Immigration is great when it's done at the right pace. The pace of the last 10 years has been jarring. It's counterproductive at this point just because of the extra cognitive load alone. Can we take a 20 year break then start it back up slowly?
And, economically, I think it'll be fine. Won't it be great for the rest of the world to share in the economic success of the US? I'm looking forward to a day when most nations have their own bay area.
Surely there is a way to implement a "taking a break" policy without purposely squalid concentration camps, extradition to random gulags, sudden capricious fees, legions of masked shock troops, and the like?
Is this satire or just solely based on feelings? The rate of legal immigration hasn't changed significantly since 1990 (35 years ago) when it had a huge spike (during Bush1); it then spiked again during Bush 2.
Buddy, the US currently has highest % immigrant that it has ever had, and it's getting really close to the max that a non-authoritarian government can sustain.
For comparison, here are the immigrant pcts for top 20 most populated countries:
India (0.3%), China (0.1%), United States (15.2%), Indonesia (0.2%), Pakistan (1.7%), Nigeria (0.6%), Brazil (0.7%), Bangladesh (1.7%), Russia (5.3%), Mexico (1.3%), Ethiopia (0.9%), Japan (2.8%), Philippines (0.1%), Egypt (10.0%), Vietnam (0.3%), DR Congo (1.0%), Iran (4.2%), Turkey (8.1%), Germany (19.8%), Thailand (5.0%)
I understand that lots of people want to live here, but we're not just going to crash our country for some extra GDP. You guys can have all the mega global corps.
Okay, so you aren't actually talking about the immigration rate, you're talking about the percent of people who are immigrants. That has nothing to do with the "pace of the last 10 years", it comes down to the pace of the last 50 years, coupled with the selection of people you happen to see around you. And taking a break for 20 years will still leave all of those foreign-born people here, unless that was (too subtly for me) suggesting the immigrants already here leave.
And who's to say that a country can't sustain a high foreign-born population without authoritarianism? Germany's is even higher, and the US maintained a comparable level for 70 years in the 1800s. That seems like a wild claim.
Honestly, I agree quite a bit. The US and other countries have the same dynamic that FAANG does with startups, we put up the money to have anything worthwhile come in-house, which kills competition.
Please India/China/Europe, build tech empires to rival ours. We will all benefit.
I took my daughter to shop for clothes at Target. She picked out an outfit and wanted to try it on but it was in a pack and needed to be separated first. I found a clerk and asked her to separate it. But, the clerk didn't speak English - only Spanish. So, she took me to another clerk. But, that clerk also didn't speak English - only Arabic. And, neither could talk to each other.
If that's not societal "cognitive load", what is it?
These are just the harmless occurrences. I could go on to much more alarming examples, but I won't.
This is such a good example. I was recently talking to an appliance repair company and the fact that the woman spoke good English is now a remarkable thing. Like it really stood out!
And, economically, I think it'll be fine. Won't it be great for the rest of the world to share in the economic success of the US? I'm looking forward to a day when most nations have their own bay area.