America's population odometer rolled over to 300 million Tuesday.
Unlike in 1915, when the United States recorded 100 million residents with great celebration, or in 1967, when Robert Woo Jr. was named America's 200 millionth resident with much fanfare when he was born in Atlanta, this next population milestone is being met with subdued reaction by many Americans. In some cases, it is being met with trepidation.
The vigorous population growth in the United States is being driven, largely, by immigration and the high birth rates of many new immigrant groups.
But this is at a time when some Americans are getting increasingly nervous about the babble of foreign tongues here at home. And there are huddled masses of foreigners wanting entrance to this country, either by waiting in line for scarce entrance visas or by slipping across the border in the dark of night. Immigrants make up about 12 percent of the population and account for about 40 percent of the population growth in this country.
If Americans feel their nation is under siege by the flood of immigrants, it's not the first time. Waves of Irish, Jewish, Chinese and Eastern European immigrants made native-born Americans worry that these new groups would never assimilate and would forever change American culture.
They did assimilate and they did forever change American culture – for the better.
The current wave of immigrants will do the same. They will assimilate and they will change American culture – for the better.
And, as important, they will help rescue the United States from the demographic problems that an aging population will bring to bear on the country.
Those problems will lie heavily on Social Security.
In 1950, there were 16 workers supporting every retiree on Social Security. Today, there are 3.3 workers per Social Security recipient. By 2040, it is estimated there will be only two workers to support each beneficiary.
A flow of relatively young immigrants into this country should be welcomed. Instead of thinking of ways to toss illegal immigrants out of the United States and keep them out, immigration reformers should be making it easier for willing workers to stay here legally so they can pay taxes, especially into Social Security.
If not, the United States is apt to go the way of Europe or Japan, where the population is aging rapidly, the economy is stagnant, and there's little hope for an infusion of young workers.
The population in the United States is growing by one person – births and immigration minus deaths – each 11 seconds. So the U.S. Census Bureau, in announcing the 300 millionth person, really will have no idea of who, where or when it actually is.
But the fact that the population continues to grow at a fantastic clip tells us that, despite the tarnished reputation the United States may have in parts of the world, it still has a vibrant economy and unrivaled freedoms.
America is the place millions of people living elsewhere in the world would rather be. And that's the way we'd like it to continue.
— Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette
