Resources and Refugees...

Source and background info: Wikipedia

Refugees - whether from climate disaster, or social/political unrest - are fleeing violence and the possibility of personal extinction. That cause ultimately stems from the allocation of resources among the population. See yesterday's Malthusian Musings post.

The approximately 10 million households that have achieved the status of millionaires by net worth is 3.125% of the general population in the US. That estimate is a rebound with respect to the stock market crash of 2008 that affected the many households - not theirs - and propelled some previously in the middle class into poverty.

The crisis at the US border met by protesters at the same in California: there is no "middle class society" in Central America; no leg up as yet from poverty or bridge from that to higher classes, though it has improved. If nature abhors a vacuum, in nations with no official middle class, it is usually filled by crime. The children being callously turned away are going back to a meat grinder that will only ultimately result in their deaths. If you're born poor in such a state, you're likely to remain as such and exposed to the violence of resource allocation. Typical of this irony, it's not well known that the former richest man in the world - Carlos Slim Helú - resides there in Mexico (the crown has been recaptured by Bill Gates - U-S-A!). Trade agreements that suppress wages for the sake of corporate profits are likely to make the Carlos' of the world happy, but not many of the 99% others.

Millionaire - Billionaire - Monarchy: all a recognition of hierarchy and the need to validate it. It's usually validated by the allocation of resources at the apogee of the social pyramid construct. Like good oligarchs, it helps to control the political process and news agencies of the countries you dwell in to reinforce the mantra. Unlike Germany, that's boosted its minimum wage to 8.50 Euros ($11.50 US dollars), there is no incentive in this nation to essentially change this paradigm. Instead there are the Horatio Alger - Ayn Rand myths upon which so many have given oblation and obeisance to. Along with those myths of "pluck" and "spunk" there is the need for self-preservation at the apogee. Thus, those at the top of the pyramid have no incentive to change the structure of how they got there. It would de-legitimize the construct they've worked so hard to preserve/conserve that has passed down from forebears to inheritors.

The other myths that must be fostered are "a constitutional crisis"; "government overreach"; a "need to return to principles" (whatever they are). Along with it, helps to insert in the public narrative pseudoscience like "climate change denial"; "intelligent design" to obfuscate and eliminate the tools a populace can use to question those in authority.

Refugees - whether from climate disaster, or social/political unrest - are fleeing violence and the possibility of personal extinction, may just be for many a cynical Calculus, the cost of doing business; the "noise" in the signal of ever-increasing profitability. Noise ignored, only increases in intensity and ultimately dampens the signal desired: a zero-sum deconstruction.

PBS: Life Beyond Earth: Drake Equation Calculator