Today, Greg Mankiw quotes from Larry Lindsey:
Unlike some nations--Canada, for example--we do not "sell" residency to people who promise to bring in investment money and create jobs. As economists would say, if you're not going to ration by price, you're going to ration by queue.
and asks:
Why not ration by price?
As noted above, Canada does exactly that: an investment of $400,000 buys you residency in Canada. So although we don't having waiting lists measured in thousands of people and/or decades, we have a different problem:
PM won't set targets for immigrants:
"Well I think we need more," Harper said when asked by a reporter whether his government would increase the number of immigrants entering Canada.
But the prime minister appeared cool to the idea of setting specific target numbers, saying the previous Liberal government set targets that were never met.
"Just having a number out there I don't think matters," he said.
Harper said it's more important to make sure applications are processed quickly.
This week, Immigration Minister Monte Solberg seemed to hint that the previous government's target of 300,000 new immigrants to Canada each year was too high.
Harper also announced the federal government will introduce a bill to ease restrictions on foreign adoptions, making it easier for children overseas to become Canadian citizens.
The prime minister reiterated the government's plan to immediately cut the immigrant landing fee from $975 to $490.
There has to be an arbitrage opportunity there, somewhere.
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