For one who is 'in housing' every arrival means more money for the bank-book. Beautiful money!

The one resource we desperately need is being killed off by our education system, bright young minds ! Our present system is playing right into the hands of Globalisation.

Divergence,
the interwar period is fascinating. If you read Hobsbawm's "Age of Extremes", he argues that the reaction against globalisation was fascistic. Despite the paranoia of the Cold War period the only real threat to the world order was fascism, which was mollified by Keynesianism. The communists were jumping the gun in a world that wasn't ripe for it. I'd argue that enlightened self-interest is not a spontaneous reaction to economic fundamentalism; fascism is.
The response, as you say, was a degree of equity between rich and poor, and this gives hope that such a situation could be repeated. Indeed it's being argued in books published since the GFC (for instance "New Capitalism" by Kevin Doogan) that neoliberalism (globalisation) remains essentially conservative (rather than stateless) and ergo vulnerable to hard-nosed negotiators. But these are negotiations preferred by the rich host nation, and whatever benefits accrued are projected as a purely internal redistribution of wealth, and cold comfort in terms both of international equity and environmental sustainability. More important, corporate vulnerability in terms of its conservative, stay-at-home bias, does not extend to broad-brush reforms such as economic pacifism.
tbc

The writer is biased for personal gain and cannot speak for the general good. This speaker for the Property Council wants us all to live meaner so the suburb developers can continue to make money.

Australia is fundamentally different to what it was in 1960. Most easy water sources are fully used. BUT most important, cheap and abundant oil is no longer available. As we enter into the decline of world oil supply after the Peak Oil point, growth economies become impossible. (Cost of oil at 5% of GDP makes growth impossible)

As a result of more expensive energy and resultant recessison, unemployment will approach numbers not seen since the Great Depression. The result will be that all those immigrants will be standing in line waiting for a handout. Is this what the author wants?

Everyone should join the Stable Population Party of Australia to get the message across.
cheers

cheers

Michael Dw,

Well said.
Over population is the biggest problem in the world today.
The only country which is tackling it is China.
We could all take a lesson from there.

Samian,
I agree that world increase in population is the major problem and increasing our immigration will not solve that.

However China is not the only country doing something about that. Iran has lowered its birthrate from 3.2% to 1.2%. Am told in Japan parents incur penalties if they have more than one child, but that needs verifacation. Heard rumours that India had something going or was considering such.

The biggest obstacle to reducing birthrates is religion.