Open borders vs. lavish social programmes: can't have both?

[White_Unifier]

My belief is that a welfare state cannot have even moderately open borders. No welfare state has ever succeeded over the long term with open borders and any state that has succeeded to any reasonable degree with open borders either had no social safety net (such as is the case with Svalbard, the only social safety net of which is a ticket back home) or had a minimalist one (such as Singapore or Hong Kong, both of which also leave their borders not quite as open as Svalbard does).

So, can a state have both lavish social programmes and open borders, or must it necessarily chose between the two to succeed?

 

[Murphy]

You would have to worry about freeloaders emigrating and damaging the system.

 

[Curious Cdn]

You would have to worry about freeloaders emigrating and damaging the system.

Build a wall and make all of the welfare recipients pay for it.

 

[White_Unifier]

You would have to worry about freeloaders emigrating and damaging the system.

Emigrating or immigrating?

Build a wall and make all of the welfare recipients pay for it.

You can't squeeze blood out of a rock.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

You can't squeeze blood out of a rock.

Can squeeze money outta one.

 

[White_Unifier]

Can squeeze money outta one.

How so?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

How so?

There's a whole big ol' mining industry dedicated to it.

 

[White_Unifier]

There's a whole big ol' mining industry dedicated to it.

That's what I thought you meant: but knowing your unpredictability, I thought I'd check.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

That's what I thought you meant: but knowing your unpredictability, I thought I'd check.

Sorry, Indun and all. Being sneaky's in the DNA.

 

[Hoid]

No welfare state has ever succeeded over the long term with open borders...

Can you provide an example?

 

[OpposingDigit]

The only way to prevent a brain drain is to offer social programs.
I think Canada should offer free energy/electricity to any company having more than 200 employees in order to attract them into Canada rather than compete with tax reductions. We have lots of hydro and lots of oil gas.