Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Caplan

his recent book "Don't Be A Feminist" is a load of hogwash so let's revisit another one of his duds

A graphic novel rationalising the move to open borders in the USA.

This is an important description because Caplan, at one point, argues that there is no reason for the US to NOT have an open border with lovely, friendly Canada (um, we'd take our Canadian money over the border and spend it all on cheaper American goods and then come home for our free health care. ie: Canada would suffer) so obviously this open borders concepts is meant for the whole world to embrace if other nations aren't to be negatively affected. But how American to think a world solution originates in an American policy!

There were many spots of what I'll call optimistic logic: stating that most government spending is not population dependent (using the army as an example) when the obvious areas of health care, education, infrastructure and welfare are absolutely tied to population. As an economist, he used the GDP as a measure of global success, which is upsetting in itself. But he even went so far as to propose a second industrial revolution as a GOOD thing - as if our overpopulation and climate change is not related to current business processes? He argues that diverse cultures allow everyone to enjoy the best on offer (which used to be true before fear of appropriation dampened enthusiasm) . But he also, without meaning to, revealed a negative cultural practice of valuing boys more than girls when he used a graph that showed immigrants have double the number of boys than girls in the 0-4 age range.

The section on keyhole solutions was morally appalling, reinventing existing limits already imposed (or proposed) on legal immigration, like demanding money and cultural assimilation in return for admittance. Each solution would only work in a vacuum. For example, you cannot increase the number of female immigrants in response to a worry that there are too many male immigrants AND have an entry fee AND have an entrance exam. Every limit proposed makes the term open border laughable.