In his new book, futurist Phil Ruthven predicts by the end of this century, living and education standards will increase, we’ll be healthier and we’ll be five times better off financially.

Ruthven thinks there’s one thing Australians need to start doing immediately, telling Chris Smith, “we need to start thinking from the outside in”.

He says this is the key to increasing our infrastructure. By encouraging population growth and upping our “critical mass”, it will in turn lead to the advances we’ve been crying out for.

In his new book Ruthven debunks the opinion that Australia is being flooded by migrants, telling Chris Smith “it’s actually only about 200,000 a year”.

“Even though we’ve got crowded cities, they’re still considered the most livable cities in the world. So if we think we’ve got problems, you’ve got the rest of the world laughing at us”.

In fact, Ruthven says this is the key to driving fast rail and fast communication infrastructure.

Full interview with Phil Ruthven below