You Can't Have a Prosperous Nation Without New Arrivals

“Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.” Those were the words of Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was describing the communist opposition. He knew they would lose because countries defined by freedom and free markets always beat nations and ideologies rooted in authoritarianism and a lack of markets. Conservatives rightly believe Reagan was one of the foremost statesman of the 20 th century, if not THE foremost.

Having entered the White House in 1981, and when substantial parts of the world weren’t free, by the time he left the White House in 1989, communism was on the verge of collapse. Reagan knew.

Implied in knowing the genius of freedom and free markets is attendant knowledge that humans will migrate to the prosperity that follows. And no nation represents the prosperity inherent in freedom and free markets more than the United States. Which is why what’s happening right now within the U.S. is so tragic.

The same country that’s been a magnet for the world’s poorest for centuries is shutting its proverbial doors. Worse, and more puzzling, American conservatives who long revered Reagan are reveling in the closing of the doors. It’s the equivalent of creating wealth, only to refuse its fruits. Yes, human beings are wealth. Particularly the ones willing to risk everything for a taste of freedom that will begin with backbreaking work.

Not asked enough of conservatives reveling in the deportation of people to the world's hellholes is what they expected people to do once certain countries around the world followed the Reagan model of economic freedom. It was only logical that immense amounts of human migration would follow the death of communism. The economically freest nations would logically attract the most people. And the arrival of people would not just be felt in the U.S.

Lest readers forget, Reagan’s “We Win, They Lose” stance on communism was all about freeing the world from personal and market authoritarianism.

What’s exciting is that in 2026 we’re continuing to see the fruits of Reagan’s vision. Think the World Cup. It was the first in the U.S. since the 1994 tournament. Notable about 1994 is that tickets to the games were inexpensive. And for obvious reasons. Reagan’s role in helping free an unfree world was still new. He’d only been out of office 5 ½ years.

Fast forward to the summer of 2026, and a formerly unfree world was booming. People from countries who could never have afforded travel to the U.S. in 1994 traveled en masse to the U.S. in 2026. And they spent big as ticket prices for the soccer matches indicated.

These same countries full of increasingly acquisitive citizens have become magnets for the world’s poorest in the way the U.S. has long been. It's the genius of free markets. In the freest countries, more wealth in the form of people shows up.

This isn’t inundation, or some other pejorative, it’s wealth. Yet conservatives are strangely disdaining it. Think the United States.

Conservatives who formerly shared Reagan’s view of the hideous nature of communism, socialism, or a lack of economic freedom more broadly, presently loathe the fruits of communism’s opposite and that reveals itself in the arrival of people. But that’s the genius of freedom. It sells itself like nothing else to the betterment of free nations as more human capital shows up to get to work.

Milton Friedman regretfully said “you cannot simultaneously have a welfare state and free immigration.” Wrong. What he should have said is that “you cannot simultaneously have freedom and free markets without the copious inflow of human capital.”

Reagan knew this. His disciples don’t. And because they don’t, they’re stepping on the ultimate market signal, one that validates Reagan-style conservatism like nothing else.

Originally published on Real Clear Markets.