[voisin]

> We should also be restricting immigration, except for applicable spots of vital need until we can get our healthcare (and housing) situation under control.

Some would say the demographic bomb of our aging population means immigration at these levels is fulfilling a vital need.

[snapplebobapple]

That would be true if we were actually aggressively targeting vital skills shortages but we aren't doing a very effective job of that and are instead bringing in people with less obvious reason to be here, that earn less money and exacerbate the shortage area problems.

I also have a philosophical issue with that line of thinking in that we should probably be figuring out how to solve our birthrate issue before we invite more people here because after a generation or two those immigrants also have lower than replacement birthrates unless they are in a strongly religious community (which is not really that exciting to an atheist who really enjoys civil liberties). There's no point in being an ecological sink for the third world, we should have policy and system in place that support the current population in maintaining itself and immigration should be extra to help fill in our underpopulated country.