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So I came across this discussion by Mark Blyth today. He normally talks about economics but this time he touched on immigration quite a bit (it starts around the 30m mark but the whole thing is worth listening to). I really like this because he actually manages to make a good case for immigration while at the same time explaining why it drives people to the right wing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsqGITb0W4A&t=18s TLDW: Immigrants are good because white birthrates are going down and they fill the economic gaps by paying debts and driving growth. However on the ground it doesn't feel this way because all an individual in a poor area will see is a bunch of people from very different cultures coming in, displacing them, and competing for already scarce resources. Meanwhile the center left/right, which has become completely out of touch with the lives of the non-rich, is unable to make an effective counter argument that speaks to peoples lived experiences and as a result people like Trump (and Bernie) win because he's at least are willing to acknowledge that a problem exist and offer a plausible sounding path forward (remove immigrants and end globalization which will increase local competition and drive up wages). It's a bad path because, again, with lowered birthrates we need immigrants economically but it's a path all the same. In this sense the solution to anti-immigrant sentiment lies in providing people a better solution to their economic anxieties. Mark recommends subsidized college, single-payer healthcare, and free childcare services since those have been the areas where costs have gone up the most over the past several decades along with corporate reform to break up monopolies and discourage short-term thinking. readingatwork fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Feb 11, 2018 |
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Feb 11, 2018 07:33
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 20:04 |
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