[Tennyson]

This thread is my response to Mynydd who has harshly criticised laissez-faire capitalism which has supposedly caused mass immigration.

How does Mynydd explain the absence of mass immigration in truly capitalist countries like Great Britain or the Netherlands in the 19th century? The United States in 1924 was perhaps the most capitalist society which ever existed. Yet the Immigration Act of 1924 enacted by the U.S. Senate halted the immigration of racial and national groups which were foreign to the America.

In 1924, members of the US senate and their contemporaries in Europe were aware that an ethnically homogenous population was economically most productive and the introduction of unassimilable foreign elements would be detrimental to the nation.

Whether the economic system is capitalist, socialist or mixed the immigration policy which will be followed in democracies is mainly determined by the prevailing scientific and philosophical belief system about racial and national questions.

In the 1960s when mass immigration to Europe began Western European economies were typically a mixture of socialism and capitalism. Unfortunately, values had changed. The academic establishment already propagated disinformation about the alleged non-importance of race which deceived capitalists and common men alike. Churches adopted false, universalist views of Christianity. There were men like Sartre, Foucault, Levi-Strauss and Derrida who had exceptional ability to distort the legacy of the Enlightment.

It is ultimately a matter of philosophical judgment whether the preservation of national groups has intrinsic value. I think that it has; most modern Westerners seem to disagree. However, it is not a matter of judgment whether racial differences exist and whether mass immigration of current racial composition will lead to decline of civilization in Europe. Because of this it is at least equally rational to halt immigration in a laissez-faire economy which happens to best harness man's selfish and greedy nature to benefit the nation.