India, Productivity, and Tropical Climes

[Timothy C. May]

At 5:31 PM 8/13/96, Arun Mehta wrote:
>At 13:15 11/08/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:

>Sorry, the response took a while: George Fernandes, who was the
>industries minister at the time, is an acquaintance, so I thought
>I'd get the story from the horse's mouth.

Thanks for supplying more details. I'm not convinced, though, of all the
points. India still royally screwed itself, reputation-wise.


>>As attractive as this sounds, historically this has not happened. And as
>>many will tell you, the climate of the Bay Area in particular and
>>California in general is extremely benign and delightful. The average
>>winter temperature is only about 10C cooler than summer temperatures.
>
>Didn't Mark Twain say that the coldest winter he had ever
>experienced was a summer in San Francisco? I do agree, SF and
>environs are great: but US immigration laws being what they are,
>not everyone can move there -- some day, "routing around" might
>make those places more attractive which have the least
>restrictive immigration laws.

Here I feel compelled as a Loyal American to point out something that often
gets lost in the comments about America doesn't let enough immigrants in,
how it discriminates against immmigrants, etc. The thing to remember is
that virtually none of the countries which the most vocal critics are from
have anything approaching the U.S. policy about immigration!

Mexicans and U.S. critics of U.S. policy cite the "border problem."
However, Americans cannot work in Mexico except under extreme limitations.
Americans in Mexico cannot send their children to Mexican public schools.
And so on. This was described in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," where
two Americans are stranded in Mexico, unable by law to work. Things haven't
changed much.

And what about immigration to Japan? Or Hong Kong? Or Taiwan? Ask the boat
people still rotting in camps, or turned back to sea to sink. How about
immigration into Switzerland, or Sweden, or France?

I don't have any knowledge about the situation on immigrating to India--I
don't know too many Americans who have, except some friends of friends who
moved to Goa some years back.

Personally, I favor open borders--but no public schooling, no tax-funded
handouts, no welfare, no child support, no public hospitals, etc.

--Tim May

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