America does not need more people to stay prosperous

Summary: One of the great lies that rules America is that we need more people to keep America prosperous. It is daft and so easily debunked. If only people were told …

Vision of a New America, as migrants swell our population.

“America desperately needs more legal immigration.”
— Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics at George Mason U (source).

Economists, like generals, tend to have their eyes focused on the past. Such as their belief that America’s prosperity requires a growing population. This is daft for several reasons.

First, more people means higher GDP. That means more profits for corporations. But it does not boost per capita GDP, which is what citizens care about. The nation might have higher income in aggregate, but average (esp. median) income might be lower.

Second, “immigrants” is not a meaningful category. Migrants are not identical cogs. America can use more highly educated people, and more people coming with capital. But this is not 1880 or 1920, with factories opening to employ unskilled workers at good wages. The US economy has little ability to absorb large hordes of uneducated, unskilled, poor people. Too many of these will boost our already too-large underclass, causing social problems that will last for generations.

Third, this ignores the new industrial revolution now in its early stages (more about that here). Workers in the service industries, farming, and manufacturing will be replaced by better algorithms, sensors, computers, robots, and smarter machines (i.e., semi-intelligent machines). Every sector will be affected, and job losses over time could approach those of the Great Depression (see this McKinsey study, which clearly sees the potential for massive job losses, but assumes on faith that new ones will appear to replace them).

Increased productivity means a better and richer nation if we can cope with rising unemployment. It is a political problem of fairly dividing the pie. The resulting rapid growth will help manage the national debt (as it did in the 1990s, before Bush Jr.’s tax cuts) and reduce the burden of paying for our retirement systems. Absorbing large numbers of migrants and their children (many children, due to their high fertility) will boost unemployment and exacerbate this long crisis.

In that future, a shrinking labor force will be a blessing. We can better educate our smaller labor force to match the new jobs, without a large number of socially disruptive unemployed people. We will have the incentive to lift people from the underclass. Fewer people plus less-polluting technology could radically reduce the burden on our environment. America and the world could become a high-tech garden.

Why recommend more immigration?

A constant through modern history is that business owners want immigrants as cheap labor. Increase the supply of labor, decrease its price. For example, hostility to Chinese immigrants in the 19th was worsened by their use as strike-breakers. Our plutocrats have little concern with the wider effects of massive immigration of people from failed states. : social disruption, rising social service costs, rising inequality, and lower wages for natives. Plutocrats find it easy to choose between open borders or the welfare State (we can have only one).

The Left sees that a massive flow of migrants will collapse our social systems, allowing them to rebuild on the ruins – and get votes votes votes. It is the fast track to their goal of a new America. Hence the strong support for open borders by the Democrat’s presidential candidates at the first debate (see the transcript).

Years of propaganda have convinced a large chunk of America that immigration is wonderful, no matter what the numbers or the type of immigrants. But we can learn. We can see the world clearly. We can organize and retake the reins of America.

Reality check

The extreme case of the “more people needed” madness is grossly overcrowded Japan. See Japan refuses to die, soon to become a 21st century star. Also see these posts about immigration, a key political battle of out time.

1. See the hidden history of immigration into America (it ruins the narrative).
2. Diversity is a grand experiment. We’re the lab rats.
3. The Democrats will open the borders & make a New America.
4. Prepare for mass migrants, the greatest challenge to America.
5. The Left goes full open borders, changing America forever.
6. Our rulers make a new people for America.
7. See prescient warnings about immigration, which we ignored.
8. Immigration is the key political battle of our time.
9. See the lies that keep the borders open.
10. The devastating economic effect of mass migration.

If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about immigration. and about the new industrial revolution.

Ideas! For shopping ideas see my recommended books and films at Amazon.

Three books about immigration, all well worth reading

See George Friedman’s (founder of Stratfor) prescient predictions about the American southwest in his 2009 book The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century. He describes where we’re going, facts too disturbing for most experts to say in public. This is a useful feature of such writing: since it is just guessing, we allow statements about the obvious that are politically or socially unacceptable (just as are, in a different way, statements by a court jester).

Europe is our future. If we act quickly, we can learn and avoid their mistakes. These two books provide clear warnings.

Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell (2009). See this post about it: About Europe’s historic experiment with open borders.

The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglass Murray (2017). See these posts with excerpts from the book: Martin van Creveld’s reaction to Europe’s rape epidemic. Warning of the “Strange Death of Europe”, and Strange perspectives on the challenges facing Europe.