Australia’s population growth policy is a topic of substantial debate, with implications for both living standards and the economy. This comprehensive discussion explores why Australia’s population growth has stagnated and delves into the benefits of fostering a larger population from two key perspectives: improved living standards and economic prosperity.
Australia’s struggle to maintain a growing population is influenced by various factors, such as environmental concerns, higher living standards, and shifting economic perspectives. The historical trend of smaller families, driven by economic constraints, has contributed to the nation’s demographic challenges.
Contrary to the common belief that a larger population may be a burden, there are significant advantages to having a larger population. A larger population can result in:
Improved Living Standards: In the past, large families could face economic hardships due to the challenges of providing for many children. Smaller family sizes, while seemingly advantageous in the short term, can lead to long-term economic burdens and reduced living standards for future generations. Encouraging a well-skilled, larger population ensures that every able adult can contribute to economic development, benefiting the nation as a whole.
Improved Economic Standards: A larger population provides access to a more extensive pool of skilled professionals. This competition among professionals can lead to better services offered at competitive rates, reducing production costs. This economic advantage has been observed in countries like India and China, where a high population has resulted in oversaturated markets, pushing professionals to offer their expertise at lower prices and making domestically manufactured products more competitive on the global stage.
In conclusion, fostering a larger population in Australia is vital for the nation’s economic and social well-being. It helps ensure self-reliance, economic sustainability, and continued national prosperity. Encouraging population growth is not merely about increasing numbers; it’s about securing Australia’s future in a rapidly changing global landscape.
The Australian Government has a policy which encourages population growth. A larger
population can be viewed as being either advantageous to the country or not. Discuss. Consider it
from two perspectives. Use living standards or the economy perspectives
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Why Australia’s Populations Are Not Growing ........................................................................................... 3
Benefits of having a large population ........................................................................................................... 4
Improved living standards ......................................................................................................................... 5
Improved economic standards .................................................................................................................. 6
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 6
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Introduction
Every country grows heavily dependent on its population as an asset towards economic growth,
resulting in each nation requiring its population to reach and be maintained at a certain level.
This is important as this ensures the nation can rely on its own population to cater to its
economic and nationals development without needing to invite foreign nationals to perform the
work (Kresl & Ietri 2014). Once a nation’s population falls below a specific threshold the nation
grows dependent on foreign labor and skilled professionals which will result in the nation risking
to lose its national heritage and culture as the number of foreigners entering and working in the
nations grows larger than its native population. To combat this certain nation like Australia
promote a population growth policy amount its natives and citizens where they are encouraged to
have more children to increase the nation’s citizen population.
Why Australia’s Populations Are Not Growing
The past three decades have registered a constantly reducing reproduction rate in most developed
nations which has resulted in the nation’s population reducing or only being able to maintain a
certain level. This is a major concern for those nations in the future as it attracts major
complications over time. Some like Australia where the population is confined to less than 20%
of its land mass requires the population to increase so as to expand and utilize unutilized regions.
The failure for Australians population to increase has mainly been linked to aspects such as the
environment, higher living standards, and economic perspectives (Institute 2013). History tells
of many families and communities having many children but many also suffered major
complications due to economic hardship and the inability for their parents to provide for each
one. This triggered a reaction in future generation limiting them to having just 1 or 2 children,
resulting in stagnations of populations in most developed nations like Australia despite having
better economic and living standards.
Benefits of having a large population
Some years back countries like India and china were viewed to be backward and over populated
and many countries laughed at them sighting them to registered slow economic growth and
development. At the time, small populations were observed to be more advantageous as they
were more capable of delivering higher income per capita. Globalization reversed the traditional
trend since it liberalized business being conducted across the globe and countries were no longer
limited to products and services manufactured in their own nation (Kresl & Ietri 2010). This
resulted in nations with higher populations being able to tap into their population assets and
extract high-quality skills at low cost to produce and supply products and services to foreign
markets that produced the same products at higher costs. Low populations will usually result in
increasing the cost of labor which results indirectly affecting the finished product and service
costs. Suddenly having a larger population meant being more competitive and capable of
manufacturing and staying competitive on the international market.
Nations with low populations would suddenly experience major development challenges due to
the lack of adequate numbers of skilled labor which results in the few skilled professionals
demanding high wages for their work (ElMaraghy 2011). Nations which have a higher
population tend to have an over saturation of skilled professionals which triggers the professions
into needing to develop betters skills and offering their skilled expertise for lower costs.
Competition automatically kicks in the nation begins registering lowering production costs while
in nations with a small population the costs increase due to the few professionals in the region
demanding higher income and salaries. Australia has forecast this problem for the future and is
encouraging its population to increase its reproductive rate as this doesn’t need to be viewed
negatively but can actually benefit the nation immensely. Some ways in which larger populations
benefits a nation include:
Improved living standards
Traditionally large families resulted in families experiencing poverty due to the parents
struggling to deliver the necessary facilities and requirement to each of the children. Besides
offering food, clothing and accommodation parents would also struggle to provide their children
with the necessary parental support and guidance which resulted in many people from those
generations avoiding to having many children. In some countries, the reproduction rate has fallen
to 50% which means most couples will only have one child which reduces the future population
by half. While this may be viewed as beneficial for the current benefactor, the future promises
series complications for future generations as they are unable to sustain economic standards
(Figart & Marangos 2013). This will gradually result in placing more and more burden on the
government which will need to charge more and more taxes to the shrinking population. In turn,
this will begin affecting the citizen’s living standards as the nations are unable to generate
adequate income from commerce simply due to lacking adequate numbers of the population.
While high populations may be viewed as a negative aspect, a high population can also be
viewed as an asset for the nation as long as the majority of the population is trained to acquire
skills. This makes each an active contributor towards the economic growth and development of
the country despite their occupation. Even the low ranking position and occupation contribute
towards improving living standards but it’s vital to ensure each able adult citizen of the nation
contributes in their own way towards some form of economic development.
Improved economic standards
The economy will also benefit from a higher population as industry and commerce would have
access to a larger number of skilled professionals. This will automatically attract competition
within professionals in the population which will trigger then to offering better facilities and their
expertise at a lower rate. This is the situation in nations like India and china where the high
population has resulted in an oversaturation of experts who are forced them to offer their
expertise at lower prices to remain in demand (Elliott 2003). This, in turn, results in reducing
production costs which make the nations manufactured products affordable and capable of
competition on the international market.
Conclusion
Each country must encourage its citizens to maintain a certain population level which ensures the
nation has adequate people to manage its own functionality and industry without depending on
external sources. Most nations have a vast number of resources and opportunities but many
people avoid having large families with many children. This is not only placing financial burden
on the parents but also restricts the parents to dedicating their entire life towards parenting with
many never managing to secure time to enjoy their own lives. All these aspects must be
considered but it’s vital to understand that declining national populations will only result in
nations failing to have populations that sustain their own economy and be forced to invite foreign
nationals to assist with economic development. This will result in the nation losing its native
dominance to foreign cultures over time and developing in to multicultural nations.