The Brexit Votes Have it: The U.K. Is Leaving The E.U.

[calvin]

I begin with a disclaimer - I voted "remain". [[Not going to explain my reasons here, it goes beyond the scope of this post.)

Having said that, it's a logical fallacy - guilt by association - to call the Brexit vote "racist." Yes, racists presumably voted overwhelmingly for Brexit, but this was not nearly decisive. Exit polling suggested that the white vote was about 53% to 47% in favour of Brexit, compared to a final result of 51.9% to 48.1%. Support for Brexit was weaker among ethnic minorities than whites but still substantial, and it could not have passed without this support. The results suggested that age and class/education were better predictors of how one voted [[older and less-educated voters tending to favour Brexit more).

The vote was anti-immigrant, but the immigrants the Brexiters want to keep out are the poor from Eastern Europe - who are white Christians.

Standard economic theory of trade says that free trade increases overall output through increased efficiency, but the benefits are not distributed evenly. The wealthy and highly skilled of both countries benefit, as do the poor of the less-developed country, while the unskilled/uneducated of the wealthier country are the losers. Beyond the effect free trade has on manufactured goods, mass immigration of poor people also puts downward pressure on wages in services. Politicians [[not economists) have been telling people for years that everyone is a winner in globalisation, but the people on the bottom in the wealthier countries see their own reality.

I have a friend whose father was a carpenter. Within a few years after the eastern European countries entered the EU, his income plummeted and he left his work to take another job, at lower pay than he had made previously. If you're a homeowner, it's great that you can hire Polish workers for a fraction of the price you used to pay. And nothing against these Polish workers, they're just trying to make a better living as all of us are. But why should we be surprised if the globalisation losers vote for Brexit?

Resources are limited and there is a value judgement to be made - how do you prioritize the poor of your own country against the poor of other countries?

Canada has a very strict immigration policy. Their goal is to take people who they expect will contribute more than they take out of the system. Also, they deport illegal immigrants [[which is why they don't need a wall). This protects their own poor, unskilled, and uneducated. Does that make Canadians racists? I don't think so.

There is another problem with open borders which is being revealed in the EU - "brain drain". More than 1 million Greeks [[out of 10 million) have already left Greece for other EU countries just in the past few years, primarily going to Germany, the UK, and Denmark, and more are leaving every day. These tend to be the people with skills that Greece needs, also the people who would pay more in taxes there. Recently it was reported that nearly all newly-trained medical doctors and nurses in Greece and Portugal leave their country upon completion of their training [[the UK benefits from this). What they leave behind are the pensioners and unskilled, and lower tax revenues. Greece is already in a death spiral, perhaps Portugal also.

This is not a problem with illegal immigrants in the US - since it's illegal, it's the unskilled and uneducated who make the journey. But if you open the border for anyone to immigrate legally, you can expect many, if not most, medical doctors [[as just one example) to leave Mexico for the US. For those who remain in Mexico, things could get much worse.

Though I voted remain, I find it very unfair to dismiss those who lose out through globalisation as "racists." This also just reinforces their belief [[which I tend to agree with) that the "elites" simply do not care about them.