Australia - Standing room only when 80% of Australians do not want a big Australia

The most recent figures from the Bureau of Statistics confirm the economy has grown at an average annual rate of only 2.5 per cent over the past two financial years. At the same time, with population growth at nearly 2% per year, it means that our population has grown nearly 4% in 2 years, faster than the economy! No wonder we have increasing poverty and unemployment. We are in population overshoot! The more of us there are, the more thinly our wealth is spread between more people SMH: Ross Gittins- RBA wants all on board in a waiting game Some have noted the impending loss of jobs in car making and elsewhere, and are wondering where the new jobs will come from? With an economy increasingly based on housing and population growth, where will the jobs come from? We are in population overshoot of jobs, yet our government is aiming at more "growth"! Gittins says "some people imagine the economy grows only to the extent the government is doing things to push it along. It ain't true. What propels the economy, keeping the number of jobs increasing virtually every year, is the material aspirations of business people and households". We can't keep accumulating material possessions, and there's limited natural resources, and compounding wastage and pollution. Australia is really in the midst of a recession. Why? Because per capital GDP is shrinking relative to population growth. Per person income and wealth on average is shrinking. Collectively the Australian people have squandered their wealth into property. Property is static, and doesn't produce long term jobs. It was quite predictable that the mining boom would come to an end and we have nothing else to replace it. With unaffordable tertiary education, and cut-backs in funding for science and research, it means that our jobs are more likely to be in customer service industries, not those with highly specialized skills. We can only wonder how many of our "skilled migrants" are actually working in their skilled area - or in customer service? Our real estate sales to foreigners aligned with other real estate initiatives like land banking and drip-feeding housing growth and high rates of immigration all pushes up house prices and is considered as GDP growth. This alone accounts for more loss of productivity when you compare the amount of money needed for housing in Australia and wage levels needed just to keep up. Official figures released in May this year show Australians owe $1.8 trillion to banks and other lenders. But while the household debt is growing at a slower pace, it is still growing, and over the past 25 years it's been growing at twice the pace of house prices. Dwelling investment now accounts for 10.7% of our GDP, and such a healthy proportion means inflating the housing bubble, and exploiting household budgets, to their full-blown extent.