Calling Mark Perry

(Don Boudreaux)

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I wonder how many “national conservatives” simultaneously believe each of the following two propositions.

Proposition 1: Non-economic flesh-and-blood local-community connections are so important to ordinary people – that is, to people who aren’t cosmopolitan elites – that the state should intervene against market forces in order to protect ordinary people from having to experience disruptions in familiar patterns of community relationships, even if such intervention reduces the people’s monetary incomes.

Proposition 2: Without strict controls on immigration, the U.S. will be swamped by immigrants seeking better economic lives for themselves and their families.

I’m quite sure that the number of people who believe that both of these propositions are true is large. I’m also quite sure that no more than a tiny fraction of these people understand that logically squaring these propositions with each other is nearly impossible.