Why open migration across the world is likely to be a bad idea – at present

Extracts from FB. The issue was the following article:

If People Could Immigrate Anywhere, Would Poverty Be Eliminated?

My comments (and response to Shailesh Saraf), below:

1) My comment

Bryan Caplan, despite many positive points in the concept of open migration (subject to significant fee charged from economic migrants), I’m not particularly in favour of it at this stage of human development.

For instance, not much point in having socialist Indians migrate to USA. Overwhelmingly leftist in mindset, and hopelessly confused, they mostly vote for Keynesian and welfare state Democrats, thereby undermining the foundational liberty of USA and ruining its future. It would be much better for ideas of liberty to reach India. Once India discovers liberty, the concept of migration won’t be needed. ALMOST ALL poverty is self-created. It is a MENTAL DISEASE. Not a disease of the body or a country.

2) Shailesh Saraf

Sanjeev Sabhlok so, you support govt restrictions on free movement on people so that you can increase liberty in India? Bryan Caplan has answered your objection in the article itself: “If immigrants hurt American liberty, we can refuse to give them the right to vote.”

3) My response

Shailesh Saraf, liberty is a VERY delicate plant that takes a very long time to establish itself. Weeds that destroy liberty are always sprouting in great frenzy. The entire Islamic world is anti-liberty (in many fundamental ways – exceptions like Akbar or a a few others notwithstanding). Most modern Hindus are anti-liberty. Banning books they don’t like is second nature to them. Most Indians and Chinese are anti-liberty. Coercively extracting taxes from the “wealthy” in order to fund “welfare” schemes is second nature to them – and they’d also refuse to pay bureaucrats and politicians a decent wage (being jealous that someone they pay should earn more than them?).

90 per cent of Indians who have been trained in India have absorbed strong anti-liberty leanings from their birth. When they leave for foreign shores, they tend to REDUCE total liberty in whichever society they go. They are almost NEVER advocates of greater liberty.

If you want to suffocate the delicate plant of liberty, then by all means allow Muslims, Chinese and Indians to migrate without any barriers to USA. Within ten years USA would deteriorate into a basket case with communal riots, violence, and poverty.

Bryan Caplan is incorrect if he assumes that any democracy (particularly USA) can legitimately deny any adult over 18 the right to vote. That would be a fatal step against liberty and would destroy the gains in liberty achieved in USA since Jefferson’s limited franchise government. Bryan should also realise that by now USA is already self-destructing. 90 per cent of the blacks vote Democrats. So do most Mexicans. Liberty in USA is already nearing an end – as all evidence clearly points to. To open the gates of USA to ANTI-LIBERTY migrants would mark an end to life as people know it, in USA.

The solution is clear. As I’m trying to do through my book Discovery of Freedom (http://discovery.sabhlokcity.com/) and other efforts – the solution is to take the message of liberty to these ANTI-LIBERTY societies. India had a tryst with liberty through Ambedkar’s Constitution, but Nehru virtually wiped out all liberty from the Constitution itself. No property rights, for instance. And total protection of unaccountable IAS/IPS. Now we need to first revert to that kind of original Constitution, and then increase liberty in every way.

Do I mind if USA self-destructs through such “novel” (but really stupid) ideas? I do. I do care because this delicate plant of liberty can’t survive without the modicum of freedom that is still found in the USA. Facebook itself (that we are using) can only arise in a free society. And so much else. The world will end in serious misery if USA blindly opens the gates to immigration.

I don’t want to be the slave of some Chinese (or Japanese or German or Muslim) dictator. Do you?