I have just come back from 2 weeks in my old home Jakarta. When we went there to live there were 3 million people and it was easy to get around and very manageable. Those were the good days. The Governor, Ali Sadikin, closed the city to more incomers on advice from UN city planning experts as they said the bigger a city gets the harder it is to manage and the mega cities are beyond human management. Immigration was reduced down to those who had work permits. (Immigrants in this case refers to people coming to the city from the countryside). The Governor himself told me the story that the President eventually forced him to open the city to immigration. Population is now maybe 10 million and growing. The city is a total polluted gridlocked nightmare.
There is not enough infrastructure. The city is packed with millions of cars and motor bikes and it takes hours to inch along through this solid pack of vehicles, on every street, everywhere, at all times. If your taxi is immobile in traffic you can jump out and hop on the back of a motor bike. This will be a bit quicker. One has a choice of UBER bikes, GRAB bikes or GO JEK bikes all with their own distinctive helmets with the name in large letters across the back - great business. It is a good idea to cover your nose and mouth against the pollution - you should see what the police wear to protect themselves.
I knew I was seeing Melbourne as it will be in the future if our population keeps growing as it has been and we do not have the money for the infrastructure. Infrastructure is currently estimated to be $200 billion behind right now and remember that Infrastructure Vic said they would be spending $100 billion over the next 30 years. Think how far behind we will be then. What we are seeing in Melbourne right now is what I have seen happening in Jakarta over the years, It will end up like Jakarta now - a nightmare. We are insane to let this happen to Melbourne. We have got to tell the government loud and clear to reduce immigration right now before it is too late.
There are better ways to keep the economy going. The small rich European countries seem to manage by going in for super high tech whereas all we do is build more and more houses. We are being conned by a lazy stupid government with a ponzi scheme. So what happens when we double the population of Melbourne, does it stop there or does it keep growing? If the government still insists on high immigration it should allow migrants to come only if they live in country towns, It should provide jobs for them there and put in fast trains across Victoria connecting the towns. But no, all they do is pack them into Melbourne, in your back yard. Go to Jakarta if you want to see the future of Melbourne or Sydney.
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