Dylan, German, and Jerusalem get together to discuss one of the world’s least likely but most interesting utopian ideas: open borders. They discuss the moral and economic logic for making it easy to move to and work in different countries, and the political constraints that make such an idea anathema in most rich countries. Also, they discuss a new paper about how housing regulation is making it hard for Americans to move to where they’d get the best jobs.
References:
Bryan Caplan’s case for open borders, on Vox and in comic book form
Matt Yglesias’s case for more immigration
Michael Clemens’s economic case for broader migration
A review of the evidence on voter backlash to immigration
Angela Nagle’s leftist case against open borders
Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land
Jerusalem on the intersection of refugee policy and housing policy
”Angela Merkel Was Right” by NYT's Michelle Goldberg
White Paper: “Location, Location, Location” by David Card, Jesse Rothstein, and Moises Yi
Hosts:
Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox
German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox
Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox
Credits:
Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer
Libby Nelson, editorial advisor
Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts
Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter
Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
To view this and other transcripts, as well as support the generation of new transcripts, please subscribe.