We Actually Need More Immigrants

Ezra Klein has a plan that will drastically improve our economy by lowering prices and raising wages. “But few politicians are going to want to touch it,” he writes in Newsweek, because the plan is this: “More immigration.” Americans often make the mistake of thinking that the number of jobs in the country is fixed, and that each immigrant employed translates into one American unemployed. But in reality, more laborers just mean more production, more consumers, lower prices, and growing overall prosperity.

We all get that Europe is in trouble because its low birth rate gives it fewer workers, and hence less growth. “But the economy doesn’t care if it gets workers through birthrates or green cards.” Yes, illegal immigrants aren’t paid enough—but that just means we should help them become documented. Finally, we need to make it easier for highly-skilled workers to come here. “It’s never going to be the case that each and every one of the planet’s most talented individuals is born on American soil,” Klein argues. But “people like living here. We should be leveraging that advantage.” (More immigration stories.)