"Modern economics is dead to them. They don't subscribe to capitalism."

So what is the per capita infrastructure and education cost to provide the Australian living standard, Cheryl? You seem more interested in abusive tirades than arguing the economic benefits of recent immigration.

R&B: “Your funny...”

[“My funny” R&B? Yes, and you're illiterate, and that's very unfunny. Learning your language from orangutans or bonobo chimps? Like “specism”? Is that discrimination against people who wear or don't wear glasses? Or is it bigotry against beasts? If the latter, I'll contact my union so that we can lodge a formal complaint about the bosses' continuing refusal to hire your pet axolotls as database administrators]

Anthropology has committed various offences for racism, imperialism and fascism. But these guys reduce it into a cruder kernel of entomology whereby humans are the insects; countries nothing more than ant farms, and; creativity, innovation, adaptability and even civilization itself just gross impertinence, an affront to nature, nuisances to an imaginary, staid, sacred order of eternal swamp-life. Their ideal of perfection is life-as-stasis, which probably says much about themselves and their own insular, complacent torpor.

Serious economics is a subject way beyond these guys; it's the domain of “human agency” after all – no bonobos of much relevance there.

In that respect, the anti-migrant zeal would be hilarious – if you're an Australian with dual-citizenship, overseas work, accommodation, and a smooth ticket outta here, that is.

Migrants pay full-fee education and tax, but get no Centrelink, FAO, Medicare, pensions, are limited to 20 hours work per week to survive, but somehow it's as if they're the liability! If migrants were not here to do so many jobs, this country would have ground to a pathetic, screeching halt years ago.

And why don't these economic geniuses make the same dullard's superficial inference of "migrants=debt" for Australia's postwar immigration boom? Let's see: the huge infrastructure cost, and massive, endless debt burden, from the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, all because of migrants? But built almost entirely by the vast influx of migrants! And there was no privatizing scam involved either.

Their (usually) thinly veiled fascism and racism are bad enough on universal moral grounds. But their lazy and shallow minds are a disgrace in their own right. The immigration issue is where the greens' socks & sandals cavort with the skinheads' boots and braces.

“A lip-service of peace, and a “peace” of corpses and ashes, no less...and from an “animal lover”...... Learning your language from orangutans or bonobo chimps?”

Ah….that’s a bit rich Mi-lord from one who is a descendant of a gorilla and a member of a cabal of simian-like trogs, responsible for the Inquisitions, incessant anti-Judaism, racism and who whack divorcees, gays, family planners and the like and threaten little children with the fires of "hell." And just have a gander at the bloodthirsty deity of the Old Testament.

Nevertheless Mi-lord, I shall leave you with a few of your biblical passages to ponder which convey a very clear message – evident, even to unevolved screeching gorillas and ethics-free, pygmy chimps:

“The just man takes care of his beast but the heart of the wicked is merciless.” Proverbs 12:10

“And to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food.” Gen. 1:30

Ah hah……..is your supernatural deity a vegan Mi-lord?

“As for the children of men, it is God’s way of testing them and of showing that they are in themselves like beasts. For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath and man has no advantage over the beast; for all is vanity. Both go to the same place; both were made from the dust, and to the dust they both return.” Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

“For nightmares come with many cares and a fool’s utterance with many words.” Eccl: 5:2

Indeed Mi-lord - “Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch!"

kulu, you didn't actually read my response at all, did you? Otherwise you'd note that I didn't say a thing about Chinese dams. I merely pointed out that glaciers are currently retreating from a maximum reached last century, and that that fact still doesn't alter the amount of water in the system.

I guess you just read my uncharitable comments about Saint Lester, and immediately averted your eyes; well, that can't be helped: I hold Brown and his ilk in the deepest contempt. To paraphrase the great Albert Rosenfeld of "Twin Peaks": I suffer fools rarely, and fools with degrees never.

Lester Brown is obviously intelligent and well-educated; sadly, he seems so deeply wedded to a dogmatic worldview that is unable to see modern society as anything but "dysfunctional", that like any other fundamentalist, every piece of information can only be seen through the lens of that gloomy worldview.

But as you seem determined to miss the point, I'll try spelling it out again:
(cont'd)

(contd ... )
Yes, overpopulation is a potential problem, but it's a manageable one, and it's being managed.

So why am I so against the SPA and their apparatchiks? Because if the 20th Century taught me nothing else, it taught me to be deeply suspicious of dogmatic zealots who wish to assert control of the most basic aspects of peoples' lives. Especially when they affirm that it's "for the greater good".

Let's assume SPA get their way, and Australia's population is mandated at, say, 7 million. Even if SPA also get to halt immigration, what to do with the other 14 million selfish humans? Would SPA mandate the one-child policy that some have openly considered - "for the greater good", of course?

Still, 14 million people aren't going to conveniently drop dead overnight, or even in the next few decades. It seems to be a given with green alarmists that for any given problem, "we must act now, before it's too late!" 20 or 30 years max. seems to be the standard timeline.

What to do, what to do?

Repatriate all overseas-born Australians? For the greater good.

Voluntary euthenasia? For the greater good.

I'm sure they'll eventually come up with a final solution. For the greater good, of course.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I also recall a former Bosnian university student remembering an odd fellow named Radovan Karadzic who used to hang around their political discussions; they always thought he was a bit of a buffoon, if harmless enough.

ClownFish: "Yes, overpopulation is a potential problem, but it's a manageable one, and it's being managed"

Yes it is, by starvation, griding poverty and civil war. Look overpopulation is a problem only in the poor World... it is THE CAUSE OF POVERTY. Across Nth Africa, Parts of the Middle east and Oceanea, the poorest parts of the WOrld are the places with the highest fertility. And it has been like that for generations.

Terribly poor Hiati has grown from 3 to 10 million over tle last couple of decades... and that is why they are so desperately poor. With no resources to speak of, they have half the population of Australia.

Niger has a fertility of 7 children per woman!

There are three Australias (60 million people) living in "slumdog Millionairre" shanty-towns in India...

There is simply NO WAY that we in the wealth World can help such a HUGE rapidly growing mass of poverty... We have to help them by giving them the simple, safe CHOICE of contraception and education.

Contraceptive Hormonal implants can last for several years and are cheap. Copupled with a culturally suitable PR campaign we could save these people from decades of war and famine. We could save their rapidly declining environments.

We could make a difference.

On the other hand, in Countries like Australia, WE NEED MORE BABIES. Our fertility is the same as China, and their one-child policy! We are committing a self-inflicted genocide against ourselves.

We need to scrap the Familiy Tax A, B, Childcare benefit, maternity leave, baby bonus... and simply give people a BIG TAX cut for each child they have. We need to encourage people to marry and for marriages to survive, as only single parents who have large families are the welfare dependent.

We need to reward fatherhood and get more men willing to become fathers.