Oddly enough, Labour governments understand incentives perfectly well when trying to make us stop smoking, or encouraging us to buy electric cars and install heat pumps. But suggest that incentives might also influence migration, however, and the concept suddenly becomes bafflingly controversial.
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Samizdata quote of the day – A state that cannot protect its borders cannot protect its welfare state eitherSeptember 12th, 2026 |
 2 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – A state that cannot protect its borders cannot protect its welfare state eitherLeave a Reply |
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It has been said that you can have a welfare state, or you can have mass immigration, but you can’t have both.
At the moment, we do have both, and seem to be testing the concept to destruction, which will probably come sooner rather than later.
It is interesting to see that the Labour Party, which was set up to further the progress of the working class (all white Britons at the time) has morphed into the party for public sector workers, immigrants and welfare claimants. We shall have to see if a party built on such a client base can survive. It is my fervent hope that it cannot.
Good post – thank you Thomas Fairfax for sharing the words of Neil Davenport with us.
And good comment by JohnK.
The establishment sometimes admit that the Welfare State is not sustainable – but they claim that mass migration will sustain it.
The establishment are exactly WRONG – as mass migration will bring about “The Collapse” (TM) far more quickly than would otherwise be the case. The migrants are mostly low income (apart from the criminal migrants – who can make a high income via crime) – they will take far more in benefits and public services than they provide in tax revenue.
The Social Democrats in Denmark seem (perhaps) to be one of the few establishment parties that understand this – the left in Britain is utterly delusional, away with the elves and pixies.
As for libertarian free migration – if someone does not do away with all government benefits and public services BEFORE they open the gates – then they are just as crazy as the left.
I would add a final point – you should open your door to friends, not to enemies, and you should make sure that someone is a friend, not an enemy, before you open the door to them.
So I would NOT support Open Borders – even if there were no government benefits or public services.