Roundtable
Dear Robert
Just for the sake of argument, suppose that every Latin American, African, Asian and European with a university degree settled in the US, that would have have disastrous conseqeunces. The average income of Americans would go down, prices of real estate would go up, traffic congestion would be worsened. It would be the result of qunatity, not quality.
In immigration, quantity as well as quality matters. The more people there are in a country, the lower the capital/labor ration and the lower the ratio of natural wealth to population will be.
Economists often write as if all there is to an economy is capital and labor, but ultimately all wealth is natural wealth. Without fish in the oceans, the best fishing equipment and the most skilful fishers can't produce any fish. Without fertile land, even the best tractors and brightest farmers can't produce food. Manufacuring should be seen as the transformation of raw materials into goods. No raw materials, no manufacturing.
Very well, if the population increases, everybody becomes poorer in terms of natural wealth. If the US population goes from 300 to 400 million, then Americans will on average own 25% less fertile and and 25% less fossil fuels. It is amazing how so many people in the US can worry about dependency on imported energy without realizing that immigration-induced population growth will only increase that dependency.
In Canada, there seems to be total blindness about the relation between population and CO2 emissions. Obviously, the more immigrants you take in, the harder it becomes to keep CO2 emissions below a certain level. Incredibly, it isn't obvious to the Canadian establisment.
Regards. James
"It is possible that Dominicans, though legal immigrants, may also have a high crime and gang rate, but I am not aware of Dominicans blighting entire sections of cities. Dominicans in the US do not seem to be a horrible problem."
Well then, take a look at a huge stretch of Upper Manhattan (i.e. Washington Heights and Inwood) - not to mention most of the Bronx. Many of these were quite liveable and relatively crime-free neighborhoods until the flood of Dominicans in the Mid-1960s and beyond. The 2 Manhattan areas are only improving today (in terms of lowered crime, better services etc.) because of their increasing gentrification - as whites and Asians priced out of other neighborhoods are finally moving back in at the direct expense of the Puerto Rican and Dominican residents who have predominated for so long. This has not yet happened in any meaningful way in the still Latino and Black -dominated borough of the Bronx - which remains the poorest and most socially dysfunctional area of New York, largely untouched by the massive gentrification that has taken over virtually everwhere else.
Thx Honest Guy. I will incorporate this information into my post.
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