An Immigration Comment

my comment, today, on flybottle:

'What's right' is contested, Will. And you overlook several reasonable restrictionist arguments:

A person might value her country's sparsely-populated expanses or might [unhatefully] oppose cultural change--or might welcome the prospect of a tightening labor market--and therefore oppose immigration.

You'd defend a landlord's right to restrict the use of her spread--even against those seeking to negotiate mutually-advantageous voluntary exchanges on it, no? Many current immigration restrictionists perceive their position to be similar to the landowner--taking action now to preserve and enhance 'their land's' long-term beauty and value, according to their own tastes.

The US is rich due to its people's goodness, to luck and to numerous grave injustices from which we today still benefit. (We're a country born in hypocrisy.)

A Congolese might aver, 'It is unjust that Americans get to decide whether I can voluntarily sell my labor within your borders. I didn't choose to be born in Odoumouna any more than you chose to be born in Prairie du Chien--so let's dispense with the God-made-me-an-American bullshit and treat each other as equals--okay?'

Libertarians fetishize the wealth, resource and opportunity distribution of the present, despite its tawdry origin--perhaps in the belief that beneficial redistribution is impossible logistically.

Congrats on 2k, player.