JC Denton wrote on Dec 11
th, 2023 at 1:36pm:
if australia had a way smaller population than now (i.e, no immigration at all for the past 50 years) we'd prob be even more prosperous, not less. it's simple math, you increase the number of people benefiting from a fixed mineral wealth endowment and the more the amount of wealth it adds per person decreases. makes zero sense for a country like australia to pursue a high population strategy anymore than it would for qatar or bahrain to.
Annual net migration growth (2023): 2.2%. Annual GDP growth (2022): 3.62%
Those two figures might not mean much if we hadn't had
consistent economic growth since 1991, the longest record of unbroken economic growth in the history of the world.
And far from having a high population strategy, Australia has a population of 26,473,055 - a small country, compared with similar sized economies. Our current migration target's around 200,000.
Canada, for example, has an immigration target of around half a million each year for the next few years. It has a population of 38 million. It has a nominal GDP of 1.98 trillion. We create 1.55 trillion in US dollars.
Contrary to your argument, our growth has been
driven by immigration. Growth figures follow immigration figures closely. Population is at the forefront of economic drivers used by Treasury to plan economic growth, the
three Ps: Population, Participation and Productivity.
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/what-the-three-ps-population-participation-an...These facts are not in doubt. The Australian economy is the envy of the world. With less than 30 million people, we get a big bang for our buck, so we shouldn't underestimate the importance of participation and productivity.
But population growth is
essential. Migrants add to economies. You can't produce more goods and services without more people. Likewise, you can't buy the things you need without people to do, make and deliver them. We stay healthy, for example, when we have enough good food, medicine, and doctors and nurses to treat us. We become smarter when we have enough teachers. We stay housed when we have enough builders. All of these things are in balance, in proportion to population, participation and productivity.
Hard to say why you're so down on immigration, dear. You're a migrant yourself, no? So's the guy you're chatting with. Aren't we all migrants in some way?
Year 9 maths, innit.