Several of my friends were annoyed that Michael Lind’s profile of me failed to mention my open borders advocacy. They should be happy, then, that this piece makes the libertarian/open borders connection crystal clear. Lind even says this:
If progressives really believe that the U.S. should become the only
sovereign country in the world that does not assert the right to
regulate entry to its territory and participation in its labor markets,
they should team up with the only other tiny sect in America that
believes in open borders: right-wing libertarians.
A left-right open borders team-up isn’t just a great idea; it would make a great comic book. Won’t someone please draw me a cover?
READER COMMENTS
David R. Henderson
May 27 2014 at 11:21am
I have zero drawing skills. My daughter’s skills surpassed mine when she hit 3rd grade. I also have only a 1950s/60s knowledge of superheroes. So, given that, how about Bryan in a Superman costume and Ezra Klein as Mighty Mouse?
MikeP
May 27 2014 at 12:09pm
Holy cow. Michael Lind addresses the arguments that open borders — and outsourcing as well — helps people who are much poorer than poor Americans with nothing but ad hominem. He doesn’t address the arguments at all!
Using exactly identical logic, he would have been right at home writing pro-Apartheid screeds in South Africa.
Brandon Berg
May 27 2014 at 12:19pm
With the left and right wings working together, I think this could really take off.
shecky
May 27 2014 at 1:01pm
Progressives often seem to be all over the map on immigration. On the one hand, they seem to be sympathetic to immigration liberalization as a sort of act of mercy. At the same time, there’s a protectionist impulse that seems to slightly embarrassingly spill out when giving some thought to how non selective immigration might affect welfare sustainability. Not surprisingly, there seems to be complete absence of of the economic incentives that drive immigration in the first place. Perhaps progressives like to view immigrants as victims in need of saving?
Conservatives these days seem to be more united against increasing immigration, end of story. Despite Tea Party’s supposed libertarian streak, there seems to be little libertarian sympathies among modern conservatives.
Sure, it would be great to see some kind of across-the-spectrum consensus over immigration liberalization, but I’m not really seeing it.
David R. Henderson
May 27 2014 at 1:01pm
@Brandon Berg,
Funny! That just reminded me of the famous Pat Paulsen line (he was the guy on Laugh In) when he ran for President: “I’m middle of the bird.”
MikeP
May 27 2014 at 1:46pm
Sure, it would be great to see some kind of across-the-spectrum consensus over immigration liberalization, but I’m not really seeing it.
There’s certainly some kind of across-the-spectrum consensus over immigration restriction.
As Michael Lind tells us in this article…
I’m glad that the commenters on libertarian fora who love to quote Milton Friedman’s one rushed insight on this point can just as readily quote Paul Krugman’s more considered opinion.
Tom West
May 28 2014 at 7:26am
Once again, I’ll chime in with the fact that immigration is a tough topic for progressives. One of the primary rewards for trying to alleviate suffering is to have less suffering surrounding you so that you don’t have to feel guilty for your success.
But what happens when the most effective way to alleviate suffering (if you value all humans equally) is to allow open borders?
You’re going to see a lot more inequality surrounding your daily life…
Thus the “all over the map” tends to be generalized support to higher levels of immigration and support for those who are already here, but a lot of awkward silences when talking about truly “open boarders”.
I will say, however, that I don’t think extreme local inequality is good for Libertarianism either. My (limited) international experience is that when the possibility of your children’s failure is truly absolute poverty, the drive to want to “guarantee” your children’s success at the expense of freedom becomes almost overwhelming.
Tyler Watts
May 28 2014 at 8:30am
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