Gary Becker wrote about this in 2005: green card auctions.

250k is not expensive when you compare it to the cost of a house or college or university. 

Australia had a similar policy: immigrants had to demonstrate financial independence, in other words, one million dollars in assets and liquidity 

Bell_curve

culture

What is an optimal immigration policy?

interesting.

the pricing of citizenship would certainly make the whole process simpler, but you might end up with a country full of rich people who desperately need labor to run their businesses and can’t get enough of it.

i suppose financing would solve some of that, but i think it still is a bit too simplistic to create a robust, diverse, prosperous country.