Are Newborn Babies Immigrants From the Foreign Country, Storkovia? Yes
June 26, 2019
From: Walter Block [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2019 10:03 AM
To: M
Subject: RE: immigrant vs baby
Dear M:
You can (partially) predict the baby’s future based on what his parents are like.
But that’s not the point. I’m talking deontology, rights, not utilitarianism, pragmatism. Your points about knowing more about an adult than a newborn are entirely correct, but, irrelevant to what I see as proper libertarian law. What law that a libertarian must respect did an illegal immigrant violate who starts homesteading virgin land in the middle of Alaska? The government claims this land, but, no government official ever homesteaded this land. It is VIRGIN land!
If we’re justified in keeping 20 year old immigrants out of the country, we’re justified in keeping new babies out, too. New babies are immigrants to the country. Some people think that new babies come about from sexual intercourse. Wrong! They come from the foreign nation, Storkovia, and are brought here by a stork. If in a blue blanket, a boy; if a pink one, then a girl.
Best regards,
Walter
From: M
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2019 5:28 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: re: immigrant vs baby
Dear Walter:
You said this: “Anything you say about an immigrant (he’ll commit a crime, be a burden, change our culture, etc.), I can say about a baby, 18 years later.”
You can ascertain some of an immigrant’s properties and past. You can’t do that about a baby.
I can ascertain and say “Person Q has $10,000, doesn’t own a home, is a skilled lathe operator, is married, has 10 children…etc., etc.” You can’t say any of these things about a baby or the person that the baby will become in 18 years.
Your statement, however, refers to the future, not the past. If the past tells me anything about the future, then you can say at least some facts MORE certainly about the immigrant’s future than you can say about the baby’s future. The past DOES help predict the future. If person Q has a heart condition and requires medication, odds are it’ll continue. We do not know perfectly what’ll happen, but we are more sure of some facts about Q than we are sure of what the baby will be like in 18 years. If Q has voted Democrat every time he voted, and if voting behavior persists, we have the odds on our side to say he’ll vote that way in the future. If Q has few skills and is on food stamps, it is more probable than not that he’ll be on food stamps some time in the future. We can’t say the same kinds of things about the baby 18 years from now with the same degree of sureness.
Sincerely,
M
American Realpolitik