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USA isn't doing bad productivity wise in comparison with Asian countries. The hyper competitive nature of Korean especially society might be related to their really low fertility rate.
But I don't think that what Vivek is advocating is the Asian work model. They are looking to justify mass migration by claiming that workers are higher quality and willing to work for worse conditions and pay. The later is true, sometimes subsidized with welfare.
It isn't good for American workers if the norms change in that direction.
Since the claim is more about justifying 1. that is unavoidable. The massive economic elephant in the room in regards to migration is the discrimination against white Americans that was already a problem and would increase with more Indians migrants who have this narrative of their superiority, as a means of justification. This discrimination is part of the current situation, and caused in part by the influence of not only the migrants themselves who discriminate such as Indians who are especially nepotistic, but also of many who have this pro migration philosophy that is strongly associated with progressive stack type discrimination. See here as an example: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-black-lives-matter-equal-opportunity-corporate-diversity/
In relevance with 1: this blog addresses it in more detail: https://arctotherium.substack.com/p/increasing-skilled-immigration-is
But are the Japanese actually that much more hard working than Americans? This model might represent in part some Asian migrants or some Asian communities, and also in part just exaggeration.
I am not convinced it represents the "Asian" norm. There is something to it with Japan and Korea and some practices among some Asian migrants. But even then when it comes to Japan in particular, considering that Americans are hard working, I am not sure that Japanese are more hard working.
I would say that Americans are already a hard working people who choose to balance working longer and harder over vacations in comparison with the rest of the world. Including when comparing their practices with European countries. Even if there was some economic benefit in doing so, putting the balance even more in the work category seems to not be worth it considering the trade offs in other facets of life. This model is more related with bragging and the more desperate situation of migrants. But such people are also of lower human capital and also subsidized by welfare and benefit through discrimination policies.
But a part of this is due to oligarchs wanting cheaper labor who they can more easily get rid of. They might also desire to force workers in general to adopt these standards and bring wages down.
A culture that is too hyper competitive can also lead to people wasting time to prove superiority in internal competitions. If smart people have fewer children due to that then the end result is negative. Therefore, it would be a bad idea to adopt such norms.
There is actually a potential, like some of them did in the past, for a left that isn't anti-native, to take the side of its own native labor. I am not a leftist economically, but there is a balance to this. Certainly 8 hour week and some level of worker rights is not valueless.
Historically there was slavery but there were also even children that weren't slaves working in abysmal conditions and dying in the industrial revolution. While a balance that allows productive work over laziness is good, it isn't a good idea to allow oligarchs to push for norms further in the direction of desperate workers willing to accept terrible working standards.
Supposedly, very hypothetically, H1B workers are legally required to make prevailing wages. It's explicitly not a wage suppression scheme. But, I have had horrible conversations with such workers in which they say they would never ask for a raise.
In my practical experience it seems like a wage suppression scheme. Also they can't easily change jobs and if they quit they get deported. So it really seems like a scheme targeted at people like me.
Increasing labor supply drives down the prevailing wages in and of itself (else being equal).
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From a certain point of view, labour provided on the cheap IS higher quality labour. If I can hire someone to do 90% of the work for 70% of the cost, I may be able to either accept my 90% as is or use some of the saved resources to get me to the full 100%. This is an abstraction and may not work in all cases, but that's the general idea.
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