An article in the Weekend AFR (pp27 1-2/05/2010), points out that both Melbourne and Sydney are larger than all U.S. cities except New York
Thats right even bigger than L.A. at 3.8mil. Yet while the U.S. has 150 cities between 100k and 400k population, we have just 10.
Having lived there (L.A) for almost 2 years, I find this VERY hard to believe. L.A is far more congested as a whole than Melb. The County of L.A alone has 12 mill. I think the State of California has more people than the whole Aus population.
Given housing shortages and house price inflation, do you think we should be enchouraging more population growth in our non capital cities?
Absolutely not.
Again, having lived in the US for nearly 3 years, I can promise you that their lifestyle is no better than ours; in fact, for the majority of people - middle class and below - their lifestly is worse. Their healthcare system is a disgrace; for example, when we moved there, my wife's job paid for HER health insurance, which was 75% cover. The rest was out of her pocket if she needed any medical attention. Now, given that your average appendix operation (not a major op these days) would cost around $10k, this leaves the patient $2,500 out of pocket. Not only this, but the time off from work comes out of your HOLIDAYS; there is no sick leave as such.
My son and I had to supply our own healthcare, at a minimum cost of $500 per month - yes; $500 PER MONTH. We organised our own insurance from Aus before we left to go there - travel insurance at a cost of just under $2k per year. If we got sick, we had to pay our medical bills first, and then apply for re-imbursement. This was the only way we could afford to get adequate insurance.
There are homeless and jobless people wandering the streets in every city and town we visited there, and we visited PLENTY. The main reason; bankruptcy from medical expenses. other reasons; mentally ill patients out on the street becuase the system can't afford to keep them any more..and so on.
In case you are wondering, U.S. population is now 304mil vs Australia 21mil.
So, as an add on from the last sentence of mine; what makes anyone think that a large population is going to improve our Country?
The US economy is a wreck, and the average person is broke, and getting broker.
All we will be doing is adding more noughts to the population, and for what benefit?
If you think increasing our population in Aus is a good thing, you are a bloody idiot.
And finally, cop this; we just got off skype with one of my wife's ex-work colleagues who now lives in Oakland. She is a nurse too. The Hospital where she works is currently NOT hiring any more nursing staff. I'm talking NO-ONE; not even casual "travellers", who are the mainstay of their staff during shortages, and they are even talking about lay-offs..
As well as this; her brother-in-law who is an engineer has just applied for a job (he lives in Chicago) and there were 800 - yes 800 - job applicants.
Now, does having another 250 million odd people sound like this is a good outcome for the greater economy?