Is immigration the ticket to a new age of peace and prosperity like so many free market libertarians tout?

Is immigration the answer to our falling birth rates? Is it the best way to keep our youth competitive in the global marketplace? Is it the path to economic growth and continued freedom?

Or like many paleoconservatives claim, is it the road to national and cultural ruin? The end of liberty as we know it?

Or as many environmentalists say, is population reduction part of the answer to our environmental problems? To energy scarcity? To suburbanization of the hinterlands? Are too many people the problem?

Or will these arguments be proven to be an alarmist fraud, like the 1968 book “The Population Bomb” where Paul Erlichman wrote, “the United States would see its life expectancy drop to 42 years by 1980 because of pesticide usage, and the nation’s population would drop to 22.6 million by 1999 ^[1].

For some reason people love to believe everything is going to hell, but I am skeptical about predictions of cultural collapse and massive eco-disasters, because there have been so many chicken little warnings in the last century, and not one has come to pass. I am even more skeptical of these catastrophic predictions when the only solutions are higher taxes, protectionism, increased police power, and more government regulations.

However, I don’t claim to have a crystal ball, and I will make no predictions in this post. But in our lifetime (the next 40-60 years) we will find out who was right, the warnings of alarmists or the optimism of libertarians.

Japan’s population is declining and they refuse all immigration for protectionist reasons. We will clearly see what happens to their economy and society. To a lesser extent, we will see the same in Russia and most of Europe. And for the first time, without war or natural disaster, we will see the rapid depopulation of major economic powers.

On the flip side, the U.S., Australia, U.K., Ireland, and Canada have liberal immigration policies which are unlikely to change soon. So we will see the populations of these countries explode. Some predictions show the US having over a billion people in less than 100 years.

I tend to favor liberal immigration policies, if the folks seeking our way of life embrace the idea of individual liberty and freedom and if they are here to build a better life and not to get a handout. Most of the complaints I hear about immigration in America are really complaints about our social welfare system. People complain that immigrants are draining our school system and our social services. Which leaves me asking the complainers…

Have you considered the possibility that immigrants aren’t the problem, but instead, that our school system and our social services are? It isn’t just immigrants who drain these systems. Have you considered the possibility that large swaths of humanity do not value things which are ‘free?’ If people had to pay for education and it was voluntary not compulsory, don’t you think they would value it more? There is little we could or should do about people desiring the freedom our nation provides, but there is much we can do about giving away ‘freebies.’

But I digress.

We live in fascinating times, and I am optimistic about our future. And I can’t wait to see our world evolve.

What do you think about these topics?

Sound off.