Europe's aging economies stand to gain from influx of people

9/19/2015, 11:16:14 AM 1 of 4
nathanbedford
For years I have been waging a frequently lonely battle here against the
idea of population growth as a booster of wealth. To argue that there is
a correlation between overpopulation and loss of liberty is simply not
an argument that easily gains traction.
Recently, with the spotlight placed on unrestrained illegal immigration
across the Mexican border, many conservatives have come to the
understanding that illiterate, non-English-speaking, uneducated
immigrants are but a drain on the economy.To solve the Social Security
demographics with illiterate refugees is to resort to a Ponzi scheme to
solve the problem of a Ponzi scheme. The crisis in Europe has refined
the problem to include the added danger of Muslim terrorists coming
through with the unfiltered masses. Further, conservatives are now very
aware that Muslims do not easily integrate into society and more often
than not it is society that must conform to Muslim culture.
Nevertheless, there exists a residue of opinion to the effect that
programs like Social Security can be saved by an influx of younger
refugees. Mercedes-Benz executives in this article tell us that they will
provide a ready market for their products. Both of these assertions are
false and will lead not only to economic pain in the long run as well is
the short run and will compromise our democracy to the point of
pushing us into tyranny.
The article asserts:
A plunge in birth rates means there will be a dearth of European
workers in coming years to support the growing number of retirees.
That is the wrong issue taking us down the wrong path. The proper
question is, will there be enough robots in coming years to support the
growing number of retirees? And how will a welfare state manage to
distribute the proceeds generated by robots and still maintain a civil and
free society?

The fundamental reality is that the third great economic revolution,

agricultural, industrial and now digital, is profoundly changing all the
world's economies as thoroughly as did steam. Wealth will be
increasingly generated by automated production and automated
services. Much more will be created by fewer and fewer human hands.
The problem will be to distribute the wealth generated by robots
producing goods and services to a workforce which will not resemble
today's 9-to-5/5 day a week culture.
With every revolution in technology there is an inevitable lag in the
ability of workers to adjust to the new technology and to summon up
the talent required to prosper in the new reality. This means training
and education and those things are expensive. A refugee coming across
the border who is barely familiar with a flush toilet, is not the best
candidate to become a software engineer.
The challenge for conservatism is to stave off the tyranny which will
inevitably come if the left with its traditional demagoguery is
successful in demonizing those who produce wealth through
automation. The tendency is to consolidate wealth in fewer and fewer
hands because of the incredible capacity of automation to produce
goods and because the expense in setting up an automated facility
requires immense capital, which further concentrates wealth in limited
hands. If we fear elitists control of our federal government today, the
tendency will only become greater as the stakes get higher.
The left will use the temporary dislocations generated by new
technologies to impose statist controls in order to redistribute wealth.
Admitting refugees only makes their success more likely. With or
without refugees, the challenge for conservatism is to somehow
managed to keep the allocation of goods and services created in the
new economy to remain based on a market system and not to be
usurped by Marxists selling old slavery in a new vocabulary. We have
seen enough of that in global warming, where the vocabulary not
surprisingly has now adapted to "climate change."
One sees in this article all the rationalizations being summoned to

create a society in which the only solution will be total state control.