How can investment be a bad thing? Doesn’t it create jobs? Well, ok, investment is not always a bad thing, and yes, it can create jobs; but it is also not always a good thing, and it often erases more jobs than it creates. When you are talking about Foreign Direct Investment, you also have to bear in mind that whatever money those companies make, it flows out of your economy, not into it. Investment can often be like a syringe, you think it is being stuck into your arm to administer medicine, but it is actually just drawing blood.
And when investment comes through the process of privatization, that means services and utilities that are essentially there for the public welfare, and thus are the responsibility of the state, become profit-making enterprises. The decisions about these services will be made exclusively to boost profits and shareholder dividends, with no regard for the public interest. And these shareholders have shares in other companies, remember, so, their decisions will be made also to support the profitability of those companies as well. So, for instance, a road or a pedestrian overpass, will be built, not where it makes sense to build it, not where it can serve the interests of the population, but where it will benefit the interests of shareholders. So imagine what impact this type of thinking can have on matters of greater importance, like education, healthcare, food security, and access to energy and water?
Not only will the decisions be made by foreigners, and not only will the decisions be made for profit, but they will be made specifically to profit foreigners.
The IMF requires the government to cut public spending; that is, it requires to stop spending your money on you; and to instead spend your money making payments on international loans; these loans will primarily be spent supporting foreign investments, investments that will turn public services and utilities into private sector profit-making enterprises that will also take your money. They will also impose a VAT tax system which will raise the prices of consumer goods; taking more of your money. They will also severely devalue the currency, which means you will have to pay more for whatever you buy; taking more of your money.
When a multinational corporation moves in, remember, we are talking about institutions that have budgets bigger than some countries; local businesses cannot compete with them, and will go out of business. That means not only lost jobs, but lost entrepreneurs. While it is true that most multinationals pay higher wages than local companies, they are also generally more concerned about “efficiency”, which means laying off workers, and increasing the workload for retained workers.
Look, the way a country attracts foreign investors is by basically giving them everything they could ever want. Cheap labour, minimal regulations, access to acquire public sector enterprises, low or no local competitiveness, and basically carte blanche to do as they please. Essentially giving them total immunity, unaccountability, and practical sovereignty over the government.
So, no; Investment is not always a good thing