Reddit, Houses and Immigration

In British Reddit communities, many people have an odd idea that high levels of immigration are perfectly sustainable and that it’s required for the economy.

These so-called pro-environmental people (to where they support extra taxes which will affect the poorest in society worst). Don’t see any issue in concreting over the countryside.

They think that food can just be imported (questions of food security and risk of being blockaded by France which that country tried, using a COVID strain as an excuse is a good way to get down-voted).

People not making the “we can just import food” argument (Pro-Vegans) will claim that if we eat less meat, that land would be freed up for housing. In reality, cities grew out of farming villages.

That means outwards growth of them will mean building over a lot of Grade 1 farm land. Something that will affect vegetable production far more than meat (Especially, the proposed “Oxford–Cambridge Arc”).

That’s before the talk of creating new woodlands (Rewilding).

The Question of Immigration

British Sub-Reddit’s (especially, r/unitedkingdom) claim to pro-socialist and pro-worker but they have a odd habit of supporting mass immigration. Claiming that it’s required to grow the economy (The line must go up argument).

However, immigration could be massively reduced if the government forced businesses to invest in automation by cutting off their cheap source of labour. That cheap source of labour from (mainly) Eastern Europe has some cases even led to automated processes being replaced with human labour.

The best example is car washers. In the early-2000s almost every petrol station had its own automated car wash. However, with the Eastern expansion of the EU, criminal gangs gained access to a load of new immigrants that could be turned into slave labour without having the issues with trafficking illegal immigrants.

Automated car washers costing £1m+ each can not compete with slavery.

Same applies to farms who hire immigrants for below minimum wage rather than use automated harvesting tech.

This leads to a short-term focused economy.

Published: 8th June 2023