Oddbean

There is a conflictive narrative in some parts of the world On the one side we all want freedom and free markets On the other side they all want import tariffs to block “other markets to steal local jobs” and they want “tighter immigration rules” for similar reason So how does that work?. If you truly believe that markets in the end will adjust themselves why would you put restrictions on tariffs?. Why would you limit how many immigrant workers can come to your country? I live in Argentina were, at some point in our history, immigration size was much bigger than the total population of the country .. waves of low class workers just finding some hope here.. escaping from wars and poverty in Europe at the time … I can imagine what our country would be like if all that people wouldn’t have been allowed to enter Then people from Paraguay Bolivia came in millions .. replacing some labor work from locals and here we are Then Chinese.. basically taking over most of small neighborhoods super market jobs and here we are Then Venezuelans came blending into our society across all levels escaping from dictatorship Just a thought

Yes. Agree. We want freedom only when it suits us without really understanding what freedom for all actually means. Markets will sort themselves out if left alone and there will be casualties always. What is more problematic in societies right now is the rate of cultural dilution. So immigration per se isn't the problem. Its the rate of dilution of values. So I think societies need to look at what is valuable for them and put guardrails around them. How can we have guard rails/regulation and freedom?? The issue with regulation as i see isn't the regulation itself. Its the 1) lack of removal of regulation 2) the lack of citizens voting on regulation (ie votingfor someone every 4 years and trusting they will have our interests is not working) and 3) the feedback loops of results (even if we vote on regulation we need to be able to see and feel the results directly). With technology we could solve some of these problems. Either way I agree there are contradictions.

Even what the “values” are is changing. Most people today claiming their values are being affected are part of massive immigrations that shifted values to those from before For instance the origins of my family are from France and Spain and misté people living in Argentina have similar heritage from Italy or Spain etc. Surely those massive immigrations changed the values of those living in Argentina before we all arrived and here we are. Most of all of us have some immigrant origin

Might I add another follow up thought? I also live in Argentina and agree 100% with your comment. There is another think I want to raise. Once a bitcoin standard evolves. Everyone will be able to protect the efforts of their work and only trade when a benefit is percieved by doing so. There is about a significant portion of the population that live off a walfare system, and it becomes even bigger if you count government employees that go to work on things that don't actualy add value to society. So, if we evolve into an open border, no tariff system, those that add value can move around, but there will be a huge portion of the global population that will struggle to make ends meet. They will have to find a way to provide value that hopefully is not just to withold the the threat of violence upon ourselves.

Indeed, the transition will be an issue, although it won't be managed or administered by a central authority. It will be driven by feedback loops like happens in Nature. Those that don't adapt will suffer, those that do will be rewarded based on their contributions to society.