"On the other hand, it's ludicrous to compare Australia to an overcrowded Asian country and laughable to even consider the Gold Coast having problems caused by overcrowding. Drive away from the Gold Coast and you are on an empty country road in minutes. You don't know what overpopulation is until you choof out of Delhi main rail station and view 20,000 squatters using the railway embankment at the end of the station as a toilet.
After that, it seems despicably self-indulgent to even mention the poor old dears in Tweed Heads being "forced out of their homes" - no doubt crying all the way to the bank."
So Fullguy thinks it despicably self-indulgent of me to feel sorry for the 'poor old dears' because 20,000 homeless on the outskirts of Delhi use a railway embankment as a dunny? My dogs are well pampered, but on seeing the horrendous treatment of dogs and cats in China I cannot say that I felt any urge to cut veins in their hind legs and hang them from a fence. And I am sure that Fullguy feels no urge to defecate on the grass on passing a railway station as a result of his experience. But back to the 'poor old dears'.
Some have spent most of their lives in the Tweed Shire. They bought/built there when it was a lifestyle choice. Now buying near the beach is aspirational for most, the stuff of Gold Lotto advertisements. Some 'poor old dears' find themselves asset rich but unable to pay the rates. So they sell and move elsewhere. Lucky things!
The story of the 'poor old dears' is a good example of the pernicious effect of population growth on living standards, and property developers are doing quite nicely from their part in the degradation. Out of interest, I wonder if Fullguy sees any despicable self-indulgence on the part of the developers?
Overpopulation is a cause of great despair and misery in the world, but some profit greatly from it. Just think of all the cheap labour. And Australia's hospitals and brothels couldn't function anywhere near as cheaply without medical personnel and sex slaves from deveoloping countries. And developers couldn't profit from environmental vandalism and social degradation without high immigration.
Yes, it is ludicrous to compare Australia to an overcrowded Asian country, but it is also silly to use the destitute in Asia as a benchmark for our own living standards. And sillier still to think that the example justifies degrading living standards here. The question of whether living standards are rising or falling is the issue. The rise in property values in comparison to average income of late may bring a feeling of wealth. But such a rise also increases the cost of living in relation to income. Thus living standards are being degraded. Such could not occur to anywhere near the same extent without high immigration.
