Milton Friedman, Immigration, and the Welfare State

In my latest column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review I undertake a risky task: to disagree with Milton Friedman.  But Friedman was one of history's greatest scholars – and great scholars never accept arguments exclusively, or even chiefly, on authority.  Specifically, I here challenge Friedman's argument that the existence of America's welfare-state makes it unwise to return to the more-open immigration regime that America had until the 1920s.

Anticipating one objection – namely, that...