Long Time, No Post November 10, 2008
Posted by Fleeced in General.trackback
I haven’t posted here in quite a while… over six months in fact.
Part of the reason for this is that I’ve been too busy, and it’s easy to get out of the habit of posting. Another reason, is that I’ve been posting the odd article at the blog for the Australian Libertarian Society.
I intend to again start posting here occasionally, but any political stuff (which was pretty much all I posted, previously) will instead be posted on the ALS blog (unless I deem it irrelevant for that site).
Hello,
In the latest edition of Policy (Autumn 2010) there is a debate about immigration with a Chris Berg and a Bob Birrell. The pro immigration and apparently open borders position of Mr Chris Berg is, as he describes it, the classical liberal position.
I’ve always been interested in how libertarians support open or semi open borders and interested to hear what arguments they use.
In essence Mr Berg’s arguments seem to be:
• “a philosophy that believes goods and capital can go wherever they want but people cannot is an incoherent one.” – a non-sequitor for sure
• “There’s nothing that special about national borders or the nation itself” -really?
• “An individual living in one country has no greater or lesser moral worth than an individual living in another country” -true but what is the relevance?
• “Migrants bring skills, knowledge and international connections” -even the unskilled poor ones?
• “In this context, John Howard’s memorable formula—that we would choose who come into
the country and the manner in which they would come—sounds like an assertion of political power
over individual liberty rather than a stirring defence of sovereignty.” -why not a stirring assertion of power by the Australian people over what is rightfully ours. Are not individuals allowed to revel in glory over what they have honestly and diligently created. Is pride a crime?
• “[unskilled] immigration puts pressure on governments [of federations] to reduce their redistributionist goals” – maybe, but let’s first wait for welfare to be strictly state based, and even then, it could well be an expensive method to limit redistributionist government.
On the Catallaxy blog site there was a posting on this, but it didn’t really go that far
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/03/24/berg-v-birrell/
So Philip Fry, if you have some interest in immigration, how about doing a post on this in ‘Thoughts on Freedom or wherever.
Cheers,
Duckman
very nice
thanks
hallå hallå
tack så mycket gubben