2 ms·
"It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state," -Friedman. Well that's not necessarily true. If you have welfare in which those able t
by EliRivers 11y ago
"It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state," -Friedman.
Well that's not necessarily true. If you have welfare in which those able to work only qualify if they are actively seeking work, and an economy in which increased demand leads to increased need for workers, and thus increased jobs, immigrants don't have the option of not seeking work and literally create new jobs that need to be filled, ending up net contributors to the state.
- pmorici 11y agoWhat qualifies as, "able to work" and "actively seeking work" are pretty subjective and there are some prominent examples where these rules are in place and easily gamed. The most notable example that comes to mind is the rampant fraud in the US Social Security Disability fund where there is a cottage industry in certifying people as disabled and unable to work when they are in fact not. The problem has gotten so bad that the fund has been paying out massively more than it has been taking in in recent years (30 Billion in 2014 for example) and will be insolvent within the next year. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/social-security-disability-fund-will-run-empty-next-year-2015-04-03 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/social-security-disability-...
- EliRivers 11y agoWhat qualifies as, "able to work" and "actively seeking work" are pretty subjective and there are some prominent examples where these rules are in place and easily gamed. I don't disagree, but as retort to the blanket Friedman quote, it's valid, because those problems are orthogonal to immigrants; actually, I seem to recall that the natives are disproportionately represented in welfare fraud, but I don't have my sources to hand.