Are workers a resource or a burden...?

Brown_Bear

During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain (including the Berlin Wall) was built to keep workers in Eastern Europe (rather than to keep NATO forces out).
With lower wages, the communist govts in Eastern Europe viewed workers and their labour as a resource to be kept.

Now we have the USA and the UK keen to keep healthy immigrants of working age out.

So are workers a resource or a burden to a country?

Thrugelmir

Brown_Bear wrote: »

During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain (including the Berlin Wall) was built to keep workers in Eastern Europe (rather than to keep NATO forces out).

Post war there was little work or housing. Unlikely to be the explanation for the curtain.

Brown_Bear

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Post war there was little work or housing. Unlikely to be the explanation for the curtain.

In Eastern or Western Europe?
Or both?
Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

martinthebandit

OP You may want to read the attached link, it will probably help you have a better understanding of why the 'iron curtain' was put in place by Stalin

http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/history/why-did-stalin-build-the-iron-curtain.html

Brown_Bear

martinthebandit wrote: »

OP You may want to read the attached link, it will probably help you have a better understanding of why the 'iron curtain' was put in place by Stalin

That writing style looks quite poor for A-level.
Is it genuine?

Anyway, regardless of the origins of the 'Iron Curtain', by the 1960s-70s the issue was one of economic migration west. I don't think many would dispute this being the reason for the Berlin Wall.

Pennywise

Brown_Bear wrote: »

So are workers a resource or a burden to a country?

Depends on the "type" of person. Some workers are a resource, i.e. those who are productive and useful, others are a burden, i.e. those who are incompetent or untrained or lazy.

chris_m

I think they must be a resource, because I don't recall our Personnel department being renamed to the Human Burdens department - although some of the people working in that department could have been described as the latter

Brown_Bear

Peter Schiff discussed this topic in a recent podcast.

Thrugelmir

Brown_Bear wrote: »

In Eastern or Western Europe?
Or both?
Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

For example. 70% of housing in Germany was destroyed in the war. Around 85%-90% of Warsaw was completely flattened.

People weren't in a position to move around. There was no infrastructure. Roads, trains, bridges. Nor any jobs to go to. Work was to rebuild from a position of having nothing.

sevenhills

chris_m wrote: »

I think they must be a resource, because I don't recall our Personnel department being renamed to the Human Burdens department - although some of the people working in that department could have been described as the latter

It is a very biased question; should it have asked about people or immigrants?
Immigration is a posative to our economy in the long term, in the short term more people going for the same job/house can be detrimental.
More people is also bad for our environment, people object to developers building on greenbelt land, so where will they build the houses?
When they do build the houses, there will be some in unsuitable places such as flood plains, the environmentalists tell us that our planet is 3 times over-populated, they are correct.

Brown_Bear

sevenhills wrote: »

It is a very biased question; should it have asked about people or immigrants?
Immigration is a posative to our economy in the long term, in the short term more people going for the same job/house can be detrimental.
More people is also bad for our environment, people object to developers building on greenbelt land, so where will they build the houses?
When they do build the houses, there will be some in unsuitable places such as flood plains, the environmentalists tell us that our planet is 3 times over-populated, they are correct.

No - the question was specifically about workers (be they immigrants or native born).
People / immigrants could include pensioners etc who are not workers.