[extropy-chat] Libertarian paternalism

[Ian Goddard]

--- Ian Goddard <iamgoddard at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
>  Secondly, trends in immigration should be a good
> measure of societies that best meet the needs of
> people. Based on my own informal observations I
> believe the general trend is for people to leave
> less free economies and move to freer economies.
> Certainly, by itself, the history of immigration 
> into the United States stands as a prima facie 
> example of mass movements of people into freer 
> economies. 


 While most would consider the Heratage Foundation to
be a biased source, in describing the contents of
their "2006 Index of Economic Freedom" they say:

"Do large disparities in economic freedom contribute
to illegal immigration? You bet they do. Take a look
at the Index and you'll see for yourself that the vast
majority of illegal immigrants journey from countries
with less economic freedom to those with more."

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads/BusinessUserGuide.pdf

 But a study by John Ashby of immigration into
different states within the USA points to another
attractor, welfare, along with ecomonic freedom: 

http://www.be.wvu.edu/divecon/econ/nashby/Research/Economic%20Freedom%20and%20Migration%20Flows%201-06.pdf

I've heard that welfare is an attractor affecting
migration to Europe. But I'd suggest that even when
welfare is a factor, economic freedom is still the
default attractor since generally speaking, only
countries with sufficient economic freedom will
generate enough resources to redistribute to welfare
recipients. Certainly migration to the USA was massive
prior to the advent of the welfare state such that the
immigrants weren't looking for hand outs but for an
economic opportunity/freedom. Hong Kong (at least
prior to the Chinese take over) has also been a scene
of massive immigration even as it offered little if
any welfare, but total economic freedom.

 Again, where people want to be is a good measure of
what economic systems best meet people's needs. I
believe that the full body of evidence would show that
economic freedom (and thus less central planning) is
the overall attractor in that regards (even when
welfare is sought as per comments above).


http://IanGoddard.net
 
"A proposition is a model of reality as we imagine
it." - Wittgenstein


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