testing out ping.fm for simultaneous posting to my social networks
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The illegal immigration issue, in my mind, will never be understood without going to its core reason-for-being here at all.
It is this: the US, Europe, Japan and most of the developed world has entered into a negative population-growth stage and has been in this state for quite a few years. This negative-growth-state means that the population replacement factor has dropped to under 2.1 (which is 2.1 babies born to a woman. The .1 -in western world- covers infant deaths, etc.) You can read about this in the book "FEWER" by Ben Wattebberg.
Japan, Europe and the US have been experiencing a significant drop in population with Europe losing 100 million in next 20 (or so) years, and Japan really dropping in total population, and the US would too.
EXCEPT - it was decided, by people who have never put this decision into the public discourse (senior politicians, strategists and policy makers (you do not hear about) and, of course, big business), not to let this happen.
There is only one solution to this drop in population -and encouraging people to have more babies was not possible- to "allow" unlimited immigration to happen. In the US that is from the South, and in Europe it is from the "South" too. In our case, we get Central and South American illegal immigrants, and in Europe they get Islamic peoples (those being their "Southern" people-suppliers.)
You will notice that this issue just never actually gets addressed. It has other consequences of course. The US population was, 25 years ago, around 200 million (give or take) and now it is 350 million (or so) and that increase is almost entirely from illegal immigration. My guess is that it will continue until the US reaches 500 million total whereupon you will see -suddenly- a willingness to deal with it arise.
Aside from the tax-base for social security going up substantially, you get all sorts of other effects. The nation becomes a Spanish speaking country. The politics changes substantially, the overall demographics of the country goes through huge changes.
All of which is OK, I suppose. My exception being that we were never given the option to deal with this openly and above board.
At 500 million, you can guess at the impact that that level of population will have on the environment. At least DOUBLE the number of cars and highways and car-infrastructure. And, you can wander over all the other impacts which are huge.
I really appreciate your post. Japan is an extreme example of an aging population, which won't deal opening with the immigration issue. Yet their need to rely on outsiders will continue to grow as they age.
It is amazing what is happening in Europe, in the advent of the Euro and suddenly open borders. You have places like Ireland, which until recent times was more than 96% Irish, now being the home of people from other places.
I realize there are no easy solutions, but I come down on the side of conscious regulation towards creating an eventual borderless society.
The issue is akin to music companies wanting to stop illegal downloading; or publishers wanting to control rights. As Stewart Brand once said, "information wants to be free."
An imperfect analogy, I know, but people will find a way to go where the opportunities are. No amount of laws will stop them.
So, if we recognize that, the question is NOT how to facilitate this movement, but to regulate it responsibily, keeping the people who were born here safe and secure.
There are no easy solutions, but this issue will not go away any time soon.
2 comments:
The illegal immigration issue, in my mind, will never be understood without going to its core reason-for-being here at all.
It is this: the US, Europe, Japan and most of the developed world has entered into a negative population-growth stage and has been in this state for quite a few years. This negative-growth-state means that the population replacement factor has dropped to under 2.1 (which is 2.1 babies born to a woman. The .1 -in western world- covers infant deaths, etc.) You can read about this in the book "FEWER" by Ben Wattebberg.
Japan, Europe and the US have been experiencing a significant drop in population with Europe losing 100 million in next 20 (or so) years, and Japan really dropping in total population, and the US would too.
EXCEPT - it was decided, by people who have never put this decision into the public discourse (senior politicians, strategists and policy makers (you do not hear about) and, of course, big business), not to let this happen.
There is only one solution to this drop in population -and encouraging people to have more babies was not possible- to "allow" unlimited immigration to happen. In the US that is from the South, and in Europe it is from the "South" too. In our case, we get Central and South American illegal immigrants, and in Europe they get Islamic peoples (those being their "Southern" people-suppliers.)
You will notice that this issue just never actually gets addressed. It has other consequences of course. The US population was, 25 years ago, around 200 million (give or take) and now it is 350 million (or so) and that increase is almost entirely from illegal immigration. My guess is that it will continue until the US reaches 500 million total whereupon you will see -suddenly- a willingness to deal with it arise.
Aside from the tax-base for social security going up substantially, you get all sorts of other effects. The nation becomes a Spanish speaking country. The politics changes substantially, the overall demographics of the country goes through huge changes.
All of which is OK, I suppose. My exception being that we were never given the option to deal with this openly and above board.
At 500 million, you can guess at the impact that that level of population will have on the environment. At least DOUBLE the number of cars and highways and car-infrastructure. And, you can wander over all the other impacts which are huge.
We will not ever deal with this openly.
And so it is.
......
I really appreciate your post. Japan is an extreme example of an aging population, which won't deal opening with the immigration issue. Yet their need to rely on outsiders will continue to grow as they age.
It is amazing what is happening in Europe, in the advent of the Euro and suddenly open borders. You have places like Ireland, which until recent times was more than 96% Irish, now being the home of people from other places.
I realize there are no easy solutions, but I come down on the side of conscious regulation towards creating an eventual borderless society.
The issue is akin to music companies wanting to stop illegal downloading; or publishers wanting to control rights. As Stewart Brand once said, "information wants to be free."
An imperfect analogy, I know, but people will find a way to go where the opportunities are. No amount of laws will stop them.
So, if we recognize that, the question is NOT how to facilitate this movement, but to regulate it responsibily, keeping the people who were born here safe and secure.
There are no easy solutions, but this issue will not go away any time soon.
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