"You Can Have a Welfare State, or You Can Have Open Borders, But ..." writes Kenneth Anderson on on the Volokh Conspiracy [June 12, 2011]

Christopher Caldwell does not quote Milton Friedman’s famous observation in this New York Times opinion piece, but it underlies it.  Caldwell is a senior editor of the Weekly Standard and columnist for the Financial Times—as well as being the author of the most important book on Europe that I’ve read in years, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe.  This opinion piece addresses the same general concern as that book, updated to today: immigration and borders in Europe.  In many ways, after all, at least alongside the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is the startling re-introduction of border controls in Continental Europe, and a call by Sarkozy and Berlusconi for a revision of the famous Schengen agreement removing border controls among twenty-two European states (not including the UK and Ireland).

Seeing that, I thought I'd mention that the original source of that quote is an interview with Milton Friedman conducted by Peter Brimelow. [Milton Friedman, Soothsayer, Hoover Digest
1998 No. 2]

Word for word, what Friedman said, referring to what he called theWall Street Journal's idee fixe on immigration, was "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state."

"You Can Have a Welfare State, or You Can Have Open Borders, But ..." writes Kenneth Anderson on on the Volokh Conspiracy [June 12, 2011]

Christopher Caldwell does not quote Milton Friedman’s famous observation in this New York Times opinion piece, but it underlies it.  Caldwell is a senior editor of the Weekly Standard and columnist for the Financial Times – as well as being the author of the most important book on Europe that I’ve read in years, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe.  This opinion piece addresses the same general concern as that book, updated to today: immigration and borders in Europe.  In many ways, after all, at least alongside the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is the startling re-introduction of border controls in Continental Europe, and a call by Sarkozy and Berlusconi for a revision of the famous Schengen agreement removing border controls among twenty-two European states (not including the UK and Ireland).

Seeing that, I thought I'd mention that the original source of that quote is an interview with Milton Friedman conducted by Peter Brimelow. [Milton Friedman, Soothsayer, Hoover Digest 1998 No. 2] Word for word, what Friedman said, referring to what he called the Wall Street Journal'sid?©e fixe on immigration, was "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state."