Quote Originally Posted by jackvance View Post
The main demographic problem western european countries and places like Australia face is that while the indigenous population is reproducing at below the replacement rate, large immigration is being coupled with welfare which gives the maximum pay-out when these families have 6-7 children. I really don't get this because it sets future generations up for a very big problem as in a few decades most of europe will have a majority population of third worlders who never integrated into society. This has become a very hot topic in recent years. When this comes up in conversation people will say "yeah this is a time bomb that's going to burst at some point". The official rationale is that we need to import people to maintain a young workforce to pay for the elderly's pensions but in practice welfare has proven to be just an extra tax on society, not in the least become a substantial portion of the people who flee their country for a better life in western nations are those that have been spit out by their own society, ie criminals.
Yes, the welfare state causes a lot of problems like this. If the benefits were contracted and immigration were relaxed, people would have the best of both worlds: the indigenous people would keep more of their money and generally have more and better jobs, and the immigrants would still be able to have a better life working in the primary/secondary sectors albeit with fewer perks and below currently imagined minimum wages. It would be a more income inequal society, but almost everyone would be better off. There's nothing inherently wrong with income inequality.