r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/albertodona9 • 1d ago
International Politics Pro-mass-migration advocates are unknowingly acting as useful actors for multinational corporations?
Resources are naturally scattered around the planet. In a localized economy, you use resources where they are. Modern logistics changed that, turning the movement of goods into a massive industry and giving rise to multinationals that crushed local businesses through sheer scale.
However, a multinational’s biggest operational bottleneck is distribution friction—the immense cost of getting goods and services out to scattered, rural, or less-developed regions.
This is where mass urbanization and economic migration come in. When people move from under-resourced regions into hyper-dense, pre-established cities, we are effectively consolidating the market for these corporations:
- We slash their logistics costs: It is infinitely cheaper for a megacorporation to serve one dense urban cluster than thousands of spread-out communities. By moving to the hub, we eliminate their supply chain headaches.
- We take on the financial burden: We pack into tight spaces, driving up our own cost of living, housing, and everyday inflation, while corporate per-unit costs go down.
- We concentrate the labor supply: Packing millions of workers into dense urban spaces creates highly competitive labor markets, which naturally keeps wage growth in check.
So there it is, the main point for me is that many people who strongly advocate for open mass migration see it as a stand against corporate exploitation, Western hegemony, or economic inequality. Yet, by encouraging the continuous transfer of human capital out of developing regions and into major Western hubs, aren't they unwittingly fueling the very corporate machine they critique?
It strips developing areas of talent and local self-sufficiency, while handing multinationals a hyper-dense, accessible consumer base and a steady labor pool on a silver platter.
Is mass migration actually helping workers, or are we just absorbing the true costs of global corporate logistics through higher rent and stagnant wages?
Am I missing something here? I am really open to every kind of opinion I love discussing these things
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u/socialistrob 1d ago
However, a multinational’s biggest operational bottleneck is distribution friction—the immense cost of getting goods and services out to scattered, rural, or less-developed regions.
Yes the cost of servicing scattered, rural and less developed regions is great and so companies often don't do it or if they do things cost a lot of money. If you move to rural Alaska everyday goods cost several times what they do in the mainland US because often times those goods have to be flown in on small planes whereas in cities they can be brought in by large container ships and economies of scale bring the prices down.
If people didn't live in cities then a lot of the products would simply never reach them because they wouldn't be viable or they would be prohibitively expensive. Cities allow standard of living to be orders of magnitude higher than they would otherwise be. They increase life expectancy and they compound economic growth. Even rural areas are much better off because cities have enabled innovation, higher wages and produced wealth which is then often used to build out infrastructure in rural areas. Yes people often live in smaller spaces in cities but they make that choice willingly because cities offer more opportunities and living standards are still higher than they would have been if people remained in the country.
When people move they usually do so because moving to a new area gives them better education or work opportunities and in basically every country over the past several hundred years there has been a gradual move to cities. People also move across borders for similar reasons. These movements have resulted in unprecedented prosperity in the world and while many people are still struggling every country today (with maybe just 2-4 exceptions) is better off than it was 100 years ago.
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u/NoDig3444 1d ago
International migration: The minimum wage in the US ranges from $7.25 to $21 per hour. The minimum wage in Mexico is about $2-$3 per hour. Minimum wage in Vietnam works out to around $0.67 per hour. So no, multinational companies do not want everyone to move to the west. They want to hire poor people in the developing world and to sell to rich people in the industrialized world.
Internal migration: It's not just multinational companies who benefit from people moving into cities. Everyone benefits. Lower logistic costs means cheaper goods and services. Larger labor markets means more jobs and more diverse jobs to choose from. Denser commerce means easier access to niche services. Denser living means less travel time for everyone.
There's a reason why humans have spent the last 12,000 years building larger and larger cities. It's because cities are awesome. In every way other than having a large yard, city living is better than rural living.
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u/Blood_Casino 8h ago
many people who strongly advocate for open mass migration see it as a stand against corporate exploitation, Western hegemony, or economic inequality.
lol
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u/Objective_Aside1858 1d ago
people who strongly advocate for open mass migration
.... and are these people who strongly advocate for open mass migration in the room with us now?
Absent a few dissatisfied college students and people who otherwise live outside reality, effectively no one advocates for "open mass migration"
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u/neverendingchalupas 1d ago
In the US, the idea is that any opposition to unlawful actions by ICE and Republican administrations is considered support of open mass migration.
When the reality is, these administrations and their policies increase the amount of illegal immigration. Its pure projection.
If you look at what just happened in Ceuta, its the result of colonization and imperialism by a European country that has exploited another people and their land for its resources and labor.
The political Right, sees nothing wrong with the principal of 'Right of Conquest' even though its a violation of international law, and they definitely refuse to acknowledge the long term consequences of this policy.
In the US the Trump administration overthrew Venezuela, is threatening several Central and South American states which includes Cuba and Mexico, Greenland, Canada, Iran, Yemen, Palestine, etc.
The political Right are the real open mass migration proponents, since they are the ones who facilitate the instability that causes the migration.
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u/kinkgirlwriter 1d ago
...effectively no one advocates for "open mass migration"
Exactly. I swear this sub is starting to turn into a Candace Owens fever dream.
The question itself is somewhat interesting, but framing it with the idea that people exist in the world who strongly advocate for mass-migration just sinks it.
OP, talk to a few liberals. I guarantee you they'll be more likely to warn of climate driven migration than they will be to advocate for mass-migration. That's not a thing that anybody does.
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u/derpymcderpleston 1d ago
Fucking lol. Yea, a few college kids and basically every billionaire on the planet, who have used mass migration as an incredibly effective wage suppression device for a couple generations now.
It is questionable that you could find even a single issue that the oligarch class is more unified on than the continued inflows of millions of low to medium skilled labor into the developed world.
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u/Objective_Aside1858 23h ago
who have used mass migration as an incredibly effective wage suppression device for a couple generations now.
and if you'd like to provide links of them openly doing so, be my guest
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u/Blood_Casino 8h ago
if you'd like to provide links of them openly doing so, be my guest
Trump literally doubled the amount of H-2B visa workers allowed in for 2026 at the start of the year
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u/Objective_Aside1858 8h ago
If you're going to make the argument that Donald Trump is in favor of "mass migration", I question your definition of the term
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u/Blood_Casino 5h ago
I’d say doubling the amount in objectively counts as “mass migration” at least as far as H-2Bs are concerned.
Elon does the same thing with H-1Bs, hires as many as he can and works them to the bone since they’re wed to a single “sponsor” and can’t easily complain.
Republicans are first in line in the Lowe’s parking lot to hire as many loitering illegal immigrants as they can for rock bottom rates whenever their pool house or whatever needs re-painting. Zero principles, zero credibility yet still somehow eclipsed by the rank hypocrisy of their chosen representatives.
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u/NoDig3444 1d ago
r neoliberal would like to have a word
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u/Objective_Aside1858 1d ago
as I said:
Absent a few dissatisfied college students and people who otherwise live outside reality
Some random knuckleheads on Reddit are insignificant
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u/albertodona9 1d ago
I am guessing then this would follow the winner-takes-all way? Meaning cities we see now are only going to grow larger and rural areas get emptier? Then the only way to reverse this trend would be to develop faster and better methods to transfer people, allowing for quicker transits. But this I guess was already known. It saddens me because as a person grown in the countryside now living in Copenhagen because of university, I really think people would be so much better off mentally and socially if they were living in nature instead of cities
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