5 ms·

Walls are an effective strategy to control where the battle happens rather than an attempt to keep the battle from happening at all. The point of the wall isn'

Walls are an effective strategy to control where the battle happens rather than an attempt to keep the battle from happening at all. The point of the wall isn't to stop people from crossing the border. It's to slow them down enough to make the CBP response time smaller than the crossing time. Beyond the political aspects of this there are actually some thoughtful reasonable arguments for it. The people in CBP who want to build this thing know that people will break sections of it, but they can't break the entire thing down. So it concentrates the border crossings into smaller areas. The intent wasn't to build it and then not defend it.

SolaceQuantum 8y ago
OK. I'm 100% with you on this reasoning. I'd like to ask if the cost is worth it. I've seen speculation with 'build the wall' that it would be enormously expensive to build and then even more expensive to man and maintain. I've also seen speculation that migrants are actually good for USA (benefits the reduced birth rate, bigger tax base, migrant work willing to do labor americans wont do, the potential for children born to benefit the economy)...
- Consultant32452 8y ago
  A wall is less expensive to maintain than putting more people there. Increasing the pool of unskilled labor is good for some parts of the economy. It's great for me because I'm wealthy. It's bad for the American poor because it depresses their wages and aids in fighting against unions.
  - SolaceQuantum 8y ago
    > A wall is less expensive to maintain than putting more people there. Is this actually true, given that walls must also be manned, regularly maintained, repaired, etc? > It's bad for the American poor because it depresses their wages and aids in fighting against unions. Is this actually true? I'm really not educated myself on the matter. Do you have sources, studies, etc?
    - Consultant32452 8y ago
      Physical barriers tend to funnel migrants to areas without barriers. This means you need fewer people where the barriers are. Illegal immigration hurts the poor while generally helping the broader economy. Specifically, minorities and people without a high school education get their wages suppressed. Here's an article by a Harvard PhD economist. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinto...

SolaceQuantum 8y ago

OK. I'm 100% with you on this reasoning. I'd like to ask if the cost is worth it. I've seen speculation with 'build the wall' that it would be enormously expensive to build and then even more expensive to man and maintain. I've also seen speculation that migrants are actually good for USA (benefits the reduced birth rate, bigger tax base, migrant work willing to do labor americans wont do, the potential for children born to benefit the economy)...

Consultant32452 8y ago
A wall is less expensive to maintain than putting more people there. Increasing the pool of unskilled labor is good for some parts of the economy. It's great for me because I'm wealthy. It's bad for the American poor because it depresses their wages and aids in fighting against unions.
- SolaceQuantum 8y ago
  > A wall is less expensive to maintain than putting more people there. Is this actually true, given that walls must also be manned, regularly maintained, repaired, etc? > It's bad for the American poor because it depresses their wages and aids in fighting against unions. Is this actually true? I'm really not educated myself on the matter. Do you have sources, studies, etc?
  - Consultant32452 8y ago
    Physical barriers tend to funnel migrants to areas without barriers. This means you need fewer people where the barriers are. Illegal immigration hurts the poor while generally helping the broader economy. Specifically, minorities and people without a high school education get their wages suppressed. Here's an article by a Harvard PhD economist. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinto...