The Junkers didn’t just make a noble attempt at tyrannicide in 1944; according to Exceptional People, Imperial Germany’s landed nobility were also good on immigration:
Faced by labor shortages because of Germany’s economic boom, Prussian landlords recruited Poles and Ukrainians to work as replacement agricultural workers. In 1885, due to concern that Polish settlement in the eastern provinces could weaken German control, the Prussian frontier was closed and about 40,000 Poles were deported – despite the protests of the landowners, who lost up to two-thirds of their labor force.
READER COMMENTS
ajb
Jun 2 2011 at 2:20am
Hmm. I also like the idea of allowing in as many Poles and Ukrainians to California as possible. But I guess that’s not exactly what Bryan has in mind.
Brian
Jun 2 2011 at 11:41am
You realize the study referred to in the post only looks at legal migration.
California’s problem isn’t legal migration; it’s illegal immigration. There are several studies that show that illegal immigration is a net loss to California. What California gains in economic growth from the cheap labor, it loses in the costs of providing social services. The numbers vary, but it is always a loss.
The California illegal immigration problem can be addressed thus. The employer employs the illegal immigrants at a wage lower than market value, knowing that the other costs will be absorbed by the state (through welfare payments, health care facilities, et cetera). The state interference prevents the market from working.
Ilya Somin
Jun 2 2011 at 2:18pm
There is of course a flip side to this. Most of the Junkers also supported the repressive and expansionistic policies of both Hitler and the Kaiser. And while a few Junker officers did join the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt, the vast majority supported Hitler down to the bitter end. The Junkers did have their good points. But, on balance, they mostly deserve their bad historical reputation.
Bob Murphy
Jun 2 2011 at 2:27pm
The Junkers didn’t just make a noble attempt at tyrannicide in 1944…
Bryan aren’t you a pacifist?
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