My Actifit Report Card: April 28 2022
Not a lot of activity today, but I’m feeling a lot better. Got about 4000 words written, which is nice, and my headache is nearly gone. My foot’s still uncomfortable, but not painful. My stomach is not great, but I’m feeling better overall.
Slept in a little, which is nice, though I’ve still got nice rings around my eyes. Since I’m not dehydrated and I think I’d remember if I lost any fights, I’m assuming that means that I’m short on sleep.
Got a new Substack post up and appeared on a podcast, so overall I’d say it was a fairly productive day. Made the libertarian case against open borders, which basically amounts to a mixture of property rights (the state cannot invite people in to use stuff it doesn’t actually legally own, since taxes are illegitimate use of force) and freedom of association (which technically is weak to support border restrictions in most contexts, since your right of association usually ends at your property, but again, since the property rightfully belongs to individuals it can’t just be opened up to people they might not like, for reasons fair or foul).
Most people like to argue that the complaints about forced integration stem from racism, but as someone who’s spent time in small towns, it’s worth pointing out that some people just have practical reasons not to trust outsiders that don’t relate to ethnic prejudice. If you’ve ever seen small Southern towns that are racially integrated but look askance at Yankee outsiders, for instance, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The reasons for this aren’t just xenophobia, they stem from the fact that these places are built around community and trust, and a lot of people have come from the outside to diminish that community and trust. Even if an outsider is relatively benign but mildly criminal (e.g. a passer-by who shoplifts), law enforcement may not suffice to deal with a major influx of crime, and therefore these towns prefer not to have to deal with outsiders.
We could also make the case that a neurotic would have a right to refuse to associate with people–though this would normally limit their ability to go outside–and that forcing them to deal with people who, say, wear orange scarfs, would be an act of aggression. Though immigrants are not proportionally more likely to wear orange scarfs, they might, for instance, not speak English.
While I’m not a fan of having a single official language, it’s not exactly like there isn’t a point made that it’s cheaper and more efficient to not let people who don’t speak English into the country, and many people feel uncomfortable around people speaking different languages (I mean, I do, but only because I’m a little neurotic about people talking about me and not to the point where I’d deny immigration on this–I’m cosmopolitan myself).
As a result, we can make the case that there are people who might choose, against economic interest, to arbitrarily exclude people from their immediate network, and since the government would be forcing association between a broad group of people, those who would complain must have their own interests and rights respected.
Another consideration that I’ve never seen anyone who is for open borders make is that it is not actually aggression, under the non-aggression principle even as hardcore libertarians understand it, to deny someone access to something. Even as someone who would argue, for instance, that the ability to excise a trespasser is limited to the point where the trespasser must either be displaying aggressive behavior or not at risk of harm from being removed from your property, the person who is presently outside a country has no right to enter it.
And state borders, as arbitrary things, may not be enforceable, but since most illegal immigration isn’t focused on random patches of unclaimed land or private property but instead involves access to taxpayer-funded spaces and services, such as the roads, it’s not necessary to extend this access.
My preferred solution is to basically make everything fee-based for non-citizens, which could help to move toward privatization efforts and bring about the end of the state. This also disincentivizes unlawful entry while leaving room for visas and lawful immigration, and removes the need for draconian border policies since there is less of a honeypot on the other side of the fence (getting rid of drug laws would also help with this).
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
