Wolf, Z. B. (2023, January 19). Why it’s so important for the US to avoid a shrinking population. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/19/politics/china-population-us-what-matters/index.html
This article talks about why it’s important to avoid a shrinking population. It brings up China and talks about how their shrinking population was completely predicable, after they enforced the One Child policy. The article mentions the fact that in the United States, more women are entering the workforce and putting off having children. The fertility rate continued to not preform well during the years of the pandemic. The article sums it up talking abut how a huge factor in population growth is immigration, and how the country needs to have a serious discussion about it rather than making it a back and fourth political argument.
I agree that it is important to ensrure that we don’t have a shrinking population, otherwise our population will be very top-heavy with elderly people, and less young people in the reproduction age groups to both contribute in the workforce and to have kids. I think if the fertility rate was negatively impacted by the pandemic, then that is something that will clear up in the next few years as the pandemic becomes more and more taken care of. I also agree with the fact the immigration is a massive role in population growth. In 2022 1 million out of the 1.26 million people that contributed to the countries population growth were immigrants. I agree with the fact that there needs to be a serious discussion regaurding the matter, and we need to consider both the lives of the immigrants and their hopes for better futures, as well as the economy and well-being of the United States.
Like you said, population growth/stagnation and what (if anything) should be done about it is an important conversation to have. It certainly relates to environmental issues, as a larger population strains our environment and demands more resources. While I agree that there are risks of slowing population, such as economic harms due to an increase in the elderly as a proportion of the population, I don’t think this alone is a reason to try to boost population growth again, since this also can harm the environment. Like you said, immigration is a source of growth in the US; if we wanted to boost population growth, do you think accepting more immigrants (rather than trying to encourage families already in the US to have more children) is a viable solution?
I do think that accepting more immigrants would be a more viable solution than encouraging families to have more children. I think that realistically, families will have however many children they want, regardless of government recommendations. So yes, if we want to increase the population then allowing more immigrants into the country is a viable solution. I definitely don’t think there should be any regulation on how many children families should have. Thank you for your comment!