Let's have open borders for people and closed borders for capital

The question isn't whether borders should be enforced, it's what they should be enforced against

Borders.
(Image credit: Illustrated | claudiodivizia/iStock, aarrows/iStock, -slav-/iStock)

"If you don't have borders, you don't have a country." President Trump and his many acolytes have asserted some version of this axiom countless times.

Coming from them, of course, it's a defense of the White House's vicious treatment of people coming into the U.S. simply to find a better life. But human beings aren't the only things that cross borders: goods, services, and financial capital do it all the time as well. A better response to Trump might not be to debate whether borders should be enforced, but rather enforced against what?

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.