Further Pericles, there is no evidence to suggest that welfare or job creation are improved with population growth other than perhaps the odd spark.

For instance, the US has an immigration policy of 1 million per year which by your argument, they should be swimming in jobs. Yet look at the graphs displayed here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/the-rich-create-bubbles-not-jobs.html

the US now have some 20 million in poverty. Our rate of immigration per capita dwarfs the US and all other countries. The tax base cannot grow as fast as the demands of the population - hence the sell off of assets, our increasingly bankrupt states, increasingly environmentally risky mineral resource extraction and with all this, the ever declining conditions increasingly more are in.

Land use control is the key, Any other issue is secondary at best.

These are certainly concerns, Matt Moran.

>>2 million at or below the poverty line, 2 million illiterate, 17.5% un/under employment, in places 40% youth unemployment, growing waiting lists for hospital care, more and more user pay roads etc endangered Koalas, Numbats, Black Cockatoos for just a few.<<

But what makes you so certain that the resolution can be found in population control?

What exactly will be the impact of closing our borders? How exactly will the hobbling of our vital industries by starving them of qualified workers help the poor? How exactly will you place those 40% of youths in useful employment, once you have slowed our economy to a crawl? How will the waiting lists at hospitals reduce, when you have a one-way traffic of medical skills... outbound? And what exactly is the connection between population growth and the appearance of user-pay roads? And what are Koalas doing in your list of population tragedies?

And this one needs just a little more detail to be even remotely credible.

>>...Australia has now sold more than 85% of it's wealth<<

Perhaps just a teensy bit of evidence might not go astray, what do you think?

Your arguments, if they can be called that, and your raw emotional call to stem the hordes of immigrants who are upsetting your life, might look impressive on a placard. But they don't stand up to a minute's scrutiny.

Pericles,

How do you explain the good performance of numerous other countries (as I listed in my previous post) that have very low or negative population growth rates, but still perform very well economically and provide a good quality of life for their citizens? Why aren't they basket cases by your reasoning? You have presented zero evidence to refute the Productivity Commission report or Prof. Rowthorn.

Population growth is good for rich people, not so much because of the very modest effects on GNP per capita, as because it increases the size of the total pie, giving them more to skim, and because of the distributional effects, allowing wealth to be siphoned up to the top, as discussed in the Productivity Commission report. Matt Moran is right.

I would like to give the floor to a post on the Naked Capitalism blog where they were discussing the problems in Greece and the rise of the far right Golden Dawn party:

"Timothy Gawne says:
October 21, 2012 at 11:48 am
"Certainly this is true – if the main political parties offer nothing but poverty and oppression what else are the Greek people to do? Don’t blame the average Greek, blame the politicians, banks and lying economists who brought them to this state.

"If I may though, I do think that many posts are missing the point about “Golden Dawn.” The workers in any country have a vested interest in the rate of immigration not being so high as to drive down wages. They want the border controlled, the same as you don’t want strangers wandering into your house and helping themselves without limit (check out Samuel Gompers and Cesar Chavez). The rich, however, very much DO want open borders, because it creates an overwhelming downwards pressure on wages – and no Virginia, even unions can’t fight the law of supply and demand (there is ZERO record of unions making progress when there are 100 people competing for each job. Unions can’t make water flow uphill either)

(cont'd)

(cont'd)

"But saying that we are going to import an excessive number of foreign nationals in order to drive workers into poverty doesn’t sound very good, so the rich gussie up their vile policy with pretty words like ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’, and they slander any opponent as a racist. They will also muddy the water by talking about the character of the immigrants themselves, when of course the real issue is the rate at which foreign nationals are allowed to immigrate.

"In the time of FDR etc., liberals and progressives understood this and were unashamed of moderating the pace of immigration of foreign nationals. Now most ‘liberals’ have either sold out or become useful idiots. If the only party offering to defend the average worker from this sort of abuse is a bunch of Nazis, well, we are going to push people into the arms of the Nazis, aren’t we? Again, I don’t blame the Greeks, I blame you/us.

"Disagree if you will, but please don’t waste our time by saying that I am ‘scapegoating immigrants.’ The historical record is overwhelming: when the rich force population growth, either via importing excessive numbers of foreign nationals or propaganda encouraging large families, the result is ALWAYS poverty for the many and riches for the few. Just one example: recently in Singapore the oligarchs rapidly increased immigration. Immediately wages fell and rents increased. This always happens, and if we continue to deny the obvious, and extremist Nazis/Stalinists fill the gap, it will be we who are responsible."

Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/10/greek-society-unravels-under-austerity-measures.html#xr4Spv4abPucJqud.9

Nice work Divergence.

Looks like we're well on track to increase population growth rate yet again:
"And that rough-and-ready trend estimate shows a net inflow - long-term arrivers minus leavers - running at more than 27,000 a month, or around 330,000 at an annual rate. A year ago, it was closer to 270,000 a year; 12 months before that it was around 175,000. So, this measure of net migration flows has nearly doubled."
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8560073/travel-figures-suggest-population-surge