This is a tricky one.

People know the neoliberals are screwing countries with austerity, with debt & interest. That's easy to see.

But Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a key to the neoliberal Washington Consensus and it's harder to argue against. It's also a big part of Deng's reforms.

So what would you say to someone who says that global capitalism is good because it helps develop countries by direct investment?

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    FDI can be good when there is technology transfers

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/21/why-capitalism-is-leaving-the-us-in-search-of-profit/

    Second, unlike many other poor countries, China possessed the ideology and organization to make sure that investments made by capitalists served China’s own development plan and economic strategy. China required the sharing of incoming capitalists’ advanced technologies (in exchange for those capitalists’ access to low-wage Chinese labor and rapidly expanding Chinese markets). The capitalists entering the Beijing markets were also required to facilitate partnerships between Chinese producers and distribution channels in their home countries. China’s strategy to prioritize exports meant that it needed to secure access to distribution systems (and thus distribution networks controlled by capitalists) in its targeted markets. Mutually profitable partnerships developed between China and global distributors such as Walmart.