According to the World Health Organization, eleven of the twelve most polluted cities in the world are in India. I won’t get into the particulars of what where and the scientific calculations of parts per million, just know that India leads the world in the most polluted cities in the world. India’s water is not much better. Every day, sixty-three percent of untreated urban sewage in India flows directly into rivers, or, to put in understandable terms, sixty-two billion liters per day. Almost all of the rivers in India are polluted, even the sacred Ganges River, where swimming in the sacred holy waters is not recommended. India’s population is now at 1.2 billion, nearly double what it was just 40 years ago.
According to The Wall Street Journal of August 16, 2018, in 2016, 7 million young Indians applied for 8,300 entry-level public sector openings. Some of the applicants for municipal sweeper jobs were college graduates and even some with M.B.A.s. And you thought jobs in the U.S. were scarce. The Journal article described one Indian citizen named Vinay Singhal, who runs a company creating clickbait on Facebook aimed at Americans. (If you’re wondering, clickbait is: “on the Internet content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page.”) Other companies in India that employ hundreds of workers are companies that call unsuspecting Americans and tell them that the local police and the IRS are on their way to their door, but if they buy Apple iTunes gift cards and send them the codes, they will bribe the officials and stop the investigation. Apparently, these types of companies are just as legitimate, to the Indian officials, as your Microsoft and AT&T call center.
Half of India’s 1.2 billion population is under the age of 25. That is a lot of young people, most of whom do not care to stay in India, and who could blame them. The caste system of India has a lot to do with success; if you are born a Brahmin, your chances are good, if not of the Brahmin class, your odds, no matter what education you attain, are not good. From The Wall Street Journal: “The basic truth lurking behind these stories is that Indian society is not a meritocracy. It is a closed hierarchy controlled by a few who have led millions of people down a doomed path of false promises.” In her book “Dreamers,” Snigdha Poonam writes: “In this gated wonderland, no matter how hard you chase your dream, it’s always someone else who decides if it will come true.” That quote probably has some resonance with young, deeply in debt underemployed college graduates in the U.S. as well, who are not seeing doors open up for them just because they went to college, even when the college officials probably told them the degree was a ticket to a good-paying job.
The global culture is alive and well in India. Cable TV, the internet, and mobile phones make the citizens painfully aware of what life is like outside of India. From my childhood, I can still remember adults telling me that people were starving in India when I didn’t clean my plate of food. America has tried to help countries all over the world, and if you consider what the Americans give in terms of charity, few nations come close.
One of the misunderstood missions of America has been historically to have more countries like America, where everyone was free and there were many opportunities for everyone. America tried to make more countries like itself, so that citizens around the world would enjoy the freedoms such that America had, and, to some extent, to keep everyone who wants to be free from coming to America. The freedom enjoyed by American citizens is a part that a lot of critics of American foreign policy do not understand. While I realize that our foreign policy is insensitive to other cultures, it is the insensitivity of other cultures to their indigenous populations that motivates people to leave those cultures, such as those noted in the citations above. When someone with an MBA cannot get a job sweeping streets, you have an overqualified and underemployed population. No wonder they have no motivation to stay. There are too many countries to name that have millions of people who want to leave; whether or not being like the U.S. is a solution remains to be seen, but clearly, something is wrong with those countries.
India is the world’s largest democracy, at least in name, but they have not shaken off the caste system that makes the Jim Crow laws of America look like the etiquette rules of a finishing school. Yes, America has exploited other countries, with the full cooperation of a chosen few in those countries that obtained vast wealth. (China, among others, comes to mind.) Nonetheless, our purpose has been (allegedly) to bring democracy and freedom to all the countries of the world. It turns out that some countries aren’t interested in the type of freedom that America appreciates, or if you wish to entertain the alternate theory, that the wealthy elites of said countries have no interest in letting the proletariat get even the smallest taste of freedom or wealth. Fair enough for the elites, not really fair for the proletarians.
India’s population of 1.2 billion is a lot; in fact, it is several times the 350 million or so of the U.S. It appears that the government of India has not been dealing very well with its population or its pollution, so the next best thing to do if you are a citizen is to leave, and I am sure that the government will do everything but buy you the plane ticket out. But India, and I am not necessarily singling them out, and a lot of countries need to address the problems that they have created for themselves. The “outsourcing” of American labor that was so much cheaper in the past might soon become very expensive when the country (India or whatever country) has to actually prevent toxins from getting into the air, water, and landfills, and take care of its citizens.
What goes around comes around, and with industrial wealth comes industrial pollution, industrial diseases, and citizens crippled by industrial accidents and poisons. To say that having 1.2 billion citizens doesn’t contribute to the problem of pollution is foolhardy and ignorant. Outsourcing, that corporate money-saving revenue-generating panacea to all American corporate ills is watching the pigeons come home to roost. One of the major outsourcing countries will soon be facing an environmental crisis that it cannot ignore, and will have to pay for, no matter what. The Brahmins, being rich, won’t be able to push the costs on to the Untouchables, though the Untouchables will probably do the grunt work.
The global village (thanks to technology that wasn’t around when all the outsourcing began) is now watching remote parts of the village get poisoned, but there are fewer and fewer places to hide the ugly side-effects of industrialization. Soon enough, there won’t be anywhere to run, and the expenses will follow the outsourcers wherever they go. In the same vein, if you cannot supply clean air and water, you might consider adjusting your population, and not passing them around to other countries like an unwanted fruitcake; that goes much further than just India in terms of population. There a plenty of countries trying to shed their enormous, expensive, and unwanted populations; my reasoning for using India is the data is readily available, they are a powerful force in the U.S. economy, and, let’s face it, lots of them want to come to the U.S. By the way, recent reports have them coming in across the Mexican border.
It appears there are a lot of governments that are behaving irresponsibly and both dumping toxins and attempting to lose unwanted populations. Government accountability, even in the U.S., is sometimes hard to come by. Take, for example, the case of 13 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and find some government official who is willing to accept responsibility for them being here. I have only picked India out because of the massive scale at which the government has failed to protect the resources, water and air. While India doesn’t seem to be addressing overpopulation, that would seem to be a problem they might need to address sometime soon. Seven million applicants for 8,300 jobs would indicate a problem. The cries that these issues be addressed are out there. My prediction is that more people (citizens) and “significant citizens” who hold social or political power, will have to die, before one of the most polluted states on earth takes action. The later the pollution is addressed, the greater the payments for the solution. Outsourcers should look elsewhere, the cheap business environment is over.
India’s air pollution:
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17316978/india-pollution-levels-air-delhi
India’s water pollution:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/dying-waters-india-struggles-to-clean-up-its-polluted-urban-rivers
Comments
Indias population isn’t the problem. Her lack of values is. Hinduism and Islam leave her a wretched and woebegone nation. Christian nation’s should never limit their population.
Yet we would have redistributed billions to countries.
And people still don't get that Man-Made Climate change is a socialist hoax that is all about redistribution of wealth
An ever rising population will only make matters worst. Moreover, the relatively few that do get an education will be more than happy to come to the USA on HB1 Visas (and treated like garbage during the process) and work for a fraction of what Americans make.
Easy!
In a global world I reckon we need global solutions or we end up with mass migration.
We already have the US causing war in the Middle East in part (or at least an excuse) because people in that region have a value system will consider horrible and bizarre. Is the developed world ready for world war to bring the rest of the world in line? Try telling some rabid Iraqi that treating their women as a dog is wrong.
What we should be doing is reinforcing our own sense of values among ourselves. On the blunt side that means keeping people out that want to be in the US but want to bring and maintain their own values. In many ways I think what Trump has said is right. It may not be politically correct but he right on the money when he says Mexico is not sending their finest. They are sending mostly the unskilled (unemployable), criminals and lazy.
If your "culture" means beating or raping your wife, that is not only a violation of U.S. law, it is a violation of the principles upon which this nation was founded. If your culture means depriving people of another class the rights that the upper class has, that too, is a violation of both our laws and our principles. While we might have strayed from those principles at certain times, they are out present laws, and our present culture. While we appreciate other cultures, those that show obvious discrimination and outright violence towards those that they feel are "unworthy" are not welcome in the U.S. Diversity is one thing, violation of our laws and principles is quite another.
The U.S. isn't perfect, and I never said it was. It is just that, compared to the rest of the world, we're a pretty darn nice place to be, even if you are poor. One of the truths that someone once said was that the moment a foreign national steps foot on U.S. soil, they are potentially richer than they have ever been in their life. That is still true, and it cannot be said of many other nations, if any, on this earth. Thanks George.
Working for a large corporation in IT, we became very familiar with India and with working with Indians. After I retired and left, most of the SAP transactional and master data was done by Indian contractors. All in the name of saving money for the parent corporation. I hope they are happy with the service now - I no longer care about the results of my old corporation, especially since it no longer really exists.
WE HAVE A SITUATION!!!
THE CHILD IS TAKING OVER THE SITE!!!
Who brought Hitler to power? It was the Progressive Academic Idiot President Woodrow Wilson who ordered the abdication of the princes and monarchies of Germany and Austria! Nature abhors a vacuum. The Weimar Republic was based on America! It failed miserably! How did Americanism work there? America has attacked Catholic countries like Cuba and the Philippines. The first thing the barbarian Americans did in Catholic Philippines was ordering the separation of Church and State! America went purposely against Catholic Spain.
Americans are a wrecking ball throughout the world. You are not smart people but a very dumb idiotic people with the Jewish goal of Tikkun Olam---Fixing the World which came thru the Puritans which ended up as Yankeeism.
You write: "One of the misunderstood missions of America has been historically to have more countries like America,...." And that is why Macron and Merkel are flooding their countries with Third worlders and genociding their own people thru ethnic dilution!
Americanism is really Masonry.
It is hard to imagine a country more polluted than China. I've seen days where I couldn't see the apartment building next to mine. I've seen days where the numbers were literally off the charts, flashing 999. I've been inside malls where there was a haze. I've seen dead, diseased pigs floating down the Huang Pu river in downtown Shanghai.
They say a population explosion is coming to Africa and India. There will be a mass exodus like the world has never seen. Eurasia is about to be transformed. We'll see how long the idea of open borders last in Europe.
I think Mathus was correct about war, famine, and disease controlling the population. Technology has been able to keep us ahead of the curve. When it falls it, it will fail spectacularly.
China is rumored to have a solution; export two or three million Chinese to Africa. We may see how well colonialization redux works out.
China is now regretting the one-child policy. Couples can now have two. There is a rumor that limits will be scrapped altogether. Why? Not enough younger workers to support an aging population. China's population will go through a decline soon and it will hurt the country. GDP is largely dependent on population. When it declines, so will GDP.
India has wonderful demographics. It will have an abundance of workers for a long time. It will overtake China's economy in the not so distant future. Fortunately, the demographics are relatively favorable for the US, much better than its neighbors and Europe.
It's a never-ending cycle. India's bubble population will face having to support a huge population that will be getting older. Half of 1.2 billion is around 750 million people getting older and needing support, so then, they need another 750 million to support the old folks. As lifespans increase, productivity will increase as well, with older people working later into their lifetimes. We are already seeing that in the U.S. population.
Part of the problem with Greece's economy is that too many people took government jobs and retired with full benefits when they were in their early fifties, and all of those collecting government pensions strained their economy into the wreck that it is in now, with options such as cutting the government pensions, as there are few, if any, government alternatives. China's semi-capitalistic economic turnaround has boosted their economy and made it so that they can afford to import food for their huge population. They have to import it, because, as mentioned, they have 25% of the world's population on a small percentage of arable land. I'm not sure that any nation can procreate their way to prosperity. Thanks for your comments Leroy, that is a very interesting point.
India, which I visited this year, has huge problems with overpopulation which is resulting in mass poverty, environmental destruction and massive pollution. The streets are piled with rubbish and shit full of rats and everywhere is a mess of decay and filth. There are hovels and shanty towns all over the place and rivers are clogged with garbage and shit.
I visited China, where my daughter was living, and it is clean, wealthy and flourishing.
As has been witnessed everywhere, the more an economy improves the less children people have. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. One is the fact people are able to afford abortions and other forms of birth control.
The reason India’s economy has improved is because of outsourcing. The more foreign companies exploit India’s cheap labor pool, the more India advances economically. Because Indians speak relatively good English, they are increasingly relied upon for call centers and things like that. So if the environment and overpopulation is your concern, you should embrace this outsourcing with open arms. However, you clearly don’t…why?
Kristen, your comment: "The reason India’s economy has improved is because of outsourcing. The more foreign companies exploit India’s cheap labor pool, the more India advances economically." From the article: “The basic truth lurking behind these stories is that Indian society is not a meritocracy. It is a closed hierarchy controlled by a few who have led millions of people down a doomed path of false promises.” In her book “Dreamers,” Snigdha Poonam writes: “In this gated wonderland, no matter how hard you chase your dream, it’s always someone else who decides if it will come true.” That hardly sounds like a lot of economic opportunity. Slave wages never saved any country.
Kristen, your comment: "So if the environment and overpopulation is your concern, you should embrace this outsourcing with open arms. However, you clearly don’t…why? " From the article: "What goes around comes around, and with industrial wealth comes industrial pollution, industrial diseases, and citizens crippled by industrial accidents and poisons... Outsourcing, that corporate money-saving revenue-generating panacea to all American corporate ills is watching the pigeons come home to roost. One of the major outsourcing countries will soon be facing an environmental crisis that it cannot ignore, and will have to pay for, no matter what." Outsourcing was a temporary shift to try to avoid environmental regulations that increased costs. The environmental damage that the organizations didn't want to prevent is now poisoning India and other countries, and when the costs of cleanup and further environmental damage are added to the cost of production, outsourcing will no longer be profitable.
Thanks for your comments Kristen.
When they are qualified they head for the cash - the USA and West. They flee the shit.
As for your opinion on outsourcing, I see nothing wrong about impoverished Indians finally having a job. What you call slave wages, is a middle class life style in India. Of course corporations employ Indians to improve their bottom line, but those jobs do far more good for the Indian economy than any government tax and spend program. Accordingly, corporations should be commended for doing business in India on humanitarian reasons alone.
Often times, countries choose Americans to do their work. After all, in the world of high finance, if you need money, there is no better place than Wall Street. Which means our country is like an outsourced financial services firm. Kudos to America for capitalizing on and marketing some of the things we do best.