Drudge Boosts Toilet Paper Fallacy. But CNN (!) Reports Devastating Flaw

04/08/2024

All Saturday, the Born-Again Drudge Report promoted under the headline

a story with the same title (without a question mark) The border crisis might be a boon for the economy [by Jordan Weissmann, SEMAFOR, April 5, 2024].

This is a simple piece of No Borders propaganda. No consideration at all is given to any possible downside of the Biden Immivasion.

…according to a March report by the Hamilton Project at Brookings … the large new pool of immigrant workers roughly doubled how many people employers could hire each month without accelerating inflation

AKA no pay increases for American workers! How nice.

Weissmann does produce a No Borders argument I do not remember seeing before:

If Biden were to successfully cut down on the flow of migrants, however, these latest studies suggest it would deal a blow to hiring and growth.

This piece is a classic example of the Toilet Paper Fallacy, that any economic activity growth is an unalloyed Good for everyone.

In fact,

Unless immigration raises per capita GNP, the only beneficiaries are the immigrants and the owners of capital who employ and service them. These non-English speaking poorly educated immivaders will reduce GNP per capita.
The real wage repression/erosion inflicted on the American workers with whom the immivaders compete is simply a transfer of wealth from American workers to owners of capital. Peter Brimelow laid this out in 2013 in Brimelow in WND: Schumer-Rubio To Transfer Half-Trillion Dollars Annually From People To Plutocrats.
American workers suffer more damage than simple wage effects show. Their new neighbors drive up the cost of housing, crowd them out of medical services, and degrade their schools. See NYC Mayor Adams Has Migrant Crisis “Solution”: Attack Living Standards Of N.Y. Working Class.

Of course, most of those using the Toilet Paper Fallacy are seeking to delude their readers for ulterior reasons. I discussed two obvious cases in MSM Bigfoots Krugman And Rampell Use Toilet Paper Fallacy To Mask Great Replacement Enthusiasm.

Paul Krugman is simply a slavish Democratic partisan. Catherine Rampell seems to be driven by ethnic hatred.

Sometimes the writers just appear to be economically illiterate Journeymen. I discussed such a case in WASHINGTON POST Uses The Toilet Paper Fallacy Again To Fool The Serfs That ‘No Borders’ Is Good For Them.

Occasionally, however, basic professional integrity causes these Journeymen to wander off message: The $7 trillion boost to the US economy from immigration has downsides too, by Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN.com, March 20, 2024.

Buchwald concludes a standard Toilet Paper Fallacy account by going off the Reservation. She apparently read through the CBO report The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034 to the end:

The CBO’s report said the increase in the population from immigration “will put downward pressure on average real wages in the near term.”

After 2027, the agency predicts the trend will “partially reverse” as migrant workers acquire more advanced skills. But, on average, real wages will be lower by 2034 than they otherwise would have been if not for current immigration trends, the report projected

[VDARE.com emphasis]

Somehow, despite being very interested in this subject, this piece of information had eluded me. Congratulate Elisabeth Buchwald.

Anybody writing about the economic impact of the Biden Rush without addressing the Toilet Paper Fallacy issues is either economically illiterate or a partisan fraud.

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