Friday 11 August 2017

Quote of the day: On social planners and immigration


We're going to need immigrants. Even the most drooling of alt-right racists acknowledges this need (saying "high skilled" immigrants only). But who decides and how do we judge:
Like all central planners, the immigration planners exhibit what F. A. Hayek called "the pretense of knowledge." Do these presumptuous frauds know what specific skills will be demanded in the future? To know that, they would have to know what products will be demanded in the future. But we don't know what we'll want because lots of things have not been invented yet. And we can't predict who will invent them. People who today have few skills and who speak no English will be among those who make our lives better. Let them come here to make better lives for themselves. That's their right, which is justification enough. But we will benefit too.
Yep.

.....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

'People who today have few skills and who speak no English will be among those who make our lives better.'

And some will be among those who will (and have) made our lives worse.

JS said...

Inevitably in any selection process we would be playing the odds. Doctors, Engineers, Computer programmers, anyone educated to a high standard in a hard science or otherwise practical subject is unlikely to have their expertise become completely unusable in the length of a working life and, if they do, are the types who would be able to adapt. Highly skilled craft workers and creators of art/media work are likely to be similarly adaptable.
Relatively unskilled agricultural or manual workers are highly unlikely to be able to contribute anything essential to 21st Century Britain, let alone something that can't be supplied by a native.

Are we to going miss the one in several billion North African/Middle Eastern goatherd who becomes a world-class asset to any country in which they live?
Maybe, but given the cost of taking in every one who doesn't I think most of us can live with that.

Jonathan Bagley said...

With the current high birth rate, positive net immigration means an ever growing population, so please acknowledge this and either explain why this is not a problem, or suggest an optimum population for the UK. Is 70 million good? Is 80 million better?