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Comment by whatever1 | Hacker News Reader

In the social media era, borders will eventually collapse. We always suspected / heard how much better (objectively or subjectively) life can be in other places, now we can literally see it live.

The location of birth is a completely unfair lottery we all participate in. We should at least have the opportunity to try and change our fate.

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I think the exact opposite is true.

(A) social media doesn’t grant any new insight into the living conditions in attractive countries. That’s been apparent through media and communication for decades.

(B) migration is hugely asymmetrical. Many people want to come to the high status countries, few want to come to the low status countries. Borders tend to be enforced more strictly when there is higher demand for entry. So in a world with clear differences in quality of life between different countries, borders aren’t going anywhere.

To me, it grants new insight into how the poor live in attractive countries. All the ugly stuff that is hidden away in the propaganda brochures is now plain for everybody to see.

Are you suggesting that prior to social media, immigrants to high status countries had a misleadingly positive impression of life in those countries? That would seem to imply that we should be seeing a reduction in demand for immigration to high status countries. But in fact, demand is higher than ever.

i still remember the shock on my face the first time i roamed neighborhoods in berlin, paris, los angeles that were indistinguishable from the rot i thought i had escaped. and this was since 2018. western media, until social media and individual ‘journalism’ presented the best and only the best side of europe and america.

Agree strongly with B, and that we're seeing it now. AfD is about to clean up in Germany. Italy, Sweden, Denmark are planning expulsions of migrants who don't work.

All of that will further drive Europe into irrelevance economically compared to a relatively pro-(high skilled) immigration USA. Always glad to see geopolitical competitors shoot them selves in the foot!

Europe is ok with skilled immigration. I'm not sure the people coming over in boats from Africa are much of an economic benefit presently.

I'm all for a borderless future, but I see it as unlikely. What I think will happen will be extreme concentration of wealth in a few places, and those will put up sky-high walls (literal and figurative) to block out everyone else.

And yeah, life is a lottery, from where we are born, to where we can go and which biological body we got.

Not just assets. Even preferences are a lottery -- whether you like to work, whether you're attracted to the kind of person your country's politics approves of, all of it.

> What I think will happen will be extreme concentration of wealth in a few places, and those will put up sky-high walls (literal and figurative) to block out everyone else.

That accurately describes the USA today (and has for many decades), and especially some of the wealthier parts like the SF Bay area.

USA has a long way to go yet. Think attack dogs, minefields and being shot in the back from watchtower for trying to illegally cross the border Berlin wall-style.

Societies are a multigenerational building project, far beyond taxes-welfare ratio or the "culture preservation", the idea that nations are simple interchangeable places where somebody makes money and consume goods/services is a "luxury belief" built upon centuries of human development. For example, I rember from a study on china social mobility that it takes there on average 4/5 generations of "progress" to move from subsistence farming to "urban middle class"

Reducing borders in culturally and economically similar places seem to work ok such as in the EU, and I could see it within areas like Sub Saharan Africa or SE Asia. There would be a lot of difficulties removing barriers between say Europe and Africa though.

There is still the language barrier. Not everyone speaks English.

So presumptuous to assume everyone would rather live in an English speaking country

So presumptuous to assume i was talking about the migrants language skills.

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