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Notes -
Rome did not have affirmative action, minimum wage, much of a welfare state, or an ideology of anti-racism (they were racist regarding tribal origin and stereotyping was common). As such we can’t compare the effects of immigration on Rome versus the effects of immigration on America. The middle class American subsidizes the education, policing, and healthcare of poor immigrants. It’s not like Rome where they tell the poor masses “figure it out” and the best rise to the top while the poor drown. Americans pay for all of it. And unlike in Rome, you can’t truly only hire people from your own tribe in order to protect your assets from a % change in population. The addition of a mediocre immigrant to America makes every American’s life more mediocre, because this is how the system of subsidizing and equalizing works here. In Rome, a mediocre immigrant would just be on the street dying. In 19th century America, too, you had this “libertarian” free for all.
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