Pretty interesting article here on immigration and economics
https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/mortmain-migration
Mortmain is literally "dead hand" which historically meant property being held permanently (especially by a church) so that it never returned to general use. Here its more like the past continuing to control the present, especially zombie institutions.
When you add it to migration, the idea is that people are trying to use immigration to preserve something that is already dead. Immigration (ie, suppressed labor costs) are used to prop up stuff that would otherwise die. Unfortunately this prevents the only thing that could fix the issue (reform or creative destruction) so its both ineffective *and* brings permanent unintended consequences. Short term benefit goes to the zombie institution, but the long term cost goes to society.
I think it offers a more interesting explanation for persistent high immigration than the usual political shorthand that the left is importing voters. Ends up being a broad otherwise unaligned coalition of interest groups who all benefit from the migration instead of dealing with the change. For example, demographics tell us our welfare state is unsustainable -> immigration props it up for a time, until the system crashes anyway, and then we're left with a bigger mess than before.
It's also depressing because that kind of broad coalition is one that is very difficult to oppose.
https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/mortmain-migration
Mortmain is literally "dead hand" which historically meant property being held permanently (especially by a church) so that it never returned to general use. Here its more like the past continuing to control the present, especially zombie institutions.
When you add it to migration, the idea is that people are trying to use immigration to preserve something that is already dead. Immigration (ie, suppressed labor costs) are used to prop up stuff that would otherwise die. Unfortunately this prevents the only thing that could fix the issue (reform or creative destruction) so its both ineffective *and* brings permanent unintended consequences. Short term benefit goes to the zombie institution, but the long term cost goes to society.
I think it offers a more interesting explanation for persistent high immigration than the usual political shorthand that the left is importing voters. Ends up being a broad otherwise unaligned coalition of interest groups who all benefit from the migration instead of dealing with the change. For example, demographics tell us our welfare state is unsustainable -> immigration props it up for a time, until the system crashes anyway, and then we're left with a bigger mess than before.
It's also depressing because that kind of broad coalition is one that is very difficult to oppose.