In the olden thymes, rich people from rich European countries would set up shop in poor countries. They would either subdue or kill the local chieftains so they could take control of the country. Then they would siphon off natural resources for use back home. Because the Europeans had an excess of young men looking for adventure, populating the colonies with Europeans was a good way to gain a tighter grip on the locals. In the Americas, the locals were shunted aside, killed or driven off. The point was to get at the valuables and send them back to the mother country. That’s the basics of colonialism.
Today, rich people from Western countries go around the world siphoning off human resources, the top talent, from the developing world, importing them into their home countries. There’s not a shortage at home, it’s just cheaper to bring in STEM workers from India as indentured servants. Similarly, it is cheaper to bring in Latino domestics than hire lower class Americans. But, just as with the older form of colonialism, this new form leaves the pillaged country the loser in the trade.
In the old days, the colonizer at least had some incentive to develop local talent. They needed people to run the plantations, the mines and the lumber mills. They also needed a trustworthy managerial class to carry out the mundane tasks of colonial rule. The first wave of post-colonial leaders in Africa were men educated in Europe and America. Ghana, for example, was lead to independence by Kwame Nkrumah, a man educated in Britain and America. India benefited greatly from the British colonial system. It’s fair to say that Britain left the country better than she found it.
The old colonial system was not all bad and in many cases, mostly good. The new colonialism is arguably worse than the old style because it impoverishes the subject countries without leaving anything of value behind. Skimming off the talented portion of the population, the smart fraction, walls off the country’s ability to advance into modernity. Harvesting the hard working and industrious, as America is doing to Latin America, leaves behind the worst parts of the population. Mexico is a narco-state, in small part, due to every Mexican with anything on the ball having left Mexico.
That’s the immorality of the open borders/no borders fanaticism of our ruling elites. They tell themselves they are doing the humane thing by letting the talented flee the provinces for the West. Tyler Cowen’s toady regularly makes this claim. Jeb Bush has made this claim. What they never bother to address is what happens to the people left behind. There’s a deliberate Detroit-ification of these places. The bulwark of their societies are hauled off to America leaving the rest to the mercies of the worst elements, suddenly unconstrained by the smart fraction.
There’s also something else. In every society there is an implicit bond between the elites and the rest, the rest with the rest and the elites amongst themselves. This lattice work of loyalties is what makes large scale human organization possible. Evolutionary psychologists call it empathy, the ability and willingness to mentally trade places with a fellow human being. That’s fairly easy when the other person looks like you, sounds like you and shares your heritage. Anyone who has been in a foreign land and spotted a countryman knows that look of recognition and the feeling of camaraderie that comes naturally in those circumstances.
Skimming the elites from subject countries breaks the bond between those society’s elites and their people. Importing labor to undercut domestic labor breaks the bonds between ruler and ruled in Western countries. Just as bad, this blended global elite has a transactional relationship amongst themselves. At least they assume that’s the basis of their dealings, but humans are not robots and those old biological loyalties are still lurking in the background. Europe is terribly close to war over Ukraine because one side thinks its just business and the other thinks it is tribal.
The argument against slavery was never just about the slave. The immorality of the custom damaged the slave master more than the slave by robbing him of his empathy. Similarly, the argument against colonialism is it required good men to do horrible things to other men for the system to work. Open borders and unfettered immigration has the same problem. Whatever the benefits, the disruption to the normal rhythms of society have costs that far outweigh those benefits.
At 45:20, Bush explains, in watered down language, another important component of the Managerial Class’s immigration policy: http://www.c-span.org/video/?313330-1/former-governors-speak-immigration-reform
“I think Detroit would do real well if we started repopulating it with young, aspirational people.”
In other words, replace the African-American population with Latinos, who are far more agreeable. I believe Steve Sailor discusses this in the context of LA and Oakland.
They the open borders crowd is not monolithic. There’s a faction that are simply romantics. They swallow all the stories about America being a land of immigrants and a propositional nation. I’ve always suspected these people just as soon not think much about the issue. Then there are the greed-heads who want to crater the middle class. The Robber Barons of Silicon Valley just like money more than their country. The Democrats, as a practical matter, see their way back to majority status through unlimited amnesty. Otherwise, they remain a fringe weirdo party. The ethno-masacists just hate themselves and their kind. Jeb Bush seems to fall into this group.
I do think there is another group in the mix that gets little attention and they bleed into all of the immigration factions. The globalists who have no loyalty to their host countries see open borders and mass migration as a means to an end. They look at what the financial sector of Europe can do to Greece, effectively nullifying their elections, and imagine having that power globally. The world government types have always been lurking on the fringe of Western thought. Today they are much more mainstream, even if they are obscure.
As far as the demographic argument, I’ve never taken it seriously as I don’t think they take it seriously. Jeb is basically threatening to kill granny unless you go along with immigration fantasy. That’s not an argument. That’s a threat.
A while back I posted a long comment explaining why I thought that the real reason behind the amnesty push from both wings of the Managerial Party was the demographic weakness that is poised to destroy the entitlement system that sustains it. Here is Jeb Bush, the next Party Leader, explaining this in very clear terms, beginning around 11:58: http://www.c-span.org/video/?313373-3/former-governor-jeb-bush-remarks
I’ve seen a more than a few good Mexican engineers in my day.
Agree with the others – ZMan made a rare mistake. We import the best and brightest from Asia, Europe and Africa but we get the bottom of the barrel from Latin America. Those in Latin America with skills tend to stay there – they export their low skilled rabble to the USA.
Mr. Z you are all wet concerning the invasion from the South but are correct, as far as I can see, with regards to people leaving Africa and Asia (not including North Asia) for the USA. The key is the Smart Fraction concept which you are aware; IQ is destiny and countries with low IQ populations really cannot afford to have their smart fraction abscond as it were.
Dan Kurt
The statistics on the Latinos in America suggest they are the least troublesome of their native populations. They are hard working and their crime rates are about the same as low-class whites. Remember, the comparison I’m making here is to their native populations. I do think the smart fraction of Central and South America is staying put. The people who are leaving are those being savaged the by the dysfunctional element within their home country. Jason Ritchwine has made this point with far more clarity.
Think of it this way. Detroit at one time had a stable middle class of people with average IQ’s, but strong a work ethic and a sense of social obligation. They stabilized the city and provided the staffing for the smart people running the auto business. Once that stable core bolted for the suburbs, the smart fraction went with them, leaving the the rest to create a Hobbesian hell hole.
The immorality of the custom damaged the slave master more than the slave by robbing him of his empathy
The many millions raped, whipped, starved, and murdered, whose futures and descendants were cancelled, would like a word with you about comparative suffering.
In all my reading on the USSR, I read not one victim of the Gulag ever asserting that the hierarchy of Gulag officers suffered more than the dead and abused.
I know of only one concentration camp victim who said (she didn’t survive to write) “I feel sorry for them. Those Nazis must be in terrible pain to do these things.”
Mexico is not and has never sent us it’s best and brightest.
For a time we got the energetic. Now were’re signing them up for welfare first thing so naturally we are getting a different class of people–the ones Mexicans want out of Mexico. And lately something not seen before, Mexican Indians who do not even speak Spanish and are so stupid there is no hope of advancement.