the US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

Re:the US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the... by amrocha on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @01:50AM (#36768340)

No, because then you have no one to do manual jobs because the native well educated youth won't take those.

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Re:the US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the... by gruez on Tuesday July 18, 2023 @09:15AM (#36771629)

>then you have no one to do manual jobs

And that's fine, because those jobs can either be automated, outsourced, done domestically (ie. driving yourself rather than getting delivery), or at worst case paying more. All things being equal I'd rather have a chemical engineer who can do chemical engineering and deliver pizza, than someone who can only deliver pizza.

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Re:the US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the... by amrocha on Wednesday July 19, 2023 @03:58AM (#36783299)

It's not that easy, because:

- not all jobs can be automated

- manual laborers make less money

If you see immigrants all around you doing great, while you clean toilets and struggle to feed yourself, that breeds resentment of your government.

And sure, it's easy to say the jobs should just pay more, but that's not the reality today, and if your choice is working a shitty job or starving then that's not really a choice at all.

I would also rather have the chemical engineer, but I think it would be even better to live in a society where both the delivery driver and the chemical engineer are net positives to society.

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