Q & A session with Milton Friedman at
the 18th Annual Institute for Liberty and Policy
Analysis (ISIL) World Libertarian Conference,
August 20-22, 1999, in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Co-sponsors: The Mackinac Center for Public
Policy; the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
Q: Dr. Friedman should the U.S.A. open its
borders to all immigrants? What is your opinion
on that?
A: Unfortunately no. You cannot
simultaneously have free immigration and a
welfare state.
Q: Do you oppose a unilateral reduction of
tariffs and if not how can you oppose open
immigration until the welfare state is
eliminated?
A: I am in favor of the unilateral reduction
of tariffs, but the movement of goods is a
substitute for the movement of people. As long
as you have a welfare state, I do not believe
you can have a unilateral open immigration. I
would like to see a world in which you could
have open immigration, but stop kidding
yourselves. On the other hand, the welfare state
does not prevent unilateral free trade. I
believe that they are in different categories.
Q: Instead of a green card [resident alien
status], can the USA issue a blue card which
does not give welfare?
A: If you could do that, that would be fine.
But I don't believe you can do that. It's not
only that it is not politically feasible, I
don't think that it is desirable to have two
classes of citizens in a society. We want a free
society. We want a society in which every
individual is treated as an end in themselves.
We don't want a society in which some people are
in there under blue conditions, others are in
there under red conditions, others are in there
under black conditions. We want a free society.
So I don't believe such ....
I haven't really ever thought of that system.
It's a new question. I very rarely get a new
question, but I must admit that's a new question
for me. And I haven't really thought about it a
great deal, but my initial reaction is that it's
a very undesirable proposal.
