Americans are increasingly wondered where, precisely, are the promised
benefits of immigration, in light of wages stagnant for 40 years, declining
wealth, increasing debt, and the occasional bloodbath:
Plainly,
at least from native-born Americans’ point of view, Mr. Saipov’s immigration
did not work out as hoped and will likely punch a multi-billion dollar hole in
the U.S. economy. There will be direct losses from deaths and injuries in the
attack itself, costs of treating, prosecuting, and imprisoning Mr. Saipov,
costs of providing welfare to his wife and two children (Mr., Saipov won’t be
earning a lot in prison), etc. There will be indirect losses due to extra
security measures that cities will put in place to try to prevent a repeat
jihad.
Perhaps it is too soon to look at the dollars and cents, but how was Mr. Saipov’s immigration supposed to benefit native-born Americans in the best case? The CIA says that Uzbekistan has a per-capita GDP of roughly $6,600 per person, #159 out of 230 countries (ranking). Mr. Saipov was 29 years old and worked as a truck/Uber driver, a job that is expected to disappear within his working lifetime. He had two children and a wife with no reported job. The U.S. has an average per-capita GDP of $57,400 per person per year. So Mr. Saipov would have had to earn $229,600 per year in order to make the U.S. wealthier on a per-capita basis. Maybe somehow existing Americans can become better off if the population grows, but the GDP per-person shrinks? A Mr. Saipov will truck their goods around at a low price. But how can that make them better off overall given our traffic gridlock and skyrocketing housing prices? Mr. Saipov, his wife, and their children have to live somewhere and also get around.
Perhaps it is too soon to look at the dollars and cents, but how was Mr. Saipov’s immigration supposed to benefit native-born Americans in the best case? The CIA says that Uzbekistan has a per-capita GDP of roughly $6,600 per person, #159 out of 230 countries (ranking). Mr. Saipov was 29 years old and worked as a truck/Uber driver, a job that is expected to disappear within his working lifetime. He had two children and a wife with no reported job. The U.S. has an average per-capita GDP of $57,400 per person per year. So Mr. Saipov would have had to earn $229,600 per year in order to make the U.S. wealthier on a per-capita basis. Maybe somehow existing Americans can become better off if the population grows, but the GDP per-person shrinks? A Mr. Saipov will truck their goods around at a low price. But how can that make them better off overall given our traffic gridlock and skyrocketing housing prices? Mr. Saipov, his wife, and their children have to live somewhere and also get around.
As I will be explaining soon in the first Voxiversity video,
immigration is war. And it is a war that America has been losing for 52 years.
