121. The divisive nature of borders

The thought that borders are divisive is hardly ground breaking. Dividing is, in fact, what they are designed to do, and they do it very effectively. Modern humans think of borders as if they had always existed, we read and study national histories and assume that the border, as a limitation of the freedom of humans to roam, was part of this history. The fact is, it is not. Borders and passports are a XX Century invention, previously, there were no restrictions in movements between countries. You could pick up your stuff and go anywhere you wanted, if you had the means. This ability to easily migrate was one of the engines of development, progress and wealth redistribution. There is a lot of evidence that eliminating borders today would have similar consequences, greatly reducing poverty and increasing most people’s standard of living. The idea of removing, them, however, is anathema. Humans do not like change. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. But why not fix it if it is broken?

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