Over dinner with an old friend the conversation turned to terrorism and the security measures we’re taking to protect ourselves. Everyone at the table was an economist, and economists are trained to think about choices and tradeoffs.
We started with security versus convenience, and ended up with security now versus security later.
Do you mind waiting in line before a ballgame at Safeco Field while bags are being searched? How about at the Puyallup fair?
And since the Coast Guard has identified the two most vulnerable marine targets as New York’s Staten Island Ferry and our own Washington State ferry system, would you feel better or worse if we had bomb-sniffing dogs on board and accompanying gunboats?
While we ate, my old friend took a fierce line in favor of security no matter how disruptive it might be. This startled the dinner group. My friend travels to France half a dozen times a year. But he argued that even though the personal inconvenience to him would be great, the United States has to protect itself at all costs.
Though he’s been a permanent resident of the United States for decades, my friend maintains his French citizenship. The conversation was a good reminder that the French and the Americans have been looking out for each other for a couple of centuries now. I wish our leaders in Washington and Paris would remember our fundamental friendship and cut back on the mutual sniping that has characterized relations in the last year or two.
I was appreciative that my friend wanted to protect America, but not convinced that more security is the solution. As academics tend to do, I wanted to look at a different tradeoff: Do the measures to tighten security today put us in greater danger tomorrow?
I think they do. Let me put the argument to you.
We’re building a wall around the United States, hoping to keep danger at bay. In trying to wall out the terrorists, we’re unintentionally walling-off our friends. Worse, we’re cutting ourselves off from the next generation of friends and allies.
Since the Second World War, the United States has in many ways been the center of the world. People around the world sometimes dislike our politics, but they like the American people. In particular, America is the place where the elite and the upwardly mobile of the world send their children to be educated.
Someone who’s spent four years of their youth at school in the United States – living, working, studying and playing with us – is not going to hate Americans.
You know what would be the best investment in our long-run security? The first president of Palestine having an American college degree. Or the head of Iran’s army having gone to West Point. And how about a future Chinese minister of finance with an American Ph.D. in economics?
For several generations, America has trained many of the world’s future leaders. Two of my classmates went on to become finance ministers of major American allies.
Right here in Washington state, there are something like 6,000 foreign students enrolled in our colleges and universities. The University of Washington Daily, our student newspaper, reports that enrollment of foreign students fell about 3 percent last year. A major reason is the increased difficulty of getting a visa to come to the United States.
Some foreign students will stay and join the American melting pot. But most will return home and run their country’s businesses and government.
And they’ll be our friends. Let’s not have our security be so tight today that we’re alone in the world tomorrow.
Dick Startz is Castor Professor of Economics and Davis Distinguished Scholar at the University of Washington. He can be reached at econcol@u.washington.edu.
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