The reasons are threefold:
- Inequality – creating starvation and extreme poverty – 3 billion earn less than $2 a day
- Overpopulation – creating unemployment and terrible living conditions
- War – displacing millions of people and causing misery
The solutions are simple:
- Education – educated people do not multiply at such high rates
- Equality – address the grotesque systems that create trillionaires and paupers
- Overpopulation policies – that actively reduce numbers – taxation, education, incentives, unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, old age pensions
- Peace – It may be novel but how about diplomacy, sanctions and putting an end to political power posturing, nationalism and religious superstition? Global government with the enforcement of the UN charter of Human Rights would be good for a start.
It can be done if there’s a way. On this blog I’ve got friends all over the world. We may argue, we may disagree but we are all basically friendly, caring human beings with the same empathy and compassion.
Build a positive zeitgeist – Change the World!
The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is destroying the livelihoods of farmers in the developing world; and the ‘No Borders’ policy of gullible left-wingers is just a way for greedy corporations to get an unlimited supply of cheap disposable migrant labour; and to destroy national democracies and identities. High birth rates are cultural issues, maintained by immigrants in developed countries who refuse to assimilate into the host culture. With the Schengen Agreement and with it the EU, now falling apart, the corporate globalist agenda will be killed off with it; and we’ll all be better off.
Interesting views. I agree with a lot of what you say.It highlights a number of challenges that require addressing. The birth rates and assimilation are major problems. The corporate globalist agenda needs shooting down. They use the whole world as cheap labour and create the massive inequality that is behind all the problems. I’m not sure the EU will fall apart though. I think it will change. Thanks for your great input. Cheers Opher
Another salient point is that the generous welfare states of Western European countries cannot survive with a policy of open borders. Socialists like to believe a welfare state can support an infinite number of people, if that state’s government continually raises rates of taxation. All that leads to is economic collapse and the end of the welfare state in case. In Britain’s case, the welfare state established in 1948 is already under strain due to the high rate of immigration from the former Eastern Bloc countries since 2004. Unrestricted immigration will give Britain’s Tory government the excuse to abolish the welfare state altogether.
That is a very valid point. We cannot have an open border policy with the rest of the world. Immigration needs to be carefully managed. I am a socialist and I certainly do not agree with open borders – maybe some time in the future when we have moved on to a more global perspective with far greater equality (if that ever happens). Likewise the welfare state should not be open to people who have not contributed to it. As with the USA the people coming should take out insurance cover before being allowed in. The mass migration we are seeing at the moment is almost but not quite unprecedented in modern times and throws up the dilemma of humane response and pragmatics. We do not want our systems to be overwhelmed and neither do we want our culture to be taken over but we do wish to aid those in need. I think our politicians have to deal with the short term problems of balancing those concerns while at the same time dealing with the long-term solutions – the horrendous overpopulation, war, fundamentalism, inequality and lack of work. Not an easy task.