Re:Advanced economies are so sick we need a new way to think...
by iSnow on Wednesday November 04, 2015 @04:08PM
(#10509781)
>In contrast, Germany--as part of the EU--has done the same for only about 20 years, and is even now poised to break/bend the agreement to deter an influx of migrants.
Wait a minute.
1) It's not just Germany. The Schengen area inside and partly outside the EU is playing catch-up with the consequences of increased work migration. We can even say the whole EU has tried to come up with solutions since the Eastern European states joined.
2) Currently Germany is one of the few countries /not/ trying to deter migrants. That does not only apply to refugees but also migrants from South and East Europe. It's a couple of other countries bending rules here.
3) Stop conflating intra-EU migration with the refugees.
When discussing social services, it's also important to discuss borders, because of the real-or-imagined threat of people doing all their tax-paying years in one jurisdiction and all their benefit-drawing years in another.
The various US states have been dealing with tenuous internal boundaries for 200 years, and it has affected the evolution of their various tax/benefit systems.
In contrast, Germany--as part of the EU--has done the same for only about 20 years, and is even now poised to break/bend the agreement to deter an influx of migrants.
TLDR: It much easier to maintain a high-welfare state when you have strong border-controls or are geographically remote from waves of immigration.