What does 4K think about charging for citizenship?

Posted by Sir Four at 11:06am May 7 '13
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Above, I linked a summary of the argument. In brief:

I use as an illustration a price of $50,000. I show that such a price would attract young, skilled, and ambitious men and women since they would gain the most from coming here. … A loan program analogous to the student loan program would lend money to poorer but ambitious immigrants, so that they are not kept out by the cost of entry.

I can see the advantages. US citizenship (and this would be similar for Canada, UK, etc as well) is desirable for many. By enacting a fee, you not only create a new revenue stream for government funding, but you select for those individuals who would, by necessity, be net producers--either because they are independently wealthy and would thus bring their wealth locally, or because they'll seek a return on the $50,000 they spent acquiring citizenship. The link suggests it'll attract the "young, skilled and ambitious", which seems rather likely.

There's an obvious downside, in that it's not "fair"--particularly to those coming from poverty. The suggestion is that there'd be a loan program for such individuals, which isn't a bad idea. A type of scholarship program could improve the situation further.

Another objection would be purely on principle--that citizenship shouldn't be commodified in this way. I'm interested in what you all think.