The US in fact seems quite relaxed about it. From an economic standpoint, why is that? Is there no good path for the US vis a vis India to take further action to defund Russia's ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine?
I thought I would this here, because my question is economics focused, and I want to pose this question far from the madding crowd, and his place is like a library where you can hear a pin drop.
And yes, my googling on the subject has not come up with much that is illuminating on the subject. The press does not do well with economics in general. It's all just too abstract for the poli sci and journalism majors methinks.
Well the question is where would they get the oil they would lose from dropping RU oil? Is there another country that can provide India with the same amount of oil at a cheap price? This is something I wish a lot of Democrats could understand: not every society can transition to 100% clean energy by the year 2050 or whenever save for a technology revolution in energy production. Many of these clean sources still require "backup" sources so right now honestly Obama's goal of 80% renewables is way more realistic.
India needs the oil. But India also has a host of environmental issues of it's own. Therefore, how about instead of taking an all or nothing approach, instead of making demands, we make them an offer: In exchange for reducing dependence on (but not getting entirely rid of) RU oil the US gives targeted foreign aid to alternative energy development and pollution mitigation efforts in India? We clearly have more than enough money that we don't have to keep funding things and our Foreign Aid budget (excluding military obviously) is actually around 1% or less of our national budget.
And who knows? If we implement a plan like this and it helps at least reduce the amount of pollution and sewage in the water in India and these results are to the extent that they are obvious maybe this could encourage even a lot of otherwise reluctant people in this country to back further funding of green infrastructure in this country? I mean sometimes Americans have to see how something works out in another country before getting on board. Like why do folks think Universal Healthcare has a higher approval rating than most US politicians? It's not merely because our healthcare system is a crony capitalistic joke, it's because they've read up on it and they know it works in other countries!
Post World War II we enacted the Marshall plan in Europe and basically did several similar things. We funded the redevelopment of many industries in war torn Europe and helped it recover back to a modern state of development after said horrific war. Before that we provided the USSR with many millions of dollars of military equipment and other resources to help keep the Nazis at bay. I think overall it is best to know who your true enemy is and to try to make the friend of your enemy your friend. A pro heavy foreign aid agenda with emphasis on infrastructure services and other positive friendly aid has a proven success record by our government.
Threats, demands, etc., at least from what I've seen over the past several decades, only makes less powerful nations
resent us.