[falsestprophet]

"Except Thiel is saying many of the repugnant things that made Trump popular.

- Thiel wants to restrict immigration to highly educated people. Just like Trump."

Why is this repugnant?

One would expect a country to institute immigration policy that benefited that country. If it is the case that some immigration restrictions are beneficial, isn't that a fair and reasonable policy?

Is the only acceptable immigration system random selection? Or are no restrictions acceptable?

[josho]

I believe nearly every country has selective immigration programs, this is nothing new nor controversial.

[zanny]

> institute immigration policy that benefited that country

This is implying that less educated immigrants are not beneficial? Almost any migration only happens because there are resources to be acquired on the other side. It is exactly like the drug war - you could ignore the causes of demand and try to somehow crush supply which has objectively failed (because supplies will arise to meet demands) or you implement policy to get the demand you want.

And the immigrant demand takes many forms. Some times, welfare programs are too lax and give immigrants easy ways to avoid working. And other times, there is work to be done nobody is doing (often under minimum wage) that immigrants are willing to do because even below regulated standards of income they make way more here than they would back home.

Both reflect on failings of policy that crated the demand, and those failings could be addressed in many ways and all political ideologies tout their own ideas as the solution, which is the point of debate. Most can agree the status quo is unsustainable globally, when states are trying to consistently stop the supply of immigrants rather than resolve what is causing the demand.

[douche]

The grass is always going to be greener somewhere else. Trying to attack that demand is, in my opinion, a fool's errand. If there is work to be done that isn't viable at rates allowed by regulation, then either it isn't that valuable, or its price is being suppressed.

I think that we are largely moving to a world where the vast majority of human labor is unnecessary. Increasingly, hiring one smart person is more productive than hiring 10 or even 100 below average intelligence people, because what is needed increasingly is brainpower, not manpower.