One of the good things about visiting other countries as I did while in the military, is that you get to see things up close that you'd only read about in the news. Visiting east Africa was an eye-opener. The first thing we all noticed was how painfully THIN everybody was, as if they weren't getting enough food or nourishment.
The next thing we took note of were the huge family sizes. Why would such poor people continue having kids they obviously couldn't afford to feed and raise properly? This was something we saw in every third world country we visited, from Panama to Djibouti, it was always the same.
Mexico for instance, has more than double the population that they can properly feed and care for, yet the macho society propels the men to continue pumping out child after child that they cannot sustain, therefore shipping them to wealthier countries like the US and Canada in order to survive. This is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. As even the richer nations can only take in and support so many poor illiterate people before they kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Why would you keep having children that you cannot feed? Producing baby after baby with no thought for their future.
Say you live in North America in a nice suburban home, and were required to take in refugees. How many could you afford to absorb before it became a burden to yourself and your family particularly if you were responsible for paying for the kids as well. I live in an area where we had a refugee center which is thankfully now closed. Upon talking with some of these people, their thoughts are that America is a rich country that can take in all the worlds poor with no effect on the American citizens who are already here.
The thought never occurs to them that the money or resources will ever run out. Our country is seen as a bountiful and endless fountain of wealth, a verdant garden laden with trees full of fruit just waiting to be picked.
Until it all runs out.
My city has been picked clean by the refugees, causing the American taxpayers to flee the area to avoid the additional burden of caring for so many needy people. This has devastated our tax base, as we now have many immigrants working for cash "under the table" and not paying into the system. Much of the money they do make, is wired back to their home countries with does not benefit to us at all. In short, they are taking, but not giving back. It's unsustainable.
Last year, the city found 27 immigrants crowded into a two bedroom apartment in filthy conditions. They are now starting to crack down after seeing the effects generated which have caused the working taxpayers to flee in droves. This is the effect that unfettered immigration and reckless population growth can have on a once prosperous city. If it hasn't come to your neck of the woods in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand, just wait, it will.
Demographics
The other side of the coin is the issue of demographics I saw when I lived in Europe with the low birthrate in developed countries. The average age of a German employee in the auto industry back in 2017 was 43, and rising. It seems that while the uneducated poor keep giving birth to child after child, citizens in richer countries aren't having nearly enough educated children.
This causes a problem with having enough people paying into the system to care for the older generation that are retiring each year. You'd think the solution would be to open the door to even more unfettered migration, but remember what I said about them working for cash while sending the proceeds back to their home countries. So this is not a solution at all.
Seeing as how my once safe and prosperous city has been completely destroyed by the former refugee center, here's what I would do if I had the unlimited power to do so.
Instead of allowing poor countries to export their poverty, I'd put away the goose that lays the golden eggs before he was plucked to death. All outbound wire transfers would be heavily taxed so that the immigrants would be forced to pay SOMETHING back into the system that they take so much from.
Cash payments would be made to American citizens for every live birth beginning with the 3rd child. This would exceed the replacement rate and allow us to start growing our educated population without having to rely on migration. There would also be free nationwide child care, so that both parents can work without worry.
We also would finally do some real work on climate issues which are also affecting food insecurity anf fueling migration to packed northern countries. However, I cannot stress enough, that simply giving food and money to poor countries with unchecked population growth will never solve the problem. What would happen if there were no rich countries to migrate to? Something would have to be done to lower the birth rate even if it meant taking on powerful religous groups and their attacks on methods of contraception.
China or bust
If you're reading the news about China, you know that they too have a demographics problem, with a growing elderly population and not enough young people. This is mostly a result of their one-child decree, which has had disastrous effects in keeping a balance between their huge population, and the needs of their industry and tax base.
So, along with Europe and America, this appears to be a global problem with no end in sight. We have to restore our tax base, and you can't do that if you have people receiving the benefits from hospitals, the education system, fire and police protection, 911 and welfare. And yes, there are people here who make a good living being paid in cash (avoiding taxes) while also receiving benefits. This does nothing but hollow out our cities finances, while providing no benefit to our nation at all.
Some say that countries like the United States should offer even more cash grants to poor nations than we already are, in order to further stem the tide of economic migration. But after watching my city which once was one of the safest cities in America back in 1980, turn into a violent hellhole, the sympathy here for refugees is almost all gone.
The 80 year-old lady who turned her purse over to a 20 year-old migrant robbing her, yet was sucker-punched, to the ground and died two days before Christmas. The elderly man who ran the cigar store and was shot dead by a teen immigrant after refusing to hand over his cash. He was the kindest man you'd ever want to meet. I used to enjoy going there to pick up my New York Times, and chatting with him over snacks. Now, he's dead.
The woman who was beheaded in the employee parking lot by her possessive migrant husband. The children that were strafed with gunfire at a childcare center by a refugee chasing a rival drug dealer. These and many more have turned the citizens against any open door policy, and while I'm not a Trump supporter, it explains why he was able to win my county and my "blue" state back in 2016, and might just do so again in 2024. The American citizens here are tired. They no longer sympathize about the poor migrant fleeing a war-torn country, while bringing the war here with them. They want the peace and prosperity we once had, to return.
A few years ago I was speaking to someone from a developing country online who was interested in coming to our area. I told him "please don't, we have suffered enough at the hands of immigrants." They've taken almost all of the unskilled labor, and available rental units, crowding out unemployed Americans. One hospital closed due to being flooded with unpaying migrants fighting in the waiting room. We now have violence usually seen only in a large city. If you knew how safe this area used to be, you'd understand. The formerly top 25 "safest city in America," is no more.
Tip of the hat
https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form
1-866-347-2423 (1-866-DHS-2-ICE)
I've shared with you how me and another American citizen were turned down for work at an 'On The Border' restaurant years ago, due to the American manager saying that the immigrants wouldn't accept Americans being hired to work in the kitchen...
"Wait a minute. I can't work here because I was born in the USA?"
Even though we were qualified and had experience, we were turned away, and we called the illegal immigration hotline. Fuck that. You're going to turn US citizens down for work while paying foreigners under the table in cash? This is one of the reasons you don't see many Americans at these jobs.
It's not that citizens don't want them, it's that they're kept out of them by immigrants who favor their own. I saw this myself when I first started working on construction sites, and wondered why almost everybody there was foreign. They put down America and laughed at us for working through a temp agency, while they were making thousands being paid in cash. Report them, they will be taken to a detention facility and deported, which is what happened in this case.
We went back into the kitchen to talk with them, and they verified that they'd never allow anyone who wasn't one of them to work there. "Is that so? well, we'll see about that" I replied. They don't give a damn about the poor and working class Americans they are putting out of work. They only care about their own families and people from their own country. We need to do the same. If you're an American citizen whose been denied work by a place that hires people illegally, you have two choices: You can starve, or you can turn their asses in! My sympathy ends when they prevent Americans from feeding their families.
Overpopulation is a real issue, but so is the imbalance between young taxpayers and elderly citizens on Social Security. Something must be done and fast, in order to prevent the election of even more demagogues and further poisoning the well against newcomers.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" sounds nice until you have to pay the price for them in the lives of friends and neighbors murdered by said huddled masses. We've lost too many good people who've either fled the violence, constant tax increases or who've been murdered by people who immigrated here to live the American dream. For us, that dream has turned into a local nightmare with no end in sight. Every egg laid by the golden goose has been snatched away, and they're about to wring its neck and eat it too. We need to change.
