Geoffrey MillerVerified account

The debate over immigration is often reported as dominated by two positions: open borders and closed borders. There’s just one thing: No one serious in this area has ever held either one. What does that tell us? I’m not sure. But whatever it is, it’s critically important.

A lot of serious libertarians advocate totally open borders. But then if you ask whether they'd be happy with an extra 320 million people joining the US in the next decade, they say 'but that would never happen', as if they know it would be a disaster if it did. Interesting.

A lot of serious libertarians advocate totally free reproduction. But then if you ask whether they'd be happy with an extra 320 million kids born in the US in the next decade, they say 'but that would never happen', as if they know it would be a disaster if it did. Interesting.

To get 320m immigrants in one decade, you only need 4.5% of non-Americans to move here. To get 320m new kids, you'd need each of 60m fertile American adult woman to have about 5 kids in 10 years. The first seems a little more likely.

You’d have much worse outcomes from the latter tho