Melting Pots, Unity, and Prosperity

“Cultural Diversity” became the open borders slogan dejure beginning roughly two to three decades ago.  I wonder which group of illegals invented that one.  Anyway, those words morphed into the open borders, free trade, one-worlder battle cry.  “Out of many, one” consequentially became “out of one, many,” ushering in reversal of two centuries of both unity and prosperity.

The idea of “the great melting pot” was good for a couple  hundred years.  The great melting pot concept has been assumed to be universal and perpetual.  Wrong!  That concept definitely has a limited shelf life.  How come, you ask?  Because the conditions that allowed it to work have changed – a lot.  What conditions are those? 

During the period when the melting pot concept was most loved and most productive, the United States was in a uniquely fast growing and prosperous period of its development.  There were vast areas of the continent to be explored and developed.  There were tremendous quantities and a wide array of resources to be cut down, dug out, sucked up and exported.  There were extensive transportation systems to be built, especially the rail and highway systems.  Manufacturing was blooming, taking advantage of our natural resources, national enthusiasm, and yes, cheap immigrant labor.   In the 20th century we were the industrial version of today’s China.

Lo and behold, all of those things have changed.  We are now in a self-declared and self-imposed stage of “sustainable growth” which means we slowed way down from our most prosperous century.  Our exploration and development of our wilderness is done. Our extraction of natural resources have leveled off and in many cases declined.  The rails and highways are built.  Yes, we need to rebuild some of our infrastructure, but does that require a million more immigrants?  Our industry has been in decline for 50 years.  1970’s economics classes proclaimed a natural course of national prosperity evolved from an “agrarian” to an “industrial”, to a “service”, and ultimately to a “information” society.  Hmm, what happens then?

Now that we are a “information society” our unemployment rate has hovered near recession levels.

And here is where the normalcy bias kicks in, where historical inertia kills:  We still insist on being the world’s great melting pot.  Cultural diversity insists on reigning supreme.  Open borders are more open than ever.  Immigration by any means possible is enabled by our government.

What great transportation or industrial expansion is calling for all these immigrants?  What great scientifically- or technologically-trained brains are being filtered through our non-existent immigration process?

The “Land of Opportunity” is being transformed into a land of cut-throat gangs, disenchanted college grads, and an out of control social welfare system draining the life-blood out of our economy.

The “great melting pot” remains an endearing concept to many, including a few Republican candidates.  They are oblivious to the changes that have caused it to be a concept whose time has come and gone.  We need to take a multi-decade breather and consolidate what we have before we lose it all to a nation of 3rd world unassimilated warring tribes.

The gen X and Y crowd need to get a handle on all of the above quickly, because their own future sense of well-being hangs in the balance.