A Poke At Population

If it hasn’t already, the U.S. is about to welcome its three hundred millionth resident. While the United States is the third most populous nation in the world, it is far behind China and India which boasts over a billion people each.

Remember a few years back when overpopulation and unsustainability seemed to be some big scary monster that would destroy our way of life? It kinda went hand in hand with global warming. When the world population hit six billion, I remember this old guy on the television saying that the world can’t accommodate much more people. I’m no longer hearing that anymore. In fact, I’m hearing about the perils of societies not having enough children?

Decreasing fertility rates are most noticeable in the European countries where the average number of kids a woman produces has fallen below two which is the minimum needed for a sustained population. Basically, the population of Europe is aging and not enough children are being born to replace the adults. Countries such as Germany and France have to bring in guest workers.

Now we are bringing an ethnic element into this mess. Nations that bring in immigrants are beginning to worry not only for their aging citizens, but also about the foreigners and what affect these newcomers may have on their societies. Whether it is the Algerians in France, the Turks in Germany, or the Mexicans in the United States, no one can deny that the population demographics are changing towards something different.

As America’s 300,000,00th person is born, or steps off a boat, plane, or shipping crate, I want to address some of the xenophobic sentiments that I see. Any attempt to preserve the American culture as it exists right now is futile. (The Europeans readers are probably wondering, “What culture?”—Whatever bitches.) We are not a stagnant society. Each wave of immigration does change or at least nudges us on to something new. If it didn’t we’d probably be eating Quaker’s Oats everyday! :-P Who knows, maybe those Algerians can embolden the French and perhaps teach them some manners at the same time.

Those doomsday predictions have morphed into a warning that there are going to be consequences for not being productive enough. So to those generations coming after me: Have more kids. I want to see some of that Social Security money I paid in.