Bret Sunday, 01 July 2007 at 15:45

I guess the point would be that we ought to give all the aliens citizenship right away before Spain outbids us for them. Or something like that.

Annoying Old Guy Sunday, 01 July 2007 at 16:27

We’re already very long on that position — some diversification would seem to be in order. Or just holding and wait for appreciation.

Bret Sunday, 01 July 2007 at 16:59

Works for me (I was guessing at what I thought Orrin’s point was).

Michael Herdegen Monday, 02 July 2007 at 08:08

I don’t think that falling birthrates alone will solve the U.S.’ illegal immigration problem, for (at least) three reasons:

• It’s not just immigrants from Mexico that come through the American southern border; some South Americans and many Central Americans come too. Right now Mexico patrols their southern border pretty closely, but as their population problems ease, and their budget woes mount, they may decide to cut back on border security. So, as fewer Mexicans head north, more Central and South Americans might make up the difference.

• The disparity between the living standards of the U.S., and that of most (but not all) points South, will most likely continue to increase. Therefore, even if it becomes more likely that the average Mexican will be able to make a decent living in their home country, the rewards to them for successfully going north are also going to increase.

• There is some reason to believe that the Mexican economy has peaked, or is at least going to plateau for awhile. A large segment of their economy is dependent on producing and exporting oil, and their currently-producing fields have a steeply-declining yield. While it’s certainly possible that they might make a new large find somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s also very possible that even as the population pressures in Mexico ease, their economy will be declining, which will make their relative situation exactly as it is now: poor, and with great incentive to emigrate.

Annoying Old Guy Monday, 02 July 2007 at 10:13

Mr. Herdegen;

All excellent reasons for not over-investing at this time.

Annoying Old Guy Monday, 02 July 2007 at 16:35

I realized today that I wasn’t given OJ enough credit for consistency. One of his tropes is that belief in Darwinism is equivalent to exterminationism, because if some other group is evolutionarily doomed one should hurry it up. That’s precisely the same view as he espouses here, and has as little connection to the way actual people think. For a true Darwinist, deciding that some group is going to get eliminated by evolutionary pressures means that one should ignore the group, not waste effort fixing something that’s going to take care of itself anyway¹.

¹ Judenhass, on the other hand, makes evolutionary sense because Jews are attacked for being more successful and it’s the successful Other that a true Darwinist should worry about. It makes more evolutionary sense, however, to try to join up and get your descendants the advantages of a proven winner.