One is simply whether, due to foreign capital, Indian people are better off than they were otherwise.
The second is whether you want to call profit-making exploitation. If you're in a miserable state and I come along with some capital and devise a way to make you slightly better off and myself much better off, is or is that not exploitation.
There is also the long v. the short run -- whether foreign involvement provides some temporary benefits while precluding healthy economic development over the long term.
Finally there is the TINA question. There may be three possible states of the world. One is the miserable, isolated state; two is foreign investment, maybe good temporarily, indefinitely, or never; and three is some kind of independent, development- oriented alternative.
mbs
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of Yoshie Furuhashi Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 11:18 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org; furuhashi.1 at osu.edu Subject: [lbo-talk] Imperialism & Exploitation
>[lbo-talk] Todd's serious question
>
>Hari Kumar wrote:
>
>>How to operationalise that in the era of globalisation?
>>[Should I say the current era of globalisation - to de-uniquify the
>>current ear?] - Iis a point that I submit, bears a lot of
>>discussion.
>
>Well, yeah. Here's a specific question: Ulhas says India is not
>exploited by imperialism - do you agree?
>
>Doug
>[lbo-talk] Is India Exploited by imperialism?
>
>Hari Kumar wrote:
>
>>Doug: "Well, yeah. Here's a specific question: Ulhas says India is
>>not exploited by imperialism - do you agree?
>>REPLY: In a word "No". (<no wink>). Now Grand Inquisitor - You are
>>the expert economist - tell me what you think is the answer to that
>>question. H
>
>Not inquisitor, but interviewer: I'm asking because I can't really
>make up my mind on this question.
>
>Doug
"Is India exploited by imperialism?" is a question that obscures class relations at the heart of the term exploitation in the Marxist sense. Shouldn't the question be something like, "Are Indian workers and peasants more exploited by capitalists and landlords in India and elsewhere because of imperialism?" or "Does imperialism help capitalists in India and elsewhere extract more surplus value out of Indian workers?" -- Yoshie
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