The politicians Ponzi scheme: Big Immigration
A Ponzi scheme is a scam that can only continue as long as new victims sign up. Eventually, the scam falls down under its own weight. The major parties’ “Big Immigration” plan for Australia works the same way.
Politicians have relied on ever-increasing levels of immigration for decades.
1
Immigrants grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP is a measure of all the economic activity happening in the country. Every purchase, sale and government dollar spent counts towards the total GDP.
Every new immigrant needs to spend money to survive, as we all do. This spending on food, housing and other essentials all adds to the country’s total GDP.
Politicians want higher GDP numbers. If total GDP shrinks for two quarters in a row, the country is defined as being in a recession. Going into a recession is a political disaster for the government. They want to avoid it at all costs.
The government’s solution to avoid an ugly recession is straightforward: keep immigration levels high, and the total GDP will keep increasing!
The problem is total GDP doesn’t measure how good our lives are. It doesn’t measure affordability, access to services or happiness. The average GDP per person (or per capita) tells us more.
In fact, before COVID, Australia was in a “per-capita recession”. 2 This means that while the total GDP was still increasing because of immigration, the average GDP per person was getting worse.
Everything seemed fine to the government. The total GDP was rising on paper, so we weren’t in an official recession. In the real world, the economy was getting worse on average for every Australian.
Like any Ponzi scheme, the immigration scam will eventually buckle under its weight. As more immigrants arrive, they put more pressure on our hospitals, roads, housing and rental markets and other infrastructure. The tension builds up far quicker than we can build infrastructure to catch up to the population growth.
With more pressure on essential services, Australia is less productive, dragging down the average GDP. The Government notices this and has to increase immigration to keep the total GDP up. Yet, this immigration puts even more pressure on our essential services dragging the average GDP down again.
This continues in a vicious cycle. The total GDP keeps increasing, and the average Australian’s life keeps worsening. Increasing immigration is like pouring fuel on a fire that immigration started. As the problem worsens, the government needs to bring in more immigrants to cover it up.
At least 650,000 immigrants will arrive in Australia over the next two years, a surprise increase of more than 50 per cent on forecasts in the October 2022 Budget.3
If this exponential increase is allowed to continue, the economy and our essential services will eventually buckle. We are already seeing the signs of Australia bursting at the seams.
Australia is already in the middle of a housing and rental crisis. Many young first-home buyers are entirely priced out of the market. Desperate tenants continue to tell horror stories of unaffordable rent increases.
Every one of the 650,000 arrivals will need to find a home, meaning today’s horror stories are just the start of the pain to come. We can’t build houses quickly enough, especially if the government locks up everyones’ land to save the Koala trees. The increased demand will skyrocket rents and make homes even more unaffordable.
The immediate decision we need to take as a country is clear. We must immediately cut immigration to net zero. That means Australia only takes the same number of arrivals as people who depart the country.
We must use this time to build essential infrastructure. We must allow essential services time to catch up to our current population level.
Most of all, we need the government to stop doing things to make themselves look good on paper and look after Australians.
A prominent immigration plan hurts Australians. Tell the government no and stop the immigration flood.
_________________________________________