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LadyEllen -> RE: more than half of new jobs go to migrants (11/1/2007 5:30:59 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: RealityLicks
LE, actually, he was extremely selective in which of my points he answered. Some answers were good granted, some were just "well, I prefer it in Belgium" which is more an opinion in my book.
I'm not saying that everything is perfect here. What I am saying is two-fold:
1, we must be doing something right if we have the world's fifth largest economy.
2. our future will not rely on the manufacture and sale of widgets.
The view from your perspective is necessarily partial. What we export most lucratively now doesn't always leave the country in trucks and containers. It's expertise. It's ideas. It's speculative investment. All the Chinese companies that export here have British partners, I'll stake money.
Why do 350,000+ young French people live in the UK, with 15,000 of their compatriots joining them every year? These are mostly graduates in their 20's and 30's. What do they see that you don't? (and that's an old figure - its almost certainly gone up).
Thing is, no-one is really in control. They only wish they were. But to blame anyone (gov'ts, bosses) is to accord them more status than they own.
Hi
We may have the world's fifth largest economy. But this seems to be based on a very narrow range of activities is my problem - many of which are easily transferable, which would send us spiralling down the charts. The main earners for the UK as a whole appear to be banking and financial services - easily transferable, and oil production and processing - a resource which by all accounts is set to disappear. But I will give the media aspect, where we are a world leader - but do we really think that more than a handful of people compared to the population, can earn from that?
My next problem is that whilst yes, Chinese exporters have partners here, what they are earning in terms of national wealth is very little - and very little in terms of the proportion of the money involved, since all they provide is peripheral services which necessarily must earn less than the products' value. If we see the UK as a household, then what we are essentially doing is eating Chinese takeaway every night, but not going out to work to earn the money to pay for it, rather we are slowly handing over the keys to our house by way of the credit we are running up with the takeaway. We're happy for now - we eat well every night. The Chinese are happy - they have payment forthcoming. But unless we are earning the wealth to pay in cash, we shall lose our house.
My issue is that we need a balanced economy which does not leave us exposed to the whims of international commerce as we are now. If our EU competitors can achieve this, then I wonder why we cannot given all the innovation and expertise at our disposal?
The reason for young French workers being here is twofold at least; French employment laws which protect workers and make employers reluctant to take people on, and the language aspect - which is a driver which brings all manner of immigrants here; the ability to speak English as the language of worldwide business being highly prized - makes one wonder why we dont do more of it ourselves.
E
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