Sathius005
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- 2018
Growth at any price too dear
Source: AFR
Entrepreneurs Dick Smith and Flight Centre founder Graham Turner say Australia must abandon its quest for unending economic growth because a “Big Australia” is unsustainable. The leading businessmen have become campaigners for a small population and criticize economists for promoting economic growth at all costs and politicians for lacking the courage to talk about constituent worries about the growing population. Former Treasurer Peter Costello baby exhortation to have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country was outrageous and government payments such as the baby bonus and paid parental leave discouraged people from taking their own responsibility for having a family. Mr Smith said Australia’s immigration policy was like a “Ponzi scheme” to support our ageing population. “What we’ve been told is the way you solve the ageing population problem is to have more immigrants now” he said. “Of course they get older, so you need even more (immigration)… (but) you are not going to solve the problem by the way we are looking at it now.” A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics titled Does Size Matter? Published on Tuesday, projected the nation’s population 20 and 50 years from 2013. It projected the population in 2033 at 31 million under the current growth rate. In 2063, it projected 42 million on the current growth rate. However, with the current population trends there would be more retirees than school children within twenty years. The ABS report found that if the population was reined with zero immigration there would be 70 dependents (old people and children) to every 100 workers. If Australia continued on its current population growth rate, there would be 59 dependents for every 100 workers.
Source: AFR
Entrepreneurs Dick Smith and Flight Centre founder Graham Turner say Australia must abandon its quest for unending economic growth because a “Big Australia” is unsustainable. The leading businessmen have become campaigners for a small population and criticize economists for promoting economic growth at all costs and politicians for lacking the courage to talk about constituent worries about the growing population. Former Treasurer Peter Costello baby exhortation to have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country was outrageous and government payments such as the baby bonus and paid parental leave discouraged people from taking their own responsibility for having a family. Mr Smith said Australia’s immigration policy was like a “Ponzi scheme” to support our ageing population. “What we’ve been told is the way you solve the ageing population problem is to have more immigrants now” he said. “Of course they get older, so you need even more (immigration)… (but) you are not going to solve the problem by the way we are looking at it now.” A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics titled Does Size Matter? Published on Tuesday, projected the nation’s population 20 and 50 years from 2013. It projected the population in 2033 at 31 million under the current growth rate. In 2063, it projected 42 million on the current growth rate. However, with the current population trends there would be more retirees than school children within twenty years. The ABS report found that if the population was reined with zero immigration there would be 70 dependents (old people and children) to every 100 workers. If Australia continued on its current population growth rate, there would be 59 dependents for every 100 workers.
