Thursday, February 6, 2014

They Are on the Run

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/rich-chinese-fleeing-australia-u-s-2D12051630
 
More than half of all multimillionaire Chinese have left or plan to leave China to immigrate to countries such as Australia and the United States in search for a better life. Australia's new visa program that launched a little over a year ago has already granted 65 visas to Chinese millionaires. This visa program has brought in already $325 million to the Australian economy and plans to exceed $3.5 billion a year. U.S., U.K., Spain, Portugal, the Caymans, and Gambia all plan to attract wealthy Chinese. Even though many countries plan to obtain wealthy Chinese, this does not necessarily mean that more jobs will be created for these economies. In the United States a foreigner that wants to obtain a green card must invest at least $500,000 in a U.S. business that creates at least ten jobs for that business . In European countries all that is required is that immigrants that want to obtain citizenship must invest 500,000 euros into domestic property. In Australia, immigrants that plan to require citizenship do not even have to create domestic jobs. All that is required is that applicants invest in financial markets or bonds.

This flooding of wealthy China-men may lead to an increase in money supply to the economies they are investing into, but does not necessarily mean that these economies will be better off. Since Australia began its visa program, the government has been cracking down on poorer immigrants and not allowing them to come into the country. This crackdown may cause a deficit of unskilled labor in the country. Without enough unskilled labor these wealthy Chinese coming into the country may not receive adequate goods and services to remain comfortable.

Lastly what will become of China's economy if all the wealthy begin to move out of the country?  Their population is already the highest in the world (1.4 billion people) along with a giant amount of poor and underclass. Less jobs will be sustained because the wealthy business owners will be gone. If all the rich begin to move out and the money supply continually decreases, I predict given these indicators, that China's economy and GDP will have a very volatile downfall in the near future.

4 comments:

  1. I feel as if its a bit of a long shot to assume that Chinese millionares will definetly invest within the economy of a country. China has generally been known to be a repressive society and millionaires who can afford it may just be looking for a way out of that. What good will it do to these foreign economies if these millionaires decide to continue doing business in China from abroad rather than re invest in their own nation?theres too many loopholes in this visa granting policy for it to ever function properly in terms of enticing the incredibly rich.

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  2. I would say that I agree with Sarim. I do not think that every Chinese millionaire who emigrates will invest in the economy that they move to. These people are leaving in search of a better life because they can afford to. Some of them may emigrate, lock their money up in savings accounts and retire. These millionaires may also invest their money in precious metals or other goods that will retain and appreciate in value. This may bring great benefit to the investor, it however will not have any effect on the economy. I believe that China's economy will be effected if a numerous amount of their wealthy citizens emigrate.

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  3. These types of visas that only require an investment of a large sum is certainly nothing new. In the early 1990s, Countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand had taken advantage of wealthy immigrants in hope to grow their economies. I do not think this type of immigration will be long lasting as a review of history can show that immigration mostly come in waves. Although it is true that the wealthy Chinese immigrants may not necessarily continue to invest in large sums in the economy, by living in that country, their consumption is already contribution to the growth of the economy, especially if they are wealthy and have money to spend.

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  4. I tend to agree with the 3 commentator above. I also think that the issuing of visa has a deeper philosophical meaning to setting goals in life. It encourages you to strive for extreme financial success to improve your social - economics - environmental surroundings if you know what I mean.

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