One billion Americans?

[HomeschoolDad]

‘One Billion Americans,’ by Matthew Yglesias: Book Excerpt

This might actually be a plan. Increased birth rates among those who are already here would also be nice.

I especially liked the part about revitalizing blighted and economically depressed areas. I’m sure there are people throughout the world who would dearly love to come and restore places like Detroit, as well as smaller cities such as Youngstown, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia — all of these cities with “good bones” that could use an influx of newcomers. People who are given opportunity tend to give back far more than they take.

And new cities could emerge, or small cities could grow into large ones. Why does everyone have to move to Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, or Charlotte? Why not build new cities that could end up being magnets for talent and innovation themselves?

And it’d also be nice to be able to get a good doner kebab in cities throughout the land, not to mention exotic and tasty foods that we don’t even know about, and that could be adapted for American tastes (or maybe not)?

 

[Freddy]

‘One Billion Americans,’ by Matthew Yglesias: Book Excerpt

This might actually be a plan. Increased birth rates among those who are already here would also be nice.

I especially liked the part about revitalizing blighted and economically depressed areas. I’m sure there are people throughout the world who would dearly love to come and restore places like Detroit, as well as smaller cities such as Youngstown, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia — all of these cities with “good bones” that could use an influx of newcomers. People who are given opportunity tend to give back far more than they take.

And new cities could emerge, or small cities could grow into large ones. Why does everyone have to move to Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, or Charlotte? Why not build new cities that could end up being magnets for talent and innovation themselves?

And it’d also be nice to be able to get a good doner kebab in cities throughout the land, not to mention exotic and tasty foods that we don’t even know about, and that could be adapted for American tastes (or maybe not)?

This is tounge in cheek, isn’t it HSD?

‘Of course, tripling the population could also cause a number of problems.’

You don’t say…

 

[JimG]

" Right now, the country has about 93 people per square mile."

Sounds pretty empty to me. Maybe with a larger tax base, and more workers paying into Social Security and Medicare…

 

[HomeschoolDad]

This is tongue in cheek, isn’t it HSD?

No, as a matter of fact, it’s not. See Matthew 5:37.

‘Of course, tripling the population could also cause a number of problems.’

No doubt. But shrinking populations also cause problems. And increasing populations solve problems as well.

We’ve done this before. We opened the floodgates to pretty much all of Europe and the Near East in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and we are a much richer country for it.

Note that I did not specify anything about what religion these newcomers would be. Let’s just say, as a thought experiment, if we were to find, as things unfolded, that every anticipating immigrant were Catholic. It certainly wouldn’t be me standing at the “golden door” saying “oh, no, this just won’t do, we need more religious diversity than this”. Not hardly. No doubt many of them would be Muslims. It’s purely anecdotal, but I have heard that many Muslims are not happy being Muslims, they’d prefer at least to explore Christianity, but they can’t because of social pressure in their homelands. Think of the mission field possibilities.

Maybe with a larger tax base, and more workers paying into Social Security and Medicare…

As that great sage Arthur Fonzarelli — “Fonzie” — would say, exactimundo!

I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.

 

[Freddy]

I’ve visited the top five most densely populated countries in the world (and worked for a couple of years in one of them). And now live in one of the lease most densely populated.

I know which I prefer.

 

[Inquisitor85]

Given how anti immigration sone people are, good luck with that.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I’ve visited the top five most densely populated countries in the world (and worked for a couple of years in one of them). And now live in one of the lease most densely populated.

I know which I prefer.

There are vast areas of some countries, such as your Australia as well as Canada, that are virtually uninhabitable, but as for the United States, that does not hold nearly as true. The problem we have here, is that people only want to live in certain places. If you did have mass immigration, such as the article seems to allude to, you’d have to do the very un-American thing of telling these immigrants “no, you can’t move there, it’s too crowded, you have to move here instead, and help fill the place up, build pretty much a new city from scratch, or replenish a population that moved away because the jobs disappeared”. There would have to be massive governmental incentives, Big Government on steroids — job creation, building (or rebuilding) of infrastructure, tax incentives to entice industries to set up shop and to hire these immigrants, and of course, you might have huge resistance from the people already there, assuming there were any.

Still, though, you have many examples in this country of how they “made it work” in past eras — Butte (in Montana), Pittsburgh, many small mining towns in Appalachia that became the most diverse places imaginable, Miami with the Cuban influx after Castro, the largely Portuguese and French-Canadian towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the list goes on. But that was largely done by accident — the jobs were there (or had the potential to be created) and the in-migration followed. Building something like that “on purpose”, from scratch, would be more of a Soviet-like endeavor, and that might or might not transplant to an American context.

Given how anti immigration some people are, good luck with that.

I partially alluded to that above. Add to this, people who don’t speak English, have different cultural preconceptions, practice myriad religions, cook exotic food that smells weird… oh, wait, been there, done that…

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[Inquisitor85]

I’m well aware of the US’s past with immigration, although it’s current building of a fence on its southern border woul say that some people are scared of more immigration.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I’m well aware of the US’s past with immigration, although it’s current building of a fence on its southern border woul say that some people are scared of more immigration.

I’m not sure how widespread that alleged “fear” actually is. By and large, the only jobs they are “taking” are those that Americans don’t want to do in the first place, or are not willing to do as assiduously as the Latin people do them. (I say “Latin” as a counter-point to the trendy term “Latinx” — if being gender-inclusive is what the “progressives” want, then what is so hard about simply saying “Latin” and excluding the -o and -a ending?)

 

[Inquisitor85]

If it wasn’t widespread you wouldn’t have had “build the wall, build the wall…” as a campaign chant. I’m aware that Trump at absolute best, can achieve around 45% of the vote based on such rhetoric, but that is still a significant amount of support. We have the same problem over here, if we didn’t Brexit wouldn’t be a thing.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

If it wasn’t widespread you wouldn’t have had “build the wall, build the wall…” as a campaign chant. I’m aware that Trump at absolute best, can achieve around 45% of the vote based on such rhetoric, but that is still a significant amount of support. We have the same problem over here, if we didn’t Brexit wouldn’t be a thing.

That 45 percent can get pretty rowdy sometimes, when you throw enough red meat at them, and I suspect that is what happens at those rallies. Sacha Baron Cohen, who is a political prankster par excellence, has several times succeeded in finagling his way into public events and leading crowds into singing songs with progressively racist and other inflammatory lyrics as the song goes on. The guy could make a dog laugh, but unfortunately much of his material is too coarse and family-unfriendly to link to here.

 

[Inquisitor85]

Channel 4 found a comedy goldmine with him. Its worrying how easy it is to lead people like that, I understand that its emotionally charged like a sporting event, but I still find it scary.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Channel 4 found a comedy goldmine with him. Its worrying how easy it is to lead people like that, I understand that its emotionally charged like a sporting event, but I still find it scary.

Yep, he’s a funny guy. I’m not sure how well Ali G translates to an American audience — you would have to be kind of “in on the joke” with regard to London West End “yoof” adopting certain fashion and stereotypical communication styles.

 

[Inquisitor85]

I’d agree with that, but he’s smart enough to be adaptable to different markets. Ali G is a very British character, but something like Borat is more exportable.

 

[ralfyman]

Issues concerning overpopulation aren’t about space but about resource availability. That’s why you can have a large desert island with two people on it, but if it only has enough resources for one person, then that island is overpopulated.

In this case, we have a country that has around 4 pct of the world’s population but uses around 20 pct of world oil production.

 

[BornInMarch]

I think the country could benefit from new blood, lest we experience a decline like Japan or the European Countries. I don’t think overpopulation is a real issue, though inefficient resource use might be.

While increasing the national birthrate is one way to accomplish this, I’d also recommend loosening immigration restrictions so more people can come. Prior to 1875 the United States there were very few restrictions on who could come here - certainly there were no quotas - and the country experienced rapid growth and development due to the influx of ready labor to fill the factories and homestead the frontiers. Morally I’d like for America to again be a country that lifts her lamp beside the golden door.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I think the country could benefit from new blood, lest we experience a decline like Japan or the European Countries. I don’t think overpopulation is a real issue, though inefficient resource use might be.

We are one of the few countries where anyone in the world, regardless of race, religion, color, or ethnicity, can come here and “become an American”. Other such countries would include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, and (arguably) the UK. Japan is not so adaptable. You can never really “become Japanese” if you aren’t already. There is freedom of movement in the EU, but in most of those countries, it would be difficult ever to “become a [insert nationality here]”. Poland has assimilated various nationalities through the centuries, but it’s been much more subtle.

While increasing the national birthrate is one way to accomplish this, I’d also recommend loosening immigration restrictions so more people can come. Prior to 1875 the United States there were very few restrictions on who could come here - certainly there were no quotas - and the country experienced rapid growth and development due to the influx of ready labor to fill the factories and homestead the frontiers. Morally I’d like for America to again be a country that lifts her lamp beside the golden door.

Well, I hate to say it, but immigration in those days was almost exclusively a “white” phenomenon, though many nationalities that were not northwestern European in origin, were considered varying degrees of “not being white”. Mass immigration from South America, Africa, or most parts of Asia was not even a “thing”. Today it would be. There probably aren’t that many Europeans, unless it would be poorer Balkan areas, who would even want to come to the US to live — life is pretty good in Europe, and things that are relatively easy there, are more difficult here (universal health care, generous social benefits, even a sense of personal safety). Mass immigration in our time would be from the Global South.

 

[Pitcairn17]

‘One Billion Americans,’ by Matthew Yglesias: Book Excerpt

This might actually be a plan. Increased birth rates among those who are already here would also be nice.

I especially liked the part about revitalizing blighted and economically depressed areas. I’m sure there are people throughout the world who would dearly love to come and restore places like Detroit, as well as smaller cities such as Youngstown, Ohio and Huntington, West Virginia — all of these cities with “good bones” that could use an influx of newcomers. People who are given opportunity tend to give back far more than they take.

And new cities could emerge, or small cities could grow into large ones. Why does everyone have to move to Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, or Charlotte? Why not build new cities that could end up being magnets for talent and innovation themselves?

And it’d also be nice to be able to get a good doner kebab in cities throughout the land, not to mention exotic and tasty foods that we don’t even know about, and that could be adapted for American tastes (or maybe not)?

This premise ignores some fundamental questions that are being asked in a COVID world: what is even the purpose of a city? In a technological world where much work can be done remotely, what is accomplished by bringing large numbers of people together in a small space? What is the cost/benefit analysis of rehabilitating centuries-old infrastructure versus new construction that utilizes modern materials and energy-efficient technology? Among many other questions.

 

[Freddy]

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

I was going to head off on a few different tangents (and still might). But that iceberg cartoon is so apt. So accurate. Thanks for posting that.

 

[MtnDwellar]

I don’t think there are any jobs that whites are unwilling to do. I live a white majority city (90%). We have white landscapers, housekeepers, factory workers, etc.