Why helping migrants causes us so much pain.
29th Dec 2025
Migrants are costing you dear.
We help a tiny proportion of the ones that would like to come to our country. However, that tiny proportion is a lot of people. If we host one million migrants that would be under one percent of the number that would like to come here. One million could be one tenth of one percent, one in a thousand of those that would happily take our charity.
The people are largely wonderful. It is the vast number seeking residency here that is the problem. The overwhelming scale of it sours the delight we have in helping those in need. It diminishes our wealth substantially. There are simply too many in need.
Spot the one economic migrant that you are keen to provide sanctuary to.
The number wishing to move out of their country is phenomenal - it is very difficult to conceptualise.
The output per person is falling in real terms. We are all getting poorer. Slowly, steadily poorer. The drop in prosperity is gradual enough that we don’t notice it immediately.
How much difference does it make though? How much does a little charity cost us.
The answer: A huge amount and I will show you why.
Let’s take the situation a common man faces. He or she earns £30,000 per year.
After tax he or she will have £24,422
After rent or mortgage payments he or she will have £14,622
After paying electricity and gas he or she will have £12,702
After paying for a car or transport to work he she will have £10,702
After paying for food, he or she will have £7000
After paying the council tax (a tax you pay on already taxed income) he or she will have £5500
After paying insurance and other standard bills he or she will have £5100
After paying for clothes and living expenses he or she will have maybe £2000
Even if I use the most conservative, low, underestimate of the cost of excess migration things would be very different. He or she would be earning more, and this poor soul would have had £4000-£5000 to spend instead. They would have substantially more to spend on things that makes life good. It would not be such constant drudgery.
They would have at least twice as much to spend on living, true living. Holidays, taking the children places etc.
Migrants are costing you dear.
They, the government, is turning you into a lemming. One that pays for the welfare of many that have not contributed, are unlikely to contribute and show absolutely no appreciation for your sacrifice.
Tax the billionaires. Stop the dole queue 'scroungers'. Lots of responses spring to mind. One could argue for hours on end. However, with all things being equal, migrants are costing you dear. A small number are welcome. Truly welcome. Vast numbers are less welcome.
We give, we gave, we help in ways that people forget about. We gave the poorer nations the internet and all the information contained. We gave it to them for free. We gave them knowledge in regards healthcare and best farming practices. We have worked, studied and toiled to devise better ways of doing things. And we gave a lot of that know-how away for free.
If we are only helping one in a thousand, what about the 999 in a thousand that we are not giving a free hotel stay to, followed by priority housing. We are encouraging more of that 999 in a thousand to come. Many perish on the journey.
The wealth of the nation, the roads, the railway lines, the bridges, the hospitals, the infrastructure is now being used by a larger number of people. More people means a greater dilution of that wealth. It means therefore that the amount each person living here gets via economic flow goes down.
Migrants are costing you dear.
Should we be grateful for the things we have and stop fretting about the cost of helping others. They too can now enjoy the bounty of living in a relatively prosperous nation. Maybe. I can enjoy my showering. My bath. My humble mince pie. My ability to travel from time to time. My car. My mobile telephone. My easy access to the world wide web. My lots of things. Maybe I feel better about myself as I am giving, helping and assisting lots of migrants that want a better life.
Maybe if we were richer still, we could invent more, do more that feeds into the less well-off nations. Maybe we could help them by showing them. Showing them how to do things better. Proving that corruption destroys. Showing them that they can. They can succeed if they try. They can copy and emulate our success.
Help more say some, let’s increase the number from one in a thousand to two in a thousand. We can all manage with less. Less this less that. It is possible. It is just not super-duper.
© IgnoranceParadox 2003 - 2025
