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Reading the posts on this thread is interesting. Some reply with notions of how individual families can or can't support more offspring. Others look at rural areas and assume they can eventually be filled and covered with housing developments and strip malls.
Both entirely miss the larger issue. Population is a global concern.
Our world is already overpopulated in terms of a number who can live at a level much above bare survival and abject poverty.
If those in the developed world are willing to experience an uncomfortable dip in their standard of living, we could maybe go from today's 6.5 billion to about 9 billion or so before a rapid and catastrophic decline.
The flaw in most folks' thinking is that unsustainable growth can be maintained indefinitely. The past two centuries of human population growth have been a huge anomaly. Yet the world economy seems to be predicated on the notion of infinite growth.
That wrong-headed notion will be shown to be false and will be corrected in one fashion or another. It can be controlled through a rational policy that recognizes finite resources or it will be controlled by natural forces beyond our command.
The population expansion matches up exactly with and is a direct result of the industrial revolution. Mechanized farming, in particular, has made the biggest contribution. But there's a point of diminishing returns and we may have already passed it. What isn't uncertain is that the resources available to support our ever growing population are not expanding. And the primary energy resource driving our technological civilization (namely, fossil fuels) is absolutely limited and diminishing.
How we go forward will depend on the amount of information we're willing to absorb.
1. denial - insisting that we can continue the present course w/o consequences
2. deer in the headlights - "There's a problem? How come no one told me?"
3. awareness - positioning one's family to be better prepared
We all have choices at present. As we speed towards the barrier, those options become fewer and less palatable.
The non-problem of over population is up there with the farce of man made global warming. What is the best way for government to get the citizens of it's country to allow government to grow larger, become more intrusive and make more money off them? It is easy. Proclaim that it is all being done to avoid catastrophe. If the government wants to be able to tax food items and push people with larger families into a higher tax bracket, all they have to do is claim a population problem. Here are some good questions:
1) If over population is a problem in this country then why is it that obesity is supposedly a major problem in this country? Should the food supplies not be getting smaller already?
2) If food supplies were becoming scarce why would the government be subsidizing farmers who are using their corn crops to make ethanol fuel?
3) If over population was an imminent threat, why would the government now be working on a bill giving amnesty to illegal immigrants? (Just for the record, I do not at all agree with giving amnesty to illegal immigrants)
It doesn't worry me a great deal that we may have a population of 350 million in this country. What no one seems to get though is that it doesn't stop there. We have policies in motion that are going to make this merely a reference point on a graph that indicates a virtually endless climb. Its time to change some of the policies below:
1. Stop giving people who have endless children tax deductions for each one. Phase those deductions out after 3 kids.
2. Start actually enforcing the laws against illegal immigration for crying out loud. Its true that many illegal immigrants come to this country to work and for a better life. It doesn't change the fact that they tend to have large families. Since, poverty is all most of them ever knew in Mexico or Central America its nothing for them to crowd three families into a 1500 square foot home. This isn't what we want in this country.
3. Change the Constitution so that children who are born here to people illegally in this country don't automatically become citizens. We need to amend the Fourteenth Amendment to do this. But lets get it done and stop acting like the Constitution is sacred and inviolate and can't ever be amended.
4. Let's try to create more of a culture that discourages teen pregnancy and early marriage. These things contribute to a high birthrate.
5. More consumption based taxes. Every state ought to have a sales tax and there shouldn't be exemptions for food and such. Maybe the elderly and the poor without kids could qualify for some kind of a rebate or such. However, if you are going to have a bunch of kids expect to pay more for governmental services and especially public education.
We can do all this and it will at least slow down the population growth in our country. Further, we can do it all without actually telling people how many children they can have.
It's not Americans having many children. Americans have a stable population at this point, it's uncontrolled and very massive immigration that is creating the runaway population growth. The impoverished third world immigrants with the extreme birth rates, many coming precisely to have babies that bring them food stamps, welfare handouts, and that they can use to demand another amnesty.
Liberals claim they want to protect the environment but then they turn around and invite in tens of millions of impoverished people with high birth rates and pay them to reproduce.
According to the latest projections, the US will go from roughly 310 million today to almost 360 million by 2025.
Thats nearly 50 million new residents in the next 15 yrs!
Where will they go?
Will they keep moving to the same cities everyone else is going to?
It's going to reach 360 million a lot sooner. The democrats are working on a huge amnesty right now and telling illegals they will not only be given citizenship but can start bringing in their family members. Not only will current illegals jump in on this, but illegals who have been deported, who have left on their own accord will be returning. Many more will jump in on this huge opportunity. I expect the population will jump to over 400 million once the amnesty starts.
It's going to reach 360 million a lot sooner. The democrats are working on a huge amnesty right now and telling illegals they will not only be given citizenship but can start bringing in their family members. Not only will current illegals jump in on this, but illegals who have been deported, who have left on their own accord will be returning. Many more will jump in on this huge opportunity. I expect the population will jump to over 400 million once the amnesty starts.
The democrats will try their absolute best to pass the amnesty bill since it is a chance at voters for them.
I do not understand how people do not see how ridiculous the over population and global warming theories are. These ideas come every 10-15 years and turn out to be nothing. All you have to do is a small bit of research and you will see that there were "scientists" in the 40's and 50's that were warning of over population within 10-20 years. The late 60's and early 70's brought more and we are hearing it again now.
In 1958, Harper's ran a story called "The Coming Ice Age" where it spoke of scientists warning of snows like have never been seen since the last ice age thousands of years ago. In the 70's the "next ice age" scare struck again. Now, of course, it is man-made global warming that will kill us all if we do not abandon our evil, civilized, technological, free market way of life. Why does nobody ever mention the fact that the global temperature has actually been dropping for a few years? What ever happened to the hole in the ozone that was going to kill us all in the 80's? Why do we not hear of the confirmed e-mails showing that scientists were actually fudging the numbers to prove global warming?
The democrats love to use scare tactics, they pretend they care about the environment but at the same time they are doing all they can to bring in unlimited numbers of the cheapest possible labor and it's that population with the extreme birth rates -- and of course because it's the ultra cheap labor requires food stamps and much government assistance in order to make it here with those very large families.
The American middle class is not increasing in size.
The democrats love to use scare tactics, they pretend they care about the environment but at the same time they are doing all they can to bring in unlimited numbers of the cheapest possible labor and it's that population with the extreme birth rates -- and of course because it's the ultra cheap labor requires food stamps and much government assistance in order to make it here with those very large families.
The American middle class is not increasing in size.
Let me point out the fly in your ointment.
The beneficiaries of illegal immigration are American corporations. They love having a sub-minimum wage underclass readily available as a disposable labor source that undercuts American workers. The illegals come here for those jobs, not for political reasons. And the crappy jobs they get here are much better than what they'd ever get back home.
It's win-win for corporations and illegals. The losers are the taxpayers and working class Americans.
White Americans' majority to end by mid-century - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091216/ap_on_go_ot/us_white_minority - broken link)
a related article.
Under a purely theoretical "zero immigration" scenario in which the U.S. effectively does not take in any immigrants, whites would remain the majority in 2050, making up a solid 58 percent of the U.S. population. In such a case, the share of Hispanics would increase to 21 percent because of high fertility rates and a younger population.
Under a "zero immigration" model, the 65 and older population also grows substantially faster, comprising nearly 1 in 4 Americans.
"These projections show that immigration will serve to replenish our labor force as baby boomers age into retirement and make our population younger without overburdening our schools and other community resources," said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution.
Not sure how well this country could support itself if one out of four is 65+. Esp if they are retired...
The beneficiaries of illegal immigration are American corporations. They love having a sub-minimum wage underclass readily available as a disposable labor source that undercuts American workers. The illegals come here for those jobs, not for political reasons. And the crappy jobs they get here are much better than what they'd ever get back home.
It's win-win for corporations and illegals. The losers are the taxpayers and working class Americans.
Yes that too. The same politicians that have not created 5 million jobs for Americans as they promised in the election are now working on a very major amnesty that will increase the population of immigrants dramatically - no jobs, no problem - this is all about the corporations that own our politicians.
Not sure how well this country could support itself if one out of four is 65+. Esp if they are retired...
The retirement age went up you know.
Supposely the baby boomers were going to hit 62 and there would be all kinds of labor shortages, but the baby boomers did hit 62 and unemployment rates are way up.
College graduates and high school graduates are not finding jobs.
What happens when the government unemployment extensions run out and the liberals are working on bringing in millions more people?
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