NZ giving unemployed one-way airfares to Australia to get them off dole

The total numbers are small… apparently only 16 in the first year. But imagine if the US instituted a policy of giving people only so many weeks of food stamps or unemployment or such, and then giving them a one-way plane ticket to Elsewhere.

According to Orbitz, one-way tickets from Detroit to London cost about $1500; from Los Angeles to Paris, $1200; from New York to Sydney, $1900 or so. While a bit of a punch in the wallet, these would be one-time expenses, after which the US taxpayers would no longer need to spend another dime. Given the trillions spent annually on things like Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, the criminal justice system, emergency rooms, education, Social Security and the like… giving some people the option to get a free flight to anywhere in the world might be a fantastic way to get the budget under control.