In his first few weeks in office, Trump came out all guns blazing on a variety of topics, including if not especially immigration. there is so much about him and what he does and how he does it to non-plus and rational person. however, whether its Trump or Brexit or the rise of the nationalist parties, there are questions worth thinking through
Nation states, in order to be nation states need certain attributes:
they need borders. a nation without borders is not a nation
they need citizens. are you or are you not. if not what is your status and rights
now maybe we don't want nation states. that is a position. but if we are not prepared to give up the concept then we need borders and citizenship. and having national values, ethos and culture isn't such a bad idea either.
the globalist view of Europe is in conflict with the concept of a nation state. One of the drivers of Brexit was the fact that someone from say Somalia could somehow get into Europe and if they then found their way to England could go into the NHS. This led to increasing costs and "natives" having to wait longer for healthcare.
Trump got elected, in part, due to our unwillingness and inability to deal with some of these
Saturday, June 2, 2018
MUSINGS ON OUR MESS
Most of us have read undated musings on how bad things are going in society and the world is coming to an end only to find out that it had been written a thousand years ago or more and somehow we muddled through
today could be no different. But as i read about the rise of identity populism, the clear mistakes of ayn randian globalism, the refugee crisis, the immigration crisis, the environmental crisis, protectionist trade policies, and you wonder.
a few things we got wrong:
Global Arbitrage. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if labor is cheaper in mexico, china, Bangladesh than in the US and Europe versus the cost of transportation that jobs will go to the lower wage places. The environmental standards are lower in those places which leads to further cost differential and environmental degradation. we export our pollution. but we are on the same planet.
Population. when i was born there were less than 3 billion people on the planet; now around 8 billion. If you have a fish tank and you triple the number of fish in the same tank what happens? It gets stressed. in theory with better technology and better leadership and better human values, this can be accommodated but we seem to not be coping very well with this
Climate change and Water Wars. i am no scientist but the weather seems more volatile. Flooding and drought put pressure on people creating pressure for increased migration and the creation of millions of refugees that no one wants
Refugee crisis. my great grand parents came to the US in 1912, fleeing oppression in Ukraine. The world population was 2 billion. would they be allowed in today? refugees flee many things; outright legitimate fear of being killed to trying to flee local poverty, the latter sometimes labeled economic migrants.
Syria. it actually started when Bush 1 blew up the balance in the middle east by invading Iraq but really went nuts when Obama allowed Syria to disintegrate. This has sent millions toward Europe. Europe cannot accommodate this number of people and it is not going well. Deals have been cut with Turkey and Libya to stem the tide. the human cost is unbelievable.
what to do? however empathetic you might be, no matter what guilt you carry from the Holocaust, i don't think we can take in all the people who logically want to be taken in. it would be an interesting experiment. the second law of thermodynamics boiled down is about equilibrium. if you put an ice cube into hot tea, the system seeks thermal equilibrium and does. well we could do the same but i think the whole globe would be come unglued.
i think we need to ;
Nation build. a dirty word but if you don't want Libyans coming to Paris then you need Libya to be livable.
population control. Elon wants to go to Mars. i guess someday. but in the mean time there are too many people. i use the word TOO not out of classism or racism but out of environmental limits. once we kill all the coral and all the fish and all the bees, there will be no or few or at least less people.
running out of allotted characters for a post.
today could be no different. But as i read about the rise of identity populism, the clear mistakes of ayn randian globalism, the refugee crisis, the immigration crisis, the environmental crisis, protectionist trade policies, and you wonder.
a few things we got wrong:
Global Arbitrage. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if labor is cheaper in mexico, china, Bangladesh than in the US and Europe versus the cost of transportation that jobs will go to the lower wage places. The environmental standards are lower in those places which leads to further cost differential and environmental degradation. we export our pollution. but we are on the same planet.
Population. when i was born there were less than 3 billion people on the planet; now around 8 billion. If you have a fish tank and you triple the number of fish in the same tank what happens? It gets stressed. in theory with better technology and better leadership and better human values, this can be accommodated but we seem to not be coping very well with this
Climate change and Water Wars. i am no scientist but the weather seems more volatile. Flooding and drought put pressure on people creating pressure for increased migration and the creation of millions of refugees that no one wants
Refugee crisis. my great grand parents came to the US in 1912, fleeing oppression in Ukraine. The world population was 2 billion. would they be allowed in today? refugees flee many things; outright legitimate fear of being killed to trying to flee local poverty, the latter sometimes labeled economic migrants.
Syria. it actually started when Bush 1 blew up the balance in the middle east by invading Iraq but really went nuts when Obama allowed Syria to disintegrate. This has sent millions toward Europe. Europe cannot accommodate this number of people and it is not going well. Deals have been cut with Turkey and Libya to stem the tide. the human cost is unbelievable.
what to do? however empathetic you might be, no matter what guilt you carry from the Holocaust, i don't think we can take in all the people who logically want to be taken in. it would be an interesting experiment. the second law of thermodynamics boiled down is about equilibrium. if you put an ice cube into hot tea, the system seeks thermal equilibrium and does. well we could do the same but i think the whole globe would be come unglued.
i think we need to ;
Nation build. a dirty word but if you don't want Libyans coming to Paris then you need Libya to be livable.
population control. Elon wants to go to Mars. i guess someday. but in the mean time there are too many people. i use the word TOO not out of classism or racism but out of environmental limits. once we kill all the coral and all the fish and all the bees, there will be no or few or at least less people.
running out of allotted characters for a post.
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