Monthly Archives: September 2010

Diversity and a country’s economy

America is a bizarre country.  The majority of the population is white and has been around for at least five to ten generations.  Most blacks came to America in the 1700’s and early 1800’s. Then, there are descendents of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italy, and other places whose ancestors came around the turn of the century (around 1880 to 1920).  Lastly, there is a huge new wave of immigrants from Latin America and Asia which became a huge population boom around the 1980’s and the population of their ethnic groups continues to grow in the United States whether the border is open or closed.

The sad fact is that Americans are incapable of doing most of the critical jobs which keep this country going.  If you visit hi-tech companies, you will notice that the majority of the workers are Asians, or children of Asians.  Very few people with lineage in America can handle computer programming, engineering, or other technically demanding tasks.  If you visit factories and farms that involved heavy or hard labor, you will quickly notice, that unassimilated Mexicans, Guatemalans, and a few Southeast Asians seem to often be the majority (or entirety) at many of these types of jobs.

White Americans are now complaining that they are no longer a majority in terms of the birth rate in America. However, without people from other countries and their children populating our country, our economy couldn’t function at all.

Our economy is very ethnically segmented to the point that it is ridiculous. You will see Gujarathi Indians managing a majority of Hotels throughout the United States.  South Indians and Chinese will be doing most of the programming jobs.  Mexicans will be doing a lot of the farm work, painting, gardening, and manufacturing.  Blacks are very prevalent in government jobs and sports.  Jews are dominant in the film industry, law firms, accounting, and the music industry.  In Los Angeles, Persians dominate the textile industry ownership. Gas stations are heavily owned by Punjabi Indians, Arabs, and other groups.  It sometimes seems that one or two ethnic groups is ASSIGNED to each niche in the economy, and without even one of the ethnic groups that makes up America were absent, that the entire country’s economy would grind to a slow and dismal halt.  On the one hand, having too many different groups creates a lot of divisions and discrimination. On the other hand, we would not be prosperous without this odd mixture of people.

If you travel to states where there are 85% or more whites, there is not much properity.  There is very little industry in white dominated areas like Montana, Idaho, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc.   States in the deep South are generally 70% white and 30% black, and they have very little going on economically either.  States like California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and a few others, that have a dynamic mixture of types of people seem to have thriving economies and are at the cutting edge of technological development as well. So, diversity is critical to America’s economic survival, but, what happens when diversity becomes the majority, and Americans with lineage here become an inconsequential minority?

What about the lack of Diversity in India?

INDIA is a country that has some diversity, but nothing like America’s.  There is a Hindu majority, and a Muslim minority which has a higher birth rate than the Hindus.  It seems clear that one day the Muslim population will outnumber the Hindus.  There are Sikhs, Janes, Parsis, Christians, and even 5000 Jews in India (most left to live in Israel recently).  But, these population groups are all Indian.  There is racial diversity in the sense that there are some very Aryan looking types in parts of the North and very Chinese looking types in Manipur and Assam. There is diversity in Caste, but modern day urban Indians do not do what their castes are supposed to do.  Most Brahmans don’t pray, most Kshetriyas don’t lead (or at least don’t lead properly), half of all Vysyas don’t sell anything, and perhaps the Sudras are still doing some actual work.  That is one out of four castes who is fulfilling their dharmic purpose in human existance.  But, beyond the superficial home-grown diversity, India has nothing like the diversity that America has.

Imagine an India with Asians. You would be able to get a REAL acupuncturist instead of the fakes that exist in most Indian metros.  You would be able to get real Thai or Chinese food, and not this fake Indianized Chinese food with soupy dishes and rice dishes that use basmati rice and too much pepper.  Imagine an India with a small population of white Americans.  White Americans would be a miracle for India’s middle management shortage.  The Indian economy would be revolutionized by just a few thousand Americans living there.  Imagine if India had people from other countries who started restaurants serving food from around the world.  Imagine if India had African-Americans who joined the Bollywood entertainment industry and shared their dance moves (Indians are borrowing these moves on their own by watching American videos in any case).  India would be five times as good if they had even a little bit of diversity.  Even if 1% of the population was a mix of foreign born people with something to share, it would be a miracle.

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