No Foresight Exercised?
So the Prime Minister has come out to say that the government had not exercised foresight when the let housing prices and immigration spiral upwards. According to the statement, the government eased measures to help the country recover from the economic slump following the busting of the dot.com bubble. They were apparently trying to make hay when the sun shone, not knowing how long the recovery would last.
What does not seem logical is the measures on immigration. If you take people in, they naturally need to make use of public infrastructure, so wouldn't it be logical to invest in public infrastructure while taking new migrants? Also, immigration policies are not like taxation or property cooling measures that may take time for market reaction. The government has full control over the numbers they let in, at whatever timing it dictates. So how can they claim to have overlooked the impact of letting so many foreigners into the country?
One thing that puzzles me to no end, is the government's obstinacy over the idea that they need to grow the population to improve the economy. If large population were truly the panacea for the economy, China and India would not have such a lot of poverty, would they? Also, small European states like Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino should be in abject poverty, but they are amongst the richest in Europe. So what gives?
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