I suspect this will not happen if nothing else the welfare state in
developed countries will result in net immigration of skill less individuals.
Neal Stephenson most likely got it right in "The Diamond Age" in which
individuals opt for private closed societies and government gives up, not
that it is going to give up its power easily. Or perhaps it will, I was
amazed how fast our leaders tucked their tails behind them and ran with one
little bio war event. These are the guys ordering our military guys into a
high risk war even the Russians got plastered in and our elected officials
turn out to be full scale chickens. Great example for the troops.
Ralph
At 10:59 PM 10/17/2001 -0400, you wrote:
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>On Wed, 17 Oct 2001, Ralph Lewis wrote:
>
>> One issue I have not seen mentioned on the list is that immigration to the
>> US and other developed countries is a problem because it results in a brain
>> drain and middle class drain from many countries leaving the least stable
>> individuals in control or worse removing individuals that have a vested
>> interest in the stability of their country and resulting in no stability.
>
>Ah, but if borders were completely opened, economies, standards of
>living, and populations would equilibrate to the point where
>population would offset resources, economic opportunities, and other
>factors. Immigration into this country would be offset by emmigration
>from it. The bad news is that in the short term, those in the West
>would have to adjust to a lower standard of living. On the other hand,
>the greater efficiency may result in faster growth that would offset
>this. On the other other hand, maybe it is necessary to have elites
>and concentrations of resources in some areas, to maintain
>technological advancement instead of pouring all efforts into
>supplying the worlds billions of bare essentials of life (nevermind
>cryonics competing with space or nanotech as a research priority--
>we'd see basic research altogether losing out to health delivery and
>agriculture). Undecided about this one. Many unknowns.
>
>- --
>* I believe that the majority of the world's Muslims are good, *
>* honorable people. If you are a Muslim and want to reassure me and *
>* others that you are part of this good, honorable majority, all *
>* you need to say are nine simple words: "I OPPOSE the Wahhabi cult *
>* and its Jihad." *
>
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