August 20, 2004

Demography Is Destiny

Hark there! Here's a glimpse into our not-to-distant geo-demographic future and why the United States, more so than any of our first-world industrialized peers, is poised to thrive deep into the century ahead:

    While the world's population is expected to increase by almost 50 percent by 2050, Japan could lose 20 percent of its population over the next half-century, according to data released Tuesday by the private Population Reference Bureau.

    Russia's population is expected to decline by 17 percent, and Germany's by 9 percent.

    The United States is the biggest exception among industrialized countries, with its population expected to rise by 43 percent from 293 million now to 420 million at mid-century.

Sam Huntington and Patrick Buchanan cover your ears: the reason America doesn't face the same population malaise experienced by greater parts of Western Europe, Japan, and Russia is because of that storied American bedrock-- immigration.

    While the United States, like other developed nations, has an increasing number of older residents, the U.S. population is expected to keep growing in large part because of immigration.

    Some European countries have considered loosening immigration curbs as a way to help fill shortages for highly skilled workers and to build a tax base to replace dwindling funds for programs for the aged.

Immigration is something that other developed countries don't have enough of, but now say they want. Despite nativist blubbering over how it fundamentally threatens the national character of the United States, blah, blah, blah, immigration has always been a rich source of strength for the country, and recent geo-political trends have done nothing to diminish many people's desire around the world to uproot themselves from their home countries and make life anew here.

This isn't patriotic jingoism, it's just a matter of fact. Herman Melville once wrote, "You cannot spill the a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world." At no point in history is that more true than today. Now if we could only get our leaders and institutions to acknowledge and reflect this...

Posted by thomas at August 20, 2004 12:08 PM | TrackBack