Has anyone read this book?
I love Weinersmith's Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereals comics, so I did order this book. As I find the concept of borders an absurd concept, I quite liked the premise of the book. Started reading it and quite enjoyed it, even though it's more of an academic work supported by images, rather than a comic in itself.
The only difficulty I had at times was that I felt the book was written with a mission to prove open borders are unethical, so every argument and study was pushed to support that thesis. I felt a few times it felt short of giving a balanced view.
I see that Bryan Caplan is considered to have ancap views.
Why ?
Some people believe that everyone has a right to enter any country of their choice without a passport or documentation.
They also believe customs and border security and immigration laws are immoral.
These beliefs are based on utopian wishful thinking not reality.
Where does Bryan Caplan live? I guarantee he has no immigrant neighbors or colleagues or friends
I found a review; the reviewer was not terribly impressed with the intellectual rigour of Caplan's arguments :
But they do go on to somewhat charitably say this :
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/more-is-more-caplan-and-open-borders/
As to your question :
I think the answer is quite clear.
In an ivory tower.
It seems the foundational disagreement between opponents and proponents of open borders is that proponents tend to reduce migrants to economic units, i.e. workers, and overlook other significant aspects, like their beliefs, culture, etc, while opponents don't, and I personally think they have a point.
Everyone who passed thru Ellis Island presented a passport showing their name and country of origin
This is how we know the first person to check in thru Ellis Island was a 17 year old female from Ireland 🇮🇪.
We can’t say the same for people entering Arizona California and Texas via Mexico
It is puzzling and hard to reconcile how, especially since 9/11, requirements for a travel visa have become much stricter, and at the same time, how "open border" policies appear to have made all of this irrelevant...
Clearly the political class wants open immigration from the third world.
We can deport millions of people like Eisenhower did, operation wet back
We can build a wall like Hadrian and Berlin to keep people out
We choose not to and encourage the opposite
It's sad if it has to come that far, because deportation is inhumane.
I don't trust governments with immigration policies, I won't trust them to enforce deportation policies either, here's why: there were 11 million French settlers living in the colonies, mostly in Africa. My grandparents and parents traded, went to the same schools with them etc. Where do you think these settlers are today? They were forced out, more or less violently, after the colonies gained their independences.
Lookup 'the luggage or the coffin,' or what Mugabe did with the white farmers.
I'm not implying the US will do the same today, but surely there must be another way?
Have you noticed everyone in academia supports open borders?
What they fail to realize is more money spent on immigration means less money for academic research.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/mexifornia-five-years-later
Caplan should know there is a difference between immigration for jobs vs welfare. Look at sanctuary cities like Denver and New York and Chicago struggling financially
But at least Caplan has put some effort into developing an argument for 'open borders'. I tried to get @DarthCoin to present his argument for them, after he was spamming a thread with "borders don't matter if you don't believe in them" solipsisms. Here's the thread @ 426129. As you can see, he rather quickly and pathetically retreated into a "I don't owe you enlightenment man" cop-out.
Major cop out.
I don’t hear undocumented people crossing the Mexican border saying I am a global citizen or sovereign individual.
Even Switzerland 🇨🇭 and the Vatican have borders.
Homeowners or landlords have borders too within a county.
District attorneys and law enforcement are bound by borders.
Indeed.
I do like what the reviewer I quoted said about reading arguments for open borders being useful even "if only as an exercise in clarifying one’s own thinking about the question". So I would be interested in looking through (but not buying) Caplan's book.
I was hoping to get something of a thoughtful argument from @DarthCoin too, or at least some attempt at rebutting the points I made but yeah, they skipped out. And this was after spamming the thread in multiple places (not just the comment I replied to) trying to push their "free your mind; borders aren't real" line. Very flaky guru vibes.
I think current borders are absurd, they are not only just imaginary lines on a map, but in many instances today, also the source of conflicts, because they seldomly align with, and violate cultural borders. In many places around the world, they separate people who share the same cultures, and force them to cohabit with other people whom they might have previously been in conflict with.
Borders are not imaginary.
Arbitrary in some cases but not imaginary
Yes, "arbitrary" is probably more appropriate. Thanks!
Putin is trying to conquer the Russian speaking part of Ukraine 🇺🇦. He thinks Ukraine eastern border is unacceptable.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/richard-lamm-on-multiculturalism/
"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school."
@ageingrockstar, @bitcoin_citizen, @erict875 thank you for engaging here. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Have some sats until then :)
Zapped random comments. I'll need more time to give actual input here.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1250316960/R3U3M2NFJ3VSOS?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dprv_TEER9D6KDXMRZKYRBNTC&language=en_US
A critical review
Nice find.
(Only saw this after I had replied to you, quoting a less analytical review)
You posted a good response which I read and replied to
Check out the interview here ...
Border Crisis & Human Trafficking Update w/ BUTTERFLY of VOP (Veterans on Patrol) ~ 11-26-24 | Eternal Affairs Media | the truth powered by The Truth
https://biselliano.info/2024/11/26/border-crisis-human-trafficking-update-w-butterfly-of-vop-veterans-on-patrol-11-26-24/
Who supports aid to Ukraine? Why does everyone in the west demonize Russia 🇷🇺?
Surely the sanctity of borders is a factor
https://nypost.com/2024/02/28/opinion/biden-hiding-the-true-impact-of-open-border-10m-have-crossed/
Caplan also believes borders are absurd and unethical. Every country has a moral obligation to accept everyone regardless of their IQ and criminal background
The concept of border is an absurd concept
What about 38th parallel in Korea?
Most people support the idea of borders even if you think it’s absurd