THE LATE NOBEL Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman was a free market libertarian who believed that immigrants helped make America great.
Yet he has become the restrictionist right’s weapon of choice to expunge the GOP’s pro-immigration faction.
It’s working. The Jack Kemp–style immigration champions are in complete retreat in the GOP, and the ultra restrictionists are on the march.
How has the latter group accomplished this feat? Partly by taking Friedman’s vague and general observation that free immigration is not compatible with the welfare state out of context and repeating it like a mantra at every opportunity. Not an hour goes by without some restrictionist somewhere—on blogs, social media, online comments sections—invoking Friedman’s comment to justify President Donald Trump’s aggressive border enforcement and push to slash immigration.
But these anti-immigrant conservatives are abusing Friedman. If they paid attention to his full remarks instead of conveniently cherry picking what suits them, they’d realize that far from cheering Trump’s draconian immigration crackdown, the great economist would be denouncing Trump as a colossal fool.
Denne historien er fra October 2018-utgaven av Reason magazine.
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Denne historien er fra October 2018-utgaven av Reason magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Libertarianism From the Ground Up
ARGUMENTS FOR LIBERTARIANISM typically take two forms. Some libertarians base their creed on natural rights-the idea that each individual has an inborn right to self-ownership, or freedom from aggression, or whatever-and proceed to argue that only a libertarian political regime is compatible with those rights.
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