A cura di @D.

Un articolo su Project Syndicate (disponibile sul sito di Hans-Werner Sinn in versione completa) analizza la relazione tra welfare state e libertà di movimento nell’Unione Europea.

A fundamental issue is at stake. Welfare states are defined by the principle that those who enjoy above-average income pay more taxes and contributions than what they get back in the form of public services, while those with below-average earnings pay less than they receive. This redistribution, channeling net public resources toward lower-income households, is a sensible correction to the market economy, a kind of insurance against life’s vicissitudes and the rigors of scarcity pricing that characterize the market economy and have little to do with equitableness.
Welfare states are fundamentally incompatible with the free movement of people between countries if the newcomers have immediate and full access to public benefits in their host countries. In such cases, countries can act as welfare magnets, attracting many more migrants than would be economically advisable, because the newcomers receive, in addition to their wages, a migration grant in the form of public transfers. Only if migrants received only wages could efficient self-regulation in migration be expected.

Immagine da Wikimedia.