Immigration reform could be the key to world-wide equality.

A person living at the poverty line in the US belongs to the richest 14% of the world population.

In the 21st century, the real elite are those born not in the right family or the right class but in the right country.

In his book, "Utopia for Realists," writer Rutger Bregman debunks seven myths about opening US borders to immigrants.

The following is an excerpt from "Utopia for Realists" Copyright © 2018 by Rutger Bregman:

From an international perspective, the inhabitants of the Land of Plenty aren't merely rich, but filthy rich. A person living at the poverty line in the US belongs to the richest 14% of the world population; someone earning a median wage belongs to the richest 4%. At the very top, the comparisons get even more skewed. In 2009, as the credit crunch was gathering momentum, the employee bonuses paid out by investment bank Goldman Sachs were equal to the combined earnings of the world's 224 million poorest people. And just eight people — the richest people on Earth — own the same as the poorest half of the whole world.

"Utopia for Realists" was originally published in Dutch and has since been translated into several languages. Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company

That's right, a mere 62 people are richer than 3.5 billion put together.

Our location bonus

No wonder, then, that millions of people have come knocking on the gates of the Land of Plenty. In developed countries, employees are expected to be flexible. If you want a job, you have to follow the money. But when ultra-flexible labor heads our way from the world's developing countries, we suddenly see them as economic freeloaders. Those seeking asylum are allowed to stay only if they have reason to fear persecution at home based on their religion or birth.

If you think about it, that's downright bizarre.

Take a Somalian toddler. She has a 20% probability of dying before reaching the age of five. Now compare: American frontline soldiers had a mortality rate of 6.7% in the Civil War, 1.8% in World War II, and 0.5% in the Vietnam War. Yet we won't hesitate to send that Somalian toddler back if it turns out her mother isn't a "real" refugee. Back to the Somalian child­ mortality front.

In the nineteenth century, inequality was still a matter of class; nowadays, it's a matter of location. "Workers of the world, unite!" was the rallying cry back when all the poor everywhere were more or less equally miserable. But now, as the World Bank's lead economist Branko Milanovic notes, "Proletarian solidarity is then simply dead because there is no longer such a thing as the global proletariat." In the Land of Plenty, the poverty line is 17 times higher than in the wilds beyond Cockaigne. Even food­ stamp recipients in the US live like royalty compared to the poorest people in the world.

The author, Rutger Bregman. Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company Still, we mostly reserve our outrage for the injustices that happen inside our own national borders. We're indignant that men get paid more than women for doing the same work, and that white Americans earn more than black Americans. But even the 150% racial income gap of the 1930s pales in comparison to the injustices inflicted by our borders. A Mexican citizen living and working in the US earns more than twice as much as a compatriot still living in Mexico. An American earns nearly three times as much for the same work as a Bolivian, even when they are of the same skill level, age, and sex. With a comparable Nigerian, the difference is a factor of 8.5 — and that's adjusted for purchasing power in the two countries.

"[T]he US border effect on the wages of equal intrinsic productivity workers is greater than any form of wage discrimination (gender, race, or ethnicity) that has ever been measured," observe three economists. It's apartheid on a global scale. In the 21st century, the real elite are those born not in the right family or the right class but in the right country. Yet this modern elite is scarcely aware of how lucky it is.

Falsifying the fallacies

Esther Duflo's deworming treatments are child's play compared to expanding the opportunities for immigration. Opening up our borders, even just a crack, is by far the most powerful weapon we have in the global fight against poverty. But sadly, it's an idea that keeps getting beaten back by the same old faulty arguments.