Humans will exploit every set of rules. Really, every.
This is something that really should be obvious to everyone. We’re all up to speed with Darwin and evolution - the fittest survive by having more grandchildren etc. That fitness to survive is not some innate nor unchanging attribute, it’s being able to survive - to have grandchildren etc - the environment surrounding the life form. Humans are really a pretty successful species and that means that we’re able to exploit the environments we find ourselves in.
OK. But what this means is that if we change the rules of that environment then humans will adapt to those new rules of that new environment:
Many workers have arrived on skilled visas since 2021 from outside the EU, helping to fuel the fastest population growth in 75 years as part of a post-Brexit influx known as the Boriswave.
…
The data, shared with The Telegraph, show an eclectic mix of employers on the Home Office’s official register of visa sponsors, including car washes, chicken shops and even a dating app for swingers.
When Boris Johnson unveiled the blueprint for Britain’s points-based immigration system in 2020, the Home Office said it would deliver a “high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy”.
It is now clear that this promise was not delivered.
We do need to be clear here, as the piece notes: “Some of those employers might be bending the spirit of the rules, but they may not have done so in a legal sense.” The outcome might not be what was planned but it’s legal, it’s within those rules stated.
So, why? Because humans simply will adapt to new environments. Change the rules, change behaviours. Change tax rates, change activity. Change who may gain working visas, who gains working visas will change.
This is not a point about the Boriswave, neither pro- nor anti-. It’s a point about the best laid plans of mice and men and why they gang agley. Because men - even if not mice - change their behaviours in the light of the new rules. We know this about humans, it’s why we’ve been such a successful species. Detailed attempts to plan life, society and humans don’t work simply because the presence of those new plans changes behaviour around them.
Bit of a pity for those who desire the planned society of course, something of a victory for those of us who don’t. But it is still true. Detailed direction of human society simply will not work because, well, humans.
Tim Worstall