Immigration is a tricky subject for a lot of libertarians. If there is one issue that has caused more fights in libertarian circles it is the question of restricting a person’s right to movement.
But in a world of private property where does that right end? We know where it is in a world of public property. It doesn’t. I’m very Hoppean in my views on private property and the private production of defense. So, I have zero problem going toe to toe with the left-libertarians who refuse to divorce themselves from their principled hobby horses and who push for open borders uber alles.
It’s stupid, counter-productive and, frankly, one of the main reasons why libertarians are thoroughly corrupted as a political force in the U.S., having been neutered by the Koch brothers fighting about irrelevancies.
Immigration issues are on the ballot today. The Soros-funded invasion caravan is a thinly-veiled political stunt which is being used to fuel the unquenchable greed of globalists using Marxist arguments of envy to sow sympathy for those marching to take back what was supposedly stolen by evil white American Imperialists.
The sad truth is that part of that narrative is true. It’s also why open borders are incompatible with the world we live in today. Because both the warfare state and the welfare state create an artificially high supply of migrants and an artificial demand for subsidy of those migrants, especially, as here in the U.S. where those migrants overwhelmingly vote for the party who will further subsidize them.
This is far beyond the principle that peaceable people should be free to traverse arbitrary political boundaries.
Those artificial political boundaries are created through the application of private property of the citizens nee subjects of the government. If anyone has a claim on the property expropriated by this government it is the taxpayers themselves and not those trudging across Mexico in search of a handout.
Because like it or not, that’s what’s on the table today. That’s reality. When my grandparents came here from Italy they didn’t ask for a handout. They weren’t given one either.
All they wanted was the opportunity, which they took and were grateful for.
So, it makes me happy today to see Italian Interior Minister and all-around badass Matteo Salvini highlight just how sick and insane the whole immigration issue is by announcing he’s cutting in half the daily allowance of migrants from 35€ per day (PER DAY!) to 19€.
That’s nearly $1200 per month folks.
As Ron Paul so succinctly said on the campaign trail, when you subsidize something you get more of it.
So, Italy under the direction of an EU-appointed Prime Minister and government was handing out nearly €1 billion a year to migrants in a country under a brutal austerity program and laboring under a crushing debt load due to fiscal mismanagement.
Now, it doesn’t take an economist to tell you that people respond to incentives. No wonder everyone wants in. And this is where I break with my left-libertarian brethren.
Open borders are incompatible with public property on the subject of defense. Because the state via public roads exports behavior the community doesn’t want to your front yard and you have no direct way to combat this.
It is especially incompatible with public property in which Marxist wealth transfer systems are in place.
In fact, the political system is so dysfunctional it encourages this behavior to suit the agenda of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. So has it been in both Europe and the U.S.
And the sick display of using economic migrants as political footballs lies at their feet. And those who stand up against this abrogation of the basic property rights of natives are labeled racists, elitists, populists and Nazis.
So, Salvini made a brilliant political move by highlighting this insane practice of paying people to come be subsidized by native Italians who, frankly, had very little say in the matter.
Because up until today I didn’t know Italy was paying these people €35 per day. And I’m sure a lot of Italians didn’t either. So, by cutting the allowance Salvini highlights the practice but doesn’t end it outright, leaving that decision to voters to continue to be outraged about.
It also puts both his coalition partners at Five Star Movement and the rest of the Italian political elite and media in a position to defend a practice that 60% of Italians are furious about, illegal immigration.
He can do this because the polls are trending in his favor. Any disagreement with his coalition partner puts them on a path to call for snap elections and reversing the terms of the coalition since The League now out-polls M5S. Salvini knows this and it’s why he can continue to push on this issue because it is 1) popular and 2) the right thing to do.
The solution to the immigration problem lies at the heart of our attitude towards government. The more power the government has to co-opt private property and the private production of defense the more the borders have to be controlled because of the perverse incentives the State engenders.
Like with most of our political problems, the solution is leaving the wealth of a community in the hands of that community to be free to try different solutions of their own accord. It isn’t more power to the state.
And to the left libertarians who think destroying the country by flooding it with economic migrants is the most efficient way to achieve that end, I say, try that in your backyard, bub.
Because it ain’t happening in mine.