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I am trying to get UBI (Universal Basic Income) implemented, and i am against migration. (Read that carefully: I am against migration, not against migrants)
So ... the left constantly shits on me for being "a racist", while the right are ... idiots.
What do i do?
Hard disagree on that. We should encourage migration for anyone with the grit to go for it.
I was born in a small town in the US. My family moved twice in my childhood, and I moved again for college -- and several times as an adult.
Maybe you don't count that as 'migration', but if not -- what's the dividing line between simply "moving" and "migration"?
See my other response in this thread.
The modern left has a problem with knee jerk moralizing instead of engaging with economic concerns in good faith. As I've previously mentioned, you will be castigated for not being "pure" enough. But I’m curious; what’s your specific reasoning for opposing migration? If it’s an economic concern, then shouldn’t the left be working to fix the economic conditions that make migration a divisive issue in the first place?
I think i have good and rational reasoning to be against migration. My main concern is that wealth in the population is only possible as long as the population is too small. Let me explain:
The labor market is a free market. As such, it is regulated by supply and demand. Supply goes up --> prices go down. Supply goes down --> prices go up. In this case, Supply is the supply of labor force, and demand is the demand for labor force. My hypothesis is that demand for labor force is mainly driven by economic growth, which is caused by technological progress, and is independent of the size of the population.
However, supply in labor force can vary. If the population is small, supply is smaller, and that leads to higher prices. Prices for labor are also called wages; that means, lower number of workers implies higher wages. I think that is an economically sound explanation.
Simply moving within the country is not so much a problem, because it creates a decrease in supply of labor somewhere else in the country, so average wages stay constant. However, if borders are open, my concern is that we will "fill" that shortage in labor force, and therefore increase supply in labor force, which lowers wages.
Tell me if you have any comments to that reasoning, i'd genuinely like to hear it!
While i see the logic, i think you have simplified the economics too much. Now I'm no economist, but i think the first mistake you made is assuming that economic growth (which drives labor demand) is independent of population size. More people means more consumers, more businesses, and more economic activity, which increases demand for labor.
Also, in advanced economies, high wages aren't just about fewer workers, they're about high productivity, education, and technological development. If fewer workers alone led to wealth, countries with aging and shrinking populations (like Japan) would be thriving economically, but they aren’t.
Lastly, even if labour supply is tight, companies either automate jobs, outsource work, or relocate rather than just raising wages indefinitely. If migration is restricted too much, businesses would just move instead of paying higher wages.
I think if we really care about wages, the focus should be on stronger unions, better worker protections, and policies that ensure migrants don’t get exploited as cheap labor (avoid the Canada situation).
Is the labor market a free market? That looks like a faulty premise to me. I think the "labor market" is an abstraction that obscures a much more complicated reality; there's actually a bunch of different labor markets with varying regulations, and competitive dynamics, and geographies.
Do what the right wing influencers do. Ignore everyone's criticism and keep fleecing the idiots.