Sorry Max I was away for a bit. I know it's a bit off topic but I had to pull you up on both.
And what was the GDP per capita? If the GDP raises at the same rate the population does is there any actual growth or are we simply maintaining?
Real growth was referring to growth post inflation. Which you linked noted as well. Rising prices leads to increases in nominal growth. The very source you provided uses the term real GDP and nominal GDP.
Demand on its own is useless. Simply wanting shit is not growth.
I'm aware of the difference Max that's why I put real in quotation marks. Your initial post referred to "has there been real growth?" I'll refrain from sarcasm in the future, it's a bad habit.
The problem with what you're saying is laying straight in front of you in the figures. In fact in your own sentence. What's wrong with growing our population and maintaining a small amount of growth in what is one of the highest GDP per capita in the world? Many of those people will hopefully go on to be drivers of future economic growth. We are privileged in many ways in this country. None more so than that we're considered an attractive destination for the best and brightest of the world to come and contribute their skills and knowledge here.
Demand on it's own is hardly useless when we're talking over the cycle. We don't live in a model. No modern government is going to accept taking 10, 20, 30 years to get back to a 'pure' equilibrium and nor should they.
I have no idea what that last bit means.
A lack of population causes environment issues? Thats a new one. You only need constant population growth for your economic if you are trying to run an constantly growing consumption machine. A economic system which is based on debt and thus shifting financial burdens onto later generations.
Indeed max, it's actually not a new concept at all. It's been a part of the discussion of arguments around Australian agriculture for years. Not enough hands on the land in this country has led to unsustainable exploitation of it's resources. For example the squatters stripped the pasture bare for short term economic gain rather than the long health of the land itself because they thought they could always find some other place to move the stock once it was ruined. The same mindset has infected most of Australian society
because we're so sparsely populated. Take water for example. As we're constantly being told, we inhabit one of the driest countries in the world and yet even basic water recycling measures like storm runoff are only now being implemented. Same goes for housing. Why build denser communities when you can just flatten another swamp for an estate? Our sparse population has given us the illusion of never ending abundance when in fact our country is incredibly fragile.
It's been a while but I don't remember reading Keynes say that a government's role was to be heavily indebted. On a basic level it's about balance across the cycle. Save in the good times, spend in the bad. A well managed neo-Keynesian strategy would be that of the Clinton administration that paid off nearly all of US Federal deficit during a property boom. If Bush didn't piss it all away in a series of wars and wanton fiscal irresponsibility, he or Obama might have had a great deal more room to stimulate the economy without putting pressure on its deficit.
Well isn't it up to the people to what they want their country to be? If people want cities with 4x2 in capital cities why the hell shouldn't they? Maybe the city won't grow into the overseas giants but is that such a bad thing?
If you want to live in a shoebox in rat city there are plenty of cities in the world that will welcome you with open arms. Not every city has to follow the same rules.
You're trying too hard to disagree with me Max and it's showing. Aren't developers capitalists too? Am I not also entitled in the free market to live in a "shoebox?"
Or in this instance do you support the regulation of planning to preserve the carbon intensive, car commuter, banal, lifeless suburbia we've created?
Have your big house with the picket fence in the suburbs. I'd just like a vibrant inner city.