A billion or two of all white anglosaxon protestants are always welcome of course. Seriously though it's got nothing to do with race or religion. Actually forget about 2 billion people. How about 300 million - it's easy to find 300 million people in the world willing to move to America. So what are we going to do if the population effectively doubles overnight. Where are we going to get housing, roads, infrastructure, jobs, english language teachers, extra police, doctors, schools etc. If you believe trafic is a nightmare now imagine what it's going to be like when the population doubles. It will take years to absorb this number of people and I am not even talking about terrrorism and security. Of course the libertarian party and the article offering drastic proposals like "open borders" don't address any of these questions.
I don't think it would double overnight. For one thing, if we cut government services to zero, that reduces some of the demand, as that is a part of the incentive equation for some (though granted around 10% or so). As far as jobs, there have many many cases in history where a government was worried about a sudden, massive increase in the labor force and if there would be enough jobs. A good example was when the military troops came home after WW2 to private jobs. These jobs *did* virtually spring up overnight. It just naturally happens, since the new people have their own new demand for goods and services, as well as productivity to create other goods and services (eg value as an employee or entrepreneur). So for example, if our population doubled, McDonald's would see a major increase in food demand, and need to hire a ton of people, etc. Now where the wages fall depends on the supply and demand of their skills and most importantly productivity and education. I totally agree that if nearly all the immigrants have few skills and limited education, (and English language skills), their productive capacity is MUCH lower. We would still create jobs-- but in this case you are looking at creating a lot of say $5 - $10 / hour jobs.. unfortunately, as opposed to average or better wages. This could be a crippling problem if we still have government welfare.. but seeing as the Libertarian proposal goes hand and hand to removing welfare that isn't an issue. To phrase it another way-- ok so what if there are now 300 million more immigrants? If *you* aren't paying for them, does it matter? They live their lives and you live yours. As opposed to now, where citizens are subsidizing other people (both other Americans as well as immigrants, legal and illegal). No wonder there is hostility. But if you weren't forced to pay a cent to them (not saying you might give aid through charity), it might be another situation. Onto some other points like police, etc. With 300 more people, property taxes and other local and State taxes will be way higher-- and the states will have funds to add more police. Now here is a problem-- if the 300 million more people have much lower wages (due to productivity), then that can create some issues in the government sector jobs. Specifically, if that happens, then the budget for police can go higher since there are more people so more $ tax revenue, but it won't increase proportionally due to lower productivity-- so the average wages of police would go down. Looking at some of the other issues like doctors and utilities, the Libertarians would privatize these anyway, and higher demand would naturally cause an increase here. I do agree that if 300 million people came here overnight, you simply can't build now power generators in 1 day, it takes 3 years (I'm guessing). This does create some logistical issues. The price of electricity would probably temporarily go much higher, and millions of people simply wouldn't be able to have it. At first people would move to states with the highest unused capacity etc, but that would only go so far.. I agree that would create problems. Let's get to roads, and community planning in general. Honestly-- that is a mess even now in some cities, and I don't have a solution here. Much as I wish you could, I don't think you can quite privatize roads at this point without some major privacy issues at the very least, and many of the local governments can't seem to get it right. This probably would get really bad, and not sure what the answer is. I guess I'm agreeing with you in this particular case that a sudden doubling of our population would create major problems in this area. The final issue would be simply one of culture. Let's say the immigrants aren't spread out from all over the world, but instead 95% of them end up coming from Mexico for example. For me, I don't mind. But some people would, understandably, feel that the entire culture of the country was chaning virtually overnight. Such as that is 300 million new voters, let's say they use their votes to take away President's Day and create Fiesta as a national holiday (Btw I just went to a Fiesta in Spain and they are really fun). But culturally I can see how it could create friction. Personally, I admit I am Libertarian / Capitalist, and like their ideas, and I like the direction of this but I would do things a bit differently. I would first cut out most government services immediately, but still keep the border as it is. But then I would open up the borders-- slowly, perhaps over 5-20 years depending on what can be smoothly handled, so that the inflows aren't a problem. Consider the alternative.. at least with the Libertarians, citizens aren't paying the fruits of their labor for services for illegal immigrants as is the case now. That is the current situation. I do see some major problems with the Libertarian proposal-- for sure-- but overall I think it is an improvement, at least if done slowly. -Taric
Of course roberk. Right now, the West has a big problem on its hands. It's a problem of its own making. How did we get to those 'say 1 billion from China, 500 from India...'? It may help reading (some) of the prior posts. Dunno about getting out of this. nononsense gets truly scared hearing talk about 'The Final Solution'.
Where I live most of the latin illegals are skilled laborers. They make at a min $100 a day..TAX FREE. There kids go to public schools for FREE. They are there one month then gone the next..there presence does raise taxes considerably. I was talking to a real estate agent I know and he sold a 750k house to a legal mexican painter...you know how he is paying the mortgage...he is having 7 "friends" live with him....I am sure they aren't all legal. They have kids who will go to public school on my coin. All of these un accounted for people who don't pay taxes cause pressure on the local infrastructure. the crazy thing is without this labor alot of the tradesman would go out of business. In the morning by the 7 eleven they stand 100 deep waiting to be picked up for work and the local authorities turn a blind eye. I am all for immigration in a regulated fashion..open borders would lead to a free for all in the USA and diminish the lifestyle we have all come to know and love. Rant over.
Here is an idea... Make 1 of the States that borders Mexico an OPEN State. With unlimited foreign work permits. Then a lot of industries/factories can situate there. Cheap, control labor/immigration. Just a thought.
Excellent idea, you're a genious, richie for senator (i am not being sarcastic) new mexico maybe no one lives there. or nevada so they can spend all their money in las vegas. The problem is how do you prevent people to drive to california, texas etc. but it would definitely rise the cost of illegality... it would reduce illegals to almost zero... why living like an illegal in california while i can work, earn more and live legally in new mexico.
Well, at least you acknowledge that current libertarian open borders proposal is unrealistic and irresponsible. You certainly have a much more consistent and responsible approach - first dismantle all social services and then let them all in. And if some of them don't make it or experience temporary difficulties and they together with their children die on the streets from starvation or diseases - well tough luck, it's not our fault, we'll just walk over their dead bodies. Or maybe they will become criminals stealing food from local supermarkets. But what do we care, we're capitalists/libertarians, we'll be living in gated comunities.
I prefer if they used their votes to legally mandate Siesta. The Italians and Spaniards got it right.