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This phenomena is why I'm strongly pro-immigration. Speaking as an American, I want there to be more Americans. We're not making them ourselves so we need to
by Causality1 7y ago
This phenomena is why I'm strongly pro-immigration. Speaking as an American, I want there to be more Americans. We're not making them ourselves so we need to import. The more we import now, the better since the current population is both younger and more numerous than it will be in a few decades when we'd actually need the imported population. Doing it now means the Americanization of the immigrants will be more complete. We should bring them in and turn them American while we still have the numbers and dynamism to do so.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y agoWhy do you want there to be more Americans? Is there some advantage to more people living in the geographical region? Are you hoping that it will allow certain aspects of the culture to spread / persist? If the latter, would it be as good to cultivate those things at home and allow them to spread on their own merit? Or do you prefer for more people to exist under the national banner for its own sake?
- Causality1 7y agoAll of the above. More Americans puts us in a better position to compete against China and India, and we can't expect our technological superiority to give us an edge forever. My view is of course biased, but I sincerely believe the world would be a crueler place were Chinese culture and military power to replace American cultural popularity and military power.
- theworld572 7y agoSo I guess you want immigrants but not Chinese immigrants then? Otherwise they would bring their cruel culture to America?
- ttugrq 7y agoI'm an American and I want there to be enough nurses and orderlies in American nursing homes when the time comes that I need them.
- justaguy500 7y agonot a population problem, wage problem
- lotsofpulp 7y agoI’d rather go quietly into the night when the time comes that I’m not self sufficient (via assisted suicide). Perhaps that’s wishful thinking, and I won’t have the mental fortitude at that time.
- Noumenon72 7y agoAlso likely, "culture of life" virtue signallers will prevent you from doing what's right for you by nudges that make suicide difficult, painful, and illegal. Part of your plan should be to support assisted suicide politically. For example, Neil Gorsuch wrote a book advocating against euthanasia, making him one of the worst Supreme Court picks I can imagine. https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8317.html https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8317.html
- 0xfaded 7y agoI'm Australian, have lived in the US, and now live in Denmark. I'm also pro immigration, both for skilled and unskilled workers. However Non-Western (as defined by the Danish Ministry of Statistics) has been financially costly for the welfare state, and the assumption that unskilled immigrant descendents will (as a whole) outperform their parents has not been realized. There's blame on both sides. Denmark doesn't do a stellar job of integrating outsiders despite ample funding. Likewise there are cultural incompatibilities, such as the handshake-citizenship debacle in a country that has arguably the closest gender equality in the world. My personal lesson is that immigration is really complicated. I truly believe people should be free to move wherever to realise their maximum potential. But in holding this standpoint you must acknowledge the very real costs incurred. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to
- Causality1 7y agoTrue, but I was primarily thinking of immigration from Western nations like Mexico and even Europe. It's surprisingly hard for, say, a British person to move permanently to the US. I'd like to see that changed.
- em500 7y agoEvery Western nation has sub-replacement fertility rate now. Mexico is still slightly above, but will likely go below in the coming decade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Total_Fertility_Rate,_1950_-_2100,_World_Population_Prospects_2015,_United_Nations.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Total_Fertility_Rate,_195...
- simplecomplex 7y agoBy definition welfare is a net loss. Otherwise it wouldn’t be needed. How can it be bad for immigrants to get more than they put in, but not citizens? The “immigrants will get more out of welfare than they put in” is exactly how welfare is supposed to work!
- guerrilla 7y ago
- malandrew 7y agoI'm strongly pro skilled immigration. Automation is going to leave a lot of unskilled people unemployed and that will lead to civil unrest.
- BubRoss 7y agoAutomation is not new, it has been happening since the printing press, the cotton gin and the assembly line.
- toasterlovin 7y agoI’d prefer to reserve as much of the country for my own descendants as possible, thanks. That’s what this country is: territory that our ancestors have bestowed upon us so we can have a place to live. We should do the same for our descendants, instead of just giving it away to whoever wants it. The rest of the humans on this planet already have their own countries.
- ttugrq 7y agoToday's immigrants are the future other grandparents of your future grandchildren, or great grandparents of great grandchildren. If you doubt it, look a few generations back in your family tree.
- toasterlovin 7y agoNobody needs immigrants to have ancestors for their descendants. However you slice it, immigration increases competition for the future citizens of this country.
- 0wis 7y agoI’d prefer to reserve as much of the planet to my own descendants. Immigrants may use more some infrastructure of your country but overpopulation surely use more the planet. By allowing immigration, you increase chances for immigrants to be more educated and therefore reduce the overall birth rate.
- toasterlovin 7y ago> By allowing immigration, you increase chances for immigrants to be more educated and therefore reduce the overall birth rate. How do the people who immigrate here affect the behavior of people in the countries they left behind? Why would they not continue having too many children?
- yesenadam 7y ago>The rest of the humans on this planet already have their own countries. Do you not see the historical irony? Your (presumably European) ancestors had their own countries too. So did the inhabitants of the Americas before white people arrived there from 'their own countries'.
- Nyandalized 7y agoWhy are you not making them yourselves? If it's because of economics, it clearly indicates unsustainable growth. The only thing immigration would support is below-livable wages.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoWe should bring them in and turn them American while we still have the numbers and dynamism to do so. Which implies American levels of consumption and environmental damage.
- newvoiceoldphne 7y agoI think we need to slow the pace of immigration, to preserve our culture.
- sambal 7y agoYou don’t have a culture if it doesn’t change, you have an ideology.
- Yetanfou 7y ago...but if you import an ideology into your culture you'll end up with escalating conflict. The refusal to see this has created something more akin to a powder keg than a melting pot (to paraphrase the old moniker) which has the - already partly realised - potential for some serious destruction.
- guerrilla 7y agoYou realize all of the larger cultures on Earth are melting pots, right? Sweden, France and Germany each by themselves are cultural mutts, for example. To deny this is to deny history and archeology.
- Yetanfou 7y agoThe "melting pot" idea of multiculturalism has been proven to be inaccurate, a better term for the way things actually work is a "salad bowl" - just search on "melting pot or salad bowl" to read more on this subject. The example of Sweden is indicative of what I tried to convey as it has made the "salad bowl" concept part of its constitution which states that the country should "actively promote the distinctive collective identities of national minorities and immigrants" ([1] gives some insight in how things came to be like the way they are in Sweden). In the space of a few decades the country went from being one of the most homogeneous on earth to a boiling kettle of contrasting and often clashing cultures to which the term "mutt" - a mixed breed which has characteristics of all its predecessors - is not applicable as the constituent cultures mostly hold to their own. It is at the interfaces between those cultures tensions arise, sometimes between native Swedes and immigrants but more so between different groups of immigrants. [1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt20q22fw.13 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt20q22fw.13 ("The Political Dynamics of Multiculturalism in Sweden")
- alfromspace 7y agoNo thanks. I don't want there to be more Americans, I want there to be a better quality of life for the Americans that exist now and their descendants. I don't see how it figures that more people packed into the same territory competing for a dwindling pool of resources is good for my country, even if the hundreds of millions of newcomers are eventually "Americans". I support controlled immigration when it benefits our country, but immigration for the sake of growing our population seems monumentally foolish. Housing, education, and healthcare are already scarce resources - let's focus on how to build our country into a better place to live for the people who are already vested in the system. In before "they'll pay for our pensions!" - debunked, more like "we're already paying for their food, housing, clothing, education, healthcare, and children", at least when it comes to illegal immigrants. Also, for the environmentally-conscious - people moving here, a high per-capita carbon emissions country, from low per-capita carbon emissions country, is contributing to climate change. It's very frustrating to see publications from Wapo, to Time, to NatGeo encouraging Americans to stop having children to fight climate change, while simultaneously supporting high levels of immigration that contribute very significantly to increasing our population.
- tathougies 7y agoProblem 1: who would want to come to a country where they can be indoctrinated not to have babies? Problem 2: it is unethical for rich people to depend on the fertility and then parental obligations of poor people in order to produce new people who will then be taxed to pay for the sterile old rich person. That is asking someone else to do all your hard work for you for free.
- fallingfrog 7y ago“..new people who will then be taxed to pay for the sterile old rich person. That is asking someone else to do all your hard work for you for free.“ Um do you live here? That is basically how the economy works.
- guerrilla 7y agoOne cannot conclude an "ought" from an "is" without further assumptions.