Gary Becker: Immigrants Should Pay

In a new interview with The Telegraph, the Nobel economist Gary Becker offers an economist’s solution to immigration reform: charge immigrants for citizenship – $50,000 per immigrant to start. “A lot of people don’t want to talk about it because you look like you’re discriminating,” says Becker. “But people feel very strongly about immigration. So I think it’s a good time now to be proposing a more sensible policy than what we’ve seen in any country.” Becker also suggests raising the retirement age (to reduce entitlement spending) and believes that “the center of economic gravity is gradually moving to Asia.”[%comments]