One thing that’s often missing from the discussions around poverty is how expensive it is to be poor. Everything costs more when your opportunities are limited. One thing CD said needs a response: it is very hard for poor people to move. So while there are cheaper places to move to, for a host of structural reasons (family, job opportunities, costs of moving, costs of rental deposits, etc), “just move” is often unrealistic advice for the poor.
Nonetheless, the idea of only allowing wealthy people to immigrate here would completely change the fabric of what built this country. This country has always extolled the virtue of upward mobility and the idea that even if you have nothing, you can make something here if you try.
There’s a lot of mythology in that, but opportunities are still there, and limiting immigration to people who aren’t looking for that, as I said, would be a fundamental change in the cultural fabric of our country.
