Posted on 08/06/2026 6:37:52 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
Milton Friedman said we can't have free immigration and a welfare state
He was wrong
Turns out that if you create pathways for illegal immigrants to vote, then actually, 100% of the time you INEVITABLY end up with both a welfare state and free immigration
Because incentives determine actions
Whichever politicians realize they can essentially use taxpayer dollars to fund welfare to import voters will exploit this hack ruthlessly
1. Offer welfare 2. Allow illegal immigration 3. Let illegal immigrants vote (they will 100% of the time vote for more welfare) 4. Win office 5. Raise taxes, offer more welfare, repeat
It's a self-reinforcing feedback loop
Allowing illegal immigrants to count in the census and vote cements this loop
Literally only 12 states require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Look it up. It's horrifying.
That is why 15m illegal immigrants came across the border in 4 yrs.
It is game theory the only smart thing to do
This ends in disaster 
(Excerpt) Read more at x.com ...
The perfect procedure for 1) gaining political power, and 2) collapsing a productive economy. "Free" voted for by those who want "free" becomes confiscation from all others over time.
I suspect Milton Friedman would agree with you. I believe he was referring to the collapse at the end.
Good morning. I would and do disagree with Friedman, however. One cannot have "free trade" with a nation or nations whose labor costs are one-tenth of ours, nor with those nations who subsidize and undercut another nation's local manufacturing and labor costs.
"Free trade" as a phrase for use in economic dicsussions is a word trap, first because in functioning ecnomies nothing comes for "free," and second because getting another to discuss "free trade" by using the phrase is already an "assumptive close" in a larger transaction.
it also makes a difference when the government never has to pay its bills and instead just racks up 10’s of tillions more in debt with no end in site.
Friedman was an xxxxxxx….he developed our income tax payroll withholding rules and his views caused high inflation.
What happens when the money runs out?
Just like a substantial moratorium needs to be enacted for immigration currency printing needs to be slowed for several years to where it’s just enough to replace worn-out bills.
socialism would have died everywhere just like communism, if governments were not allowed to run deficits.
RE: Milton Friedman said we can’t have free immigration and a welfare state
That’s just common sense. We don’t need someone with Milton Friedman’s stature to tell us that.
Yes, Milton Friedman did help design the modern U.S. payroll withholding system, but I don’t see how his economic views caused high inflation.
In fact, Friedman spent his career arguing that inflation results from excessive money supply growth — not from the policies he supported.
Friedman famously stated that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”
He argued that inflation happens when the money supply grows faster than real output.
Shut down all welfare
Let it be known it’s because of illegals
Buy lots of popcorn
No rodent control and free grain for all rodents...
Incentives determine actions
It’s what keeps fraud going
To pay for WW2.
and his views caused high inflation.
Wrong.
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