Borders

Borders, like personal boundaries, are products of civilization. Borders define the boundaries of responsibility of government. Government must have defined borders and a defined population of taxpayers to support those things which are considered civilized. Health care, roads, schools, all must be planned in accordance with a defined population and a defined budget, paid by a defined number of taxpaying citizens. There is no free lunch in life. Everything has a physical and definable cost. Even the leisure, required to meditate or to concentrate on science or to study philosophy or to write a poem, entails cost. Food must still be produced. Water must be purified and transported. Electricity must be generated. While some have leisure, others are working to support that leisure. And that work costs. So, to maintain progress in civilization, we must conserve and plan and budget for costs, based on realistic populations, defined by borders. Violating borders is intrusion. It too has a cost, which is unfairly passed on to those who support the infrastructure which is intruded upon. It serves us all well to try to look at the current issues about population and immigration in this practical light. It is wise to avoid being distracted by cries of racism and cultural elitism in this particular instance. These inflammatory words are frequently used by wrong doers to rationalize their irresponsible behavior and to try to unjustly shame those who are trying to be responsible to the law-abiding majority.