I got Open Borders by @bryan_caplan and @ZachWeiner last week and since it's a comic my kid made me read it to him over the course of 4 days.

All 214 illustrated page

Some choice quotes
There are a lot of pictures of boats carrying immigrants in the first chapter

Flipping through the book for the first time "It's about sailing!"
p12 Wile E. Coyote represents a coyote. After explaining that a people smuggler is called a coyote

"No Dad, that's a were-coyote, because it's half human"
p21 "What's the statue saying"

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

I teared up reading that
p30 "Why are the police (ICE) being mean to the man"

This came up 3-4 times. The best answer I came up with is ICE thinks they're the PAW Patrol when they're actually Mayor Humdinger.
The idea of migrating countries was confusing to a 4 yr old. I tried to explain it by explaining that he was born in Manhattan but we lived in Queens. Then I had to explain #NYC boroughs.

Now we're both confused
The phrase "diaspora dynamics" shows up a bunch. He didn't get the concept but if you have a 4 yr old go have them pronounce it. It's adorable
p114 "What's a referee and why is he letting the elephant and donkey hit each other"

"The referee's job is to make sure they hit each other but not too much"
p118 "Why are they[ICE] taking away the taco shop owner. Everyone likes tacos!?"

We had to get tacos for dinner to reassure him
p120 Immigrants make natives less supportive of welfare/UBI. I then had to explain UBI to a 4 yr old. He still seemed confused...

@bryan_caplan @ZachWeiner I would appreciate a comic about UBI
p121 "Open Borders" has become a sight word for my illiterate 4 yr old. His exact sentence was "Why does the wizard have open borders on his hat"
p205 About why we don't have open borders with Canada

"Why is the moose sad"

"Because they won't let the moose in to America. Don't you think we should let the moose in"

"We should let everyone into America"

So the book created at least one convert.
You can follow @the_ajohnston.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: