U.S. Border Wall
No less an authority than Hannibal the Carthagenian once said, “Walls do not guard a people. A people guard their walls.” I think that Hannibal certainly knew something about what happens when people guard their walls, and what happens when people fail to do so.
If people want to leave the United States, for whatever reason, I have a hard time envisioning the U.S. Border Patrol stopping them. The IRS may have something to say about tax collection on U.S. nationals and former-nationals, but people who depart will be able to write their tax checks from Lower Slobovia, just as easily as from Upper Manhattan.
Whatever is “wrong” with what is going on within the United States, and I am sure you will agree that there are many things “wrong” with the trajectory of the nation and its declining culture, unrestricted migration of raw humanity from other lands and conflicting cultures will not necessarily make it better. Simply from a Peak Oil standpoint, the United States does not need millions more of so-called “consumers,” despite the political bromides that “they are just coming here to work,” and (my favorite soft-racist comment) “they take the jobs that Americans do not want to do.” Hmmm.
What an interesting way to phrase the thought.
From a water-resources standpoint, the nation does not need millions more thirsty throats. Particularly, the United States does not need millions more thirsty throats in the already parched desert Southwest where, I note in today’s newspaper, the temperature in Phoenix will top 102 degrees Fahrenheit. And, it is only May 15 – the very middle of spring. Summer looms. Battaan Death March, anyone?
My point is that this fair land is full-up. The coasts are full; the traditional cities are packed. We have built a credit-fueled economy (note: “credit” equals Republican heroin) around constructing unsustainable suburbs and exurbs in places that would otherwise be called “Death Valley.” Where there is some amount of rainfall, we have paved over millions of acres of arable former farmland that took 10,000 years of post-glacial geologic activities to create. In short, we have built much of the wrong country for the past 50 years, and we will spend the rest of our lives watching it deconstruct, as the cheap credit and cheap oil go away.
So, my comment is: Build the wall, and guard it. I don’t care about facile comparisons with East Germany. East Germany – Schmeast Schmermany. Slower population growth (let alone, population reduction) is a solution masquerading as a problem, as is the case in places like Germany and Italy and Japan. The United States should do it. The rest of the fast-breeding world should try it, and by the “rest of the world,” I think you know where I mean.
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