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- [Tyler] Now what are the key macro ideas?
We're still on like two words so the biggie here,
"prosperity matters."
Sounds trivial, but a lot of people actually deny it,
though I'm not sure they really mean what they're saying.
They'll say something like,
"Oh, you know, life was much better back in 1910," or back whenever.
But I think there's a lot of evidence from economics.
It can't tell you ethically that a wealthier country
is better than a poorer country,
but it can tell you that most of the things people want,
they get more of it in wealthier countries.
And I don't just mean money -- if you look at health,
infant mortality, the ability to choose a career you want,
women's rights, minority rights, political liberty, democracy,
civil liberties... air conditioning! Right?
You can't live without air conditioning.
These are all correlated with prosperity.
And I know correlated doesn't mean cause.
The causation runs both ways, and it runs through third
and other variables.
But the simple point that prosperity is very important.
There's a lot we want to do.
You have to actually pay the bills.
There is a budget constraint,
and the way you meet that budget constraint
is to be a wealthy nation.
People will have different goals in politics and with their lives,
but basically the wealthier nations
do a better job of meeting those goals,
and you can look at other economic evidence.
Again, this is not a final ethical judgement,
but the simple question if people, say, are leaving Syria
because life in Syria has become too difficult.
Where is it ideally they want to go when they have the choice?
For the most part, they prefer to go to wealthier nations.
So in Europe, the attraction was Germany,
one of the wealthier nations.
For migrants in general, Canada, Australia, United States,
United Kingdom, Switzerland, wealthy relatively free countries,
of course are where people want to be.
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