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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   27501 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023

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I think you are conflating two issues that are mostly unrelated. Housing costs are probably being driven up slightly by increased demand due to immigration, but the effect is tiny compared to the supply-side problems caused by excessive red tape that makes housing expensive and difficult to build. The population of Houston, Texas is about 20% foreign-born immigrants, yet housing is extremely affordable because there is no zoning, no rent controls, and few regulatory hoops to jump through if you want to build housing.

Nobody worries about immigrants buying up all the food, or all the cars, or all the cell phones. If demand goes up, the economy will just produce more of these things to meet demand. It doesn't make sense to worry about immigrants buying up all the housing either, unless there's a problem on the supply side that makes it impossible to meet demand. Fix the supply side problem if you want to fix the housing problem.

Texas is a special case in that it's, yes, growing extremely quickly, but also has a bare-bones welfare state and is not concerned about the standard of living of poor people. This is not Canada. There's not really a social welfare system to strain; it's up to private charities, some of which are funded by the state, but there's no sense that anyone is entitled to their services. In other first world countries poor immigrants use welfare resources that natives feel entitled to.

In other first world countries poor immigrants use welfare resources that natives feel entitled to.

This is a much stronger argument for cutting the welfare state than it is of restricting immigration, especially when you have the Texas success example right next to it.

In my experience, things like low housing costs and a robust economy are far more conducive to poor people's standard of living than a robust wellfare state. Houston, for example, has a homelessness rate of around 30 people per 100k residents. The country of Canada has an average homelessness rate of at least 90 per 100k residents, with cities often much higher than that; for example in Toronto the rate seems to be in excess of 322 per 100k.

So while I would agree that Canada is more "concerned" about poor people, it's not at all clear to me that Canada is actually providing a better standard of living for poor people.

So while I would agree that Canada is more "concerned" about poor people, it's not at all clear to me that Canada is actually providing a better standard of living for poor people.

I didn't say it was. Obviously being able to rent a spare bedroom for $600/mo(going rate in my large Texas city; there's cheaper out there) beats homelessness by a mile even if it's strictly worse than having your own apartment. Obviously being able to work for $11/hr(where unskilled labor bottoms out here) is a lot better than being unemployed because there are no jobs, but if there were they'd pay $15/hr, even if it's worse than having one of those hypothetical $15/hr jobs. I've lived deep below the poverty line in Texas(although I don't currently) and think I rather prefer it to the same income in Canada. But it's a pretty big difference that the mass migration to Texas has no ability to access welfare resources beyond what a private charity wants to give them, and (at least some portion of)immigrants demanding the state take care of them are, famously, shipped to New York. This is a relevant variable to the feeling of "immigrants are using up resources that should be going to the native poor".

This is a relevant variable to the feeling of "immigrants are using up resources that should be going to the native poor".

Sure, this is a valid argument, but it's an argument against welfare, not against immigration.

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