
Originally Posted by
JamesWales
Fair question. And not an easy one to answer.
It's not about what's acceptable though, it's about what's optimum to make our society better for those who live here and those who will, balancing the benefits and costs.
A good way to think of it is that we would all agree that the country can seamlessly accommodate one extra person a year. We can all also agree than 10million a year would create serious issues, therefore I think everyone would accept the answer lies somewhere in between.
For me it has to be far lower. In particular it needs to be lower than how quickly we can provide the services and facilities needed. 700,000 is the size of a very large city, which has hundreds of schools, doctors surgeries, hospital beds, parks, motorways, train stations, shops, pubs, all the rest of the things that a good society needs.
Most of those things, esp housing and transport require funding, planning and building that takes the best part of a decade. Doctors surgeries and schools probably take five years. As such we are forever playing catch up and the collective quality of life has been falling and WILL continue to fall at such high levels.
I would suggest around 75,000-100,000, focused where needed coupled with a mass reimagining of the education system to train people for the vocational jobs needed so that we are less reliant.
Very few people "dislike" other groups of people. It's about being sensible and grown up in terms of dealing with what is a profoundly important issue.