David Brooks has written another provocative piece, this time about immigration. Beyond the Fence, a New York Times Op Ed piece yesterday, lays out the reasons that Brooks thinks are driving the opposition to immigration reform. There certainly has been an unusual amount of opposition to what is clearly a thoroughly dysfunctional system that allows the world's best brains to come to the US to get educated, but then forces them to leave again just when they are at their most productive.
Much of the developed world faces crippling demographic problems - a sharp drop in workers and a sharp increase in old people who have to be supported. The population of Japan, for example, is decreasing by about a million people a year. America has avoided the worst of this only because of immigration. To stifle that immigration is about the dumbest and most self-defeating thing we could do for the nation, long term.
But then, our government these days seems to excel at dumb, self-defeating action, or inaction.
Thoughts and observations about the world condition.
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