Forever Alone

When people hear the word "immigration", they tend to have some kind of emotional response to it, bringing hard to define concepts like "culture" into the mix, often as if they themselves are a good representation of some kind of homogenous group that all think and act alike. People will fight for and against immigration, citing topics like the value diversity brings, or the costs of poor integration. But no matter what side you are on, immigration is unlikely to stop in most western countries for one very sad reason.

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Money.

What most fail to acknowledge or choose to ignore, is that everything is driven by the economy, no matter what your culture, religion, or belief system. You can be the biggest bleeding heart, or the most racist asshole, it doesn't matter - because your opinion is irrelevant. The only thing relevant to whether more or less immigrants come into your country, is the economy. Because the people who make the decisions about how many should come in, are driven by the bottom line. And it isn't just one single aspect of the economy, it is the whole enchilada.

For instance, in a population that is shrinking, demand for goods and services go down across the board. Sure, in an aging population some might go up like pharmaceutical spending, but on average, the economy shrinks with the population shrink. And it isn't just café and restaurants that are left empty, it is also the schools, the hospitals and the roads. And it isn't only the daily consumer items and usages, the demand for housing decreases, meaning that the majority of most people's wealth decreases with it also.

When demand drops, value drops.

At first this might sound like heaven, with less congestion, cheaper houses, more space, but the process continues and that cheap house you bought is now worth 50% of what you paid, and still falling, because the market is so saturated. The goods and services you used to enjoy, are no longer available because either there is no one to serve, or the demand isn't strong enough to warrant supply. Some want a return to the "good old days", yet they also want all the comforts of nowadays.

Immigration isn't the only solution of course, but it is the solution that is most aligned with the current economy, because the economy has been aligned with population growth. Even the old economies of old with Kings and Queens required war to expand the territory so there were more peasants to provide taxes, as well as to do the work and fill the armies. An economy doesn't have to function this way only, as it could be more circular, but it is very hard to maintain familiar standards of living in a shrinking population. Eventually, the costs are too high, and it all comes tumbling down.

Have you ever driven through a mining town out in the middle of nowhere that used to be full of miners and the support network of good and services to provide for them, but the mine shut down two decades ago? If you haven't done this, you could probably imagine that the place isn't exactly vibrant and full of opportunity for those who are still there, unable to sell their property and move elsewhere. But what happens when entire countries resemble these kinds of towns?

For instance, Finland is a small population of less than six million, but once upon a time, it used to supply 10% of the world's paper products. Not only that, it is a leader in paper machinery, forest machinery, and everything in between. A few decades ago, a blue collar worker in a paper company received over twice the average national income. But, as you can imagine with all the digitisation and shift to plastics, it isn't exactly a growth industry anymore. So, the pivot over the last forty years has been into technology.

But with a shrinking population and the ability to source internationally and work remotely, automate, use AI and all the other factors that will reduce the need for local workers. Average income goes down. Then there is less to spend locally on the goods and services, so demand goes down. The businesses that relied on having people buy from them, go down. Goods and service offerings go down in quality and range because they have to keep cutting costs and well - eventually, it is all third-world looking. But not everything goes down.

Crime will go up.

Perhaps it is a good thing if the populations across the world all shrink and everything is devalued, rather than trying to prop the status quo up with immigration. However, for those who don't want their culture to change, they are shit out of luck because a shrinking population will create a huge amount of volatility and shift in the culture, to the point that it might no longer be recognisable from what it is today.

So essentially, just accept that your culture, whatever the hell it is, is going to change, whether there is immigration, or no immigration. Accept it, and do whatever is possible to make the most out of the resources available to improve quality of life, but know, that if there isn't a broad economic incentive to do something, it won't be done, no matter how much you might wish for it. The only reason there is so much current conversation around immigration now, is that it is being incentivised by those who benefit financially from it. It has an economic incentive.

I added the title "Forever Alone" because in the countries that have very low birth rates or have artificially altered their populations like with one child policy so there are a lot more men, there are a lot of lonely people out there. A decreasing population takes away choice of partner, and then in a difficult economy, many wouldn't choose to have a child anyway.

As the economy collapses, so does society.

At least as we know it.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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