I have been reading the LDP’s proposed policy on immigration. The benefits to immigration are obvious. Immigrants work, spend, invest, and improve the economy. The LDP agrees with this but say the following: “Given Australia’s extensive welfare system it is necessary to place limits on immigration.” While in the ideal capitalists economy, there would be no welfare, Australia and other countries do have welfare systems, and immigrants who take welfare may result in increased taxes.
A solution to this problem is to simply not allow migrants to go on welfare. Then over time we gradually pull back welfare for domestic citizens as well. Of course, most people would object to this. No welfare they imagine will mean children will die on our streets. This ignores the charity of private individuals.
Of course, if we want to maintain the welfare state then we will need some surge protector to stop too many immigrants from coming in. I am not happy with politicians simply setting an arbitrary number. What I recommend is the auctioning and subsequence trading in a secondary market of migrant passes.
The government will auction off 500,000 migrant passes every year. One migrant pass allows one migrant to enter Australia. The government auctions the passes off to the highest bidder on the international market.
Some people in Australia don’t like immigrants. Maybe they don’t like foreigners or they don’t like large crowds. Those Australians who don’t like migrants can simply buy a migrant pass and then store it away, thereby preventing an immigrant from coming to Australia. Those people who want immigration, e.g. businesses who want more labor, can subsidize migrant passes by buying the migrant passes from the government and then selling them for a lower price to migrants, accepting the loss because they want higher migration.
The money raised from the auctioning of these migrant passes should be used to fund infrastructure.
Of course, if Australia were undergoing an infrastructure crisis due to population growth, why in the world is the Liberal Party subsidizing baby production with its Baby Bonus policy?
Selling 500,000 passes per year is arbitrary but it doesn’t matter because the buying and selling of passes will make the units irrelevant.
