less than $2 a day?

What has Margaret Thatcher done for these people?

 

The ideas he put forward have taken more people out of poverty in developing countries than any others. The ones in the poorest category are the ones where free markets and democracy have yet to reach in any realistic way.

[Anna B 1,414]

The ideas he put forward have taken more people out of poverty in developing countries than any others. The ones in the poorest category are the ones where free markets and democracy have yet to reach in any realistic way.

 

From what I've heard the thing that has done most to help poor people and poor communities is direct grants to the people to buy what they need to improve their lives at ground level. (I think it's called 'microfinancing.)

 

There was a documentary on TV not long ago about it, (but I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the man who gave the lecture,) where a subsistence farmer was saving to buy himself a bicycle, if that rings any bells.

 

But it doesn't alter the fact that these people are poor because western corporations and super rich individuals, have stolen their natural resources.