Speeding Towards 300 Million Americans

Life Starts At 400M

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the U.S. population speeds toward 300 million, the growth is producing headaches for Americans fed up with traffic congestion, sprawl and dwindling natural resources.

But the alternatives are pretty scary, too. Just look at Europe and Japan, which are on the verge of such big population losses that several countries are practically begging women to have babies.

"Europe and Japan are now facing a population problem that is unprecedented in human history -- declining population over time with an increase in the percentage of old people," said Bill Butz, president of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington think tank.

Countries have lost people because of wars, disease and natural disasters but never -- at least in modern history -- because women stopped having enough children, Butz said.

The U.S. is the fastest growing industrialized nation in the world, adding about 2.8 million people a year. That's a little less than 1 percent, but enough to mitigate the kinds of problems facing Japan and many European countries.

Europe, with 728 million people, saw its population shrink by 74,000 since the beginning of the decade, according to the United Nations. By 2050, it is projected to lose a total of 75 million people.

That ought to give motorists on Germany's Autobahn some extra room to change lanes. But experts warn it could cause labor shortages while straining retirement and health programs, ultimately threatening economic competitiveness.

The problem is that birth rates are so low there aren't enough young people entering the work force to support an aging population, said Hans-Peter Kohler, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Presumably, many people would not be so concerned about the numbers declining if it wasn't combined with an aging population," Kohler said. "I think it's more the age structure that gives rise to these concerns, and these concerns are well justified."

Russian President Vladimir Putin is so concerned he recently proposed paying women to have children. Last year, France increased monthly stipends to parents who take time off work to care for a third child.

When Japan announced in June that its population had shrunk in 2005 for the first time, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, "The data must be accepted gravely."

On Friday, Japan announced that it is now the world's most elderly nation, with more than a fifth of its people 65 or older. Italy is second.

On average, women must have 2.1 children in their lifetimes for a society to replenish itself, accounting for infant mortality and other factors. Only one country in Europe -- Albania -- has a fertility rate above 2, according to statistics gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency. Russia's fertility rate is 1.28. In Japan, it's 1.25.

"We're going to have the chance to learn from Europe," Butz said. "For better or worse, they are leading the world into something that has never happened before."

John Seager, president of Population Connection, predicted that any adverse affects of shrinking populations will be temporary.

"It may be the only good crisis we ever had," said Seager, whose group, formerly known as Zero Population Growth, advocates lower birth rates.

Personally, I just enjoy the idea of a "Start Humping For The Love Of God" campaign going on in Europe and Japan.

Let's build a bridge from Mexico to Japan and Europe. Labor shortage and immigration issue solved; naval navigation issue created. Two for one!

*Insert stupid joke about sexing up the women of the world*

Staats wrote:

Let's build a bridge from Mexico to Japan and Europe. Labor shortage and immigration issue solved; naval navigation issue created. Two for one!

The math fits. Make it so.

I'm not sure I like the wording of "women stopped having enough babies", as if women spontaneously emitted infants from their womb without any interference from men whatsoever. Such wording insinuates that the blame for the population "crises" rests squarely on those irresponsible women who just don't love their country enough to do their part by breeding. It apparently ignores the men's patriotic duty to shirk condoms and ejaculate wildly. Who will think of the men? Every sperm is sacred, after all.

The idea that this is a problem is ridiculous. A few years ago people were preaching exponential population growth and the extinction of man through overcrowding. Reduction of population via the most peaceful means possible is a huge, huge success. Now if we could just convince the Africans and Indians to do the same thing ...

Insert comments about abortion and racism ------> here.

We'll need a team of super-virile men scoring round the clock.

Aetius wrote:

The idea that this is a problem is ridiculous. A few years ago people were preaching exponential population growth and the extinction of man through overcrowding. Reduction of population via the most peaceful means possible is a huge, huge success. Now if we could just convince the Africans and Indians to do the same thing ...

Quite. We don't need more people on the planet ffs.

Kif! Clear Vector's schedule!

What kind of aid should be sent in response to this crisis faced by our allies, airlifts of viagra?

Aetius wrote:

The idea that this is a problem is ridiculous. A few years ago people were preaching exponential population growth and the extinction of man through overcrowding.

The "problem" proponents are worried about the lack of white European Christian people in the future. You don't see guys in Indian or China complaining about declining birthrates in Italy. If we or Europe ever need more people, all we got to do is open the tap a little more.

Funkenpants wrote:
Aetius wrote:

The idea that this is a problem is ridiculous. A few years ago people were preaching exponential population growth and the extinction of man through overcrowding.

The "problem" proponents are worried about the lack of white European Christian people in the future. You don't see guys in Indian or China complaining about declining birthrates in Italy. If we or Europe ever need more people, all we got to do is open the tap a little more.

Ding ding. Racism comment added. Who wants to do the abortion one?

Not that I'm calling YOU racist Funken; you just hit on what appears to be one of the underlying points of the article.

KaterinLHC wrote:

It apparently ignores the men's patriotic duty to shirk condoms and ejaculate wildly.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.

(Also, too funny not to sig. )

Dr.Ghastly wrote:

Ding ding. Racism comment added. Who wants to do the abortion one?

Rather than racism, you can call it fear of cultural extinction (itself a silly fear). But I'm not seeing an alternative explanation given the ease with which the countries involved can increase their populations to address any negative economic effects of a slowing birthrate.

I think you are reading racism into the article as opposed to the undertone being there at all, especially seeing that it is focused on an Asian nation of Japan and culturally diverse continent like Europe. Isnt it just focusing on the reality that the nations discussed in the article have highly developed economies and extensive social welfare programs that absolutely depend on having a growing population of youth to support the unprecdented growing population of elderly which will be taking advantage of those programs.

Without even getting into surgical abortion.(which is probably a taboo topic anyways) Things like 'the morning after pill' are bound to have an effect on economically developed nations where such measures are available. Youth in Japan and across Europe, male and female, are likely more career focused and just too darn busy and its pushing people towards starting families later in life. This also narrows the window depending on how smoothly each pregnancy goes and potentially the 'achievable' size of your family. Let alone economic pressures that may be impacing the size of families.

I dunno, my wife and I have replaced ourselves and we are done.(well not done practicing though!) I dont think we could've afforded more than my two boys realistically, priceless though they are.

Irongut wrote:

Isnt it just focusing on the reality that the nations discussed in the article have highly developed economies and extensive social welfare programs that absolutely depend on having a growing population of youth to support the unprecdented growing population of elderly which will be taking advantage of those programs.

More immigration solves that objection, which is based on a supposed labor shortage. How can we have a labor shortage in any of these countries over the next 10, 20, 50 years when the are huge numbers of available workers worldwide who would be happy to relocate?

Actualy, if you read the article, the point is that there are fears that the declining young population wont be able to fill all the support gaps needed by the growing population of seniors.

Which to me sounds like a great opportunity for the seniors to take care of themselves. As for the ones that cant take care of themselves, I see no reason why healthy seniors should be exempt from the responsibility of assisting them. You should see the posturing and clique structure of retirement homes.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:

It apparently ignores the men's patriotic duty to shirk condoms and ejaculate wildly.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.

(Also, too funny not to sig. )

You and I, we should go on tour. We'd make millions.

Funkenpants wrote:
Irongut wrote:

Isnt it just focusing on the reality that the nations discussed in the article have highly developed economies and extensive social welfare programs that absolutely depend on having a growing population of youth to support the unprecdented growing population of elderly which will be taking advantage of those programs.

More immigration solves that objection, which is based on a supposed labor shortage. How can we have a labor shortage in any of these countries over the next 10, 20, 50 years when the are huge numbers of available workers worldwide who would be happy to relocate?

I agree with you. When I lived in Japan, I saw this happen in waves. During the first Iraq War there was a definite wave of Iraqi immigrants who filled a lot of construction type jobs. Of course the rumor at the time was that a lot of them were displaced soldiers who couldnt safely return to Iraq themselves for fear of Saddam besides the opportunities to make money in Japan itself. Prior to them there had been a major wave of Pakistani's. Japan did have a pretty healthy program of accepting temporary workers to supplement their economy, at least that was the impression I had without doing any real research on the topic.

I'm all for folks immigrating legally. I just hope that we return to a point where we give the path to citizenship and our immigration laws meaning, while discouraging illegal practices that enable illegal immigration (i.e. identity swapping)

Too bad there isnt a juicy gaming angle to this... some headline like "World of Warcraft addiction leads to negative population growth"

KaterinLHC wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:

It apparently ignores the men's patriotic duty to shirk condoms and ejaculate wildly.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.

(Also, too funny not to sig. )

You and I, we should go on tour. We'd make millions.

fangblackbone wrote:

Actualy, if you read the article, the point is that there are fears that the declining young population wont be able to fill all the support gaps needed by the growing population of seniors.

The only way there won't be enough young workers in one of these countries to support seniors is if they close the borders to outside workers. Their view can be restated as, "We need more young people here, but not more foreign young people."

I was somewhat expecting :
Speeding Towards 300 Million Americans a giant comet! ! !