The most recent Republican debate focused on whether Mitt Romney's yard was mowed by illegal aliens or not. This recent editorial in the New York Sun makes the point that the U.S. is actually underpopulated and that we need more immigrants not fewer. Read the article and leave your thoughts.
43 comments:
Although the article states that the U.S. is only at "83 persons a square mile" in terms of population density,and also that we're not even close to what China and India have reached, I have to disagree that our nation is underpopulated, at least at this point in time. At the state our economy is in right now, more population could do more harm than good. The unemployment rate is already around 9%, which means if more immigrants were to come here, legal or not, they would be left with no job as well. I do agree that America is in need of skilled and unskilled immigrants, and also that they are free to come and live their "american dream" just as many have before them, just not at this particular time. When our economy is more steady and unemployment rates lower, then I may be able to make the argument that our nation is underpopulated.
Caitlin Donovan, period 7
America as an "underpopulated" country can enjoy the standard of living that we enjoy. As Caitlin said, the countries with higher population density are also higher in disease rates. As well, just because more people come it doesn't necessarily create more jobs. Although it could create a small spending spark. But I feel the costs outweigh the benefits.
Let's deal with the problems that are affecting our country right now. Unemployment is high, and if we do allow more immigrants to come in to the United States (probably unskilled laborers),the results will probably be detrimental to our own economy, as Americans will be deprived of these needed jobs. I do believe that this notion of increased immigration should be upheld for the future, once we gain some stability. However, right NOW, we must focus on our own problems, and we must find ways to pacify the issues at hand in order to provide better prospects for future Americans.
I think adding more people to America would hurt in the sense of having no jobs. Unemployment is at 9%. I think that if we were truly underpopulated, Our unemployment would rise seeing that there are more jobs out there then people. I also believe adding more blue collar workers to America would only hurt us. If we were to shoot for a increase in population we should aim for people that seek white collar jobs so they can make more corporations and give us more jobs.
If you want to live in this country, do it the legal way. Population will always be at a healthy level, unless some plague comes about. It's actually a good thing for America to be underpopulated because it will have more resources to trade off. We're using up too many foreign resources nowadays so perhaps it's a good thing to have less people and more economic growth.
Whether the U.S. is underpopulated or not, I strongly disagree with this article. I don't mind legal immigration when our economy is at a high point. But the fact at where the status of our economy is at, we do not need unemployed immigrants; taking up our space and resources when it will be harder for them to get a job and contribute to this nation. Our unemployment rate is already at 9% so we do not need them coming in here and making it worse. I'd rather see a lock down on illegal immigration, because those immigrants do not belong here illegally, because they are doing more harm than good. They act as a infection or disease to our nation. They come in to our nation trying to find work and when they fail at doing so that's when the infection starts to slowly hurt our nation, and economy. Countries with higher population density also have higher disease rates as Sean and Caitlin have stated. So don't come in to this country when economically we aren't stable enough to have you. Whether if there are benefits to be had by bringing them in to our country those benefits would be overlooked due to our unemployment rate and our down economy. So with that said leave America "underpopulated" until we have our problems figured out.
While our nation may be underpopulated simply in terms of the ratio of amount of people to amount of land, it is not underpopulated in any other term. With economists speculating a "double-dip" occurence in our nation's economy, now does not seem like the most opportune time to increase America's population whether it is by aliens or natural-born citizens. The unemployment rate, 9%, probably cannot afford to be increased. In the matter of population growth, now is simply not the time.
America is a country heavily reliant on agriculture. As a result, much land is set aside for the production of crops. That being said, there are areas where Americans are literally incapable of settling. Instead, a few farmers and their machinery do the work of what in past years required thousands to do. Luckily, many Americans prefer settle in Urban and Suburban areas. These areas, can feel overpopulated; however it is important to remember all the land unable to be commercialized. When everything is balanced out people may believe the U.S. is under populated, however this doesn’t add up, since unemployment is steady. Although many factors affect employment rates, ultimately a person is out of a job because a) the employer cannot afford them or b) the field is oversaturated, so the employer doesn’t need them. In other words, when comparing areas of population imbalance can appear that an area is over populated, however it might just be that, like in farming communities, things have become more efficient so less man-power is needed.
Even if we are incredibly "underpopulated" I believe it is better off that way. Regardless of the population, our unemployment is still higher than what we want as a country. By allowing more immigrants we would be increasing that unemployment level. In addition, we live in the standards that we do because our lack of overpopulation. If we were to increase the population, our standards would go down, and things such as income and health would decrease. There are many people in this country that are capable of doing the jobs that illegal aliens do, they're just too lazy to do it.
Lauren Swindell, 4th Period
America might be underpopulated, however we enjoy many of the perks of it. As the population density increases, so does the difficulty to contain disease and homelessness. America shouldn't change its immigration policies because more people doesn't create jobs, and if the number of jobs stay the same, and the number of people increase, less people will be employed. While there may be some short term spending increase, the long term disadvantages overshadow the short term gains.
I do agree that the Republicans need to make moves to begin the growth of the economy and the job market. However, I do not believe that because the United States has land it needs more people. I'm not saying that immigration should be regulated, but an increased push to bring immigrants to America seems unnecessary. When the growth of jobs begins are more employees are needed, immigrants should not be the first people called. The homeless that are looking for jobs should be the first on everyone's mind. There are plenty of people in American, and many of those people cannot find jobs to pay for a roof over their heads. Let's focus on our own population's needs before we begin pushing for more of a population.
Because population density takes into account the entirety of land, even that which is unfit for living, it is an inaccurate form of measurement. Just because other individuals enter the country, it doesn't mean that jobs will grow exponentially. Overpopulation can lead to a multitude of worse things such as disease, homelessness, and forced competition for resources. While the numbers may say that America is underpopulated, take a look at the actual growth rate of the population and see how rapid it is. The Republicans should however voice their opinions on such a topic because it plays a large role in the economy's future, no matter ho controversial a topic it is.
Haris Vakil, period 7
The fact at hand is that currently the American government does not care about whether an immigrant is illegal or not. They may say they do but truly it all comes down to if they are getting paid or not. If we look at all the illegal immigrants that have gotten their hands on false papers and SS numbers we will see that the corporations and small businesses that they work for pay employee taxes using these papers. Now obviously the government has enough sense to filter the true from the false but rather decides not too because fake or real, they are getting paid. Does anyone truly believe that a check would be sent back to the businesses refunding their paid taxes on these immigrants because they're illegal? Or can the government really not spot a knock off document?
America is definitely not underpopulated. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines underpopulation as "having lower population density than is desirable" and in an economic sense the state of our population density is not too low. If immigrants were added to the populace, American citizens would lose job protection because employers would rather hire immigrants who tend to work for cheaper wages. Considering the already receeding economy and climbing unemployment rates, adding more competition for a limited amount of jobs would leave even more Americans in tight spots. Besides, the sheer fact that the only source the article in The New York Sun uses for data is Wikipedia discredits the credibility of its content.
This article is definitely biased towards the Republican side. Thus, the arguments they present will support the Republican side. It is unreasonable for America to become overpopulated like India and China. We have 83 people per square mile, but we are not equally distributed. In cities, there are more people than in the countryside. Thus, increasing the population with immigration will be a bad idea. Most immigrants will go into the city looking for a job that they could do. Therefore, the population in the already crammed cities will continue to increase, and there will be still more land to be populated. In addition, overpopulation will result in lack of resources that are right now available. Moreover, if we are not capable of employing all the people right now, how are we supposed to find job for more people? Thus, I don’t think we should increase our population by increasing the immigration flow.
Whether or not our population is less than it could be that doesn't mean we need to recruit more people to come here. As it is we are struggling to employ the people we have and thousands of people go without food everyday. I think rather than worrying about the quantity of life in the U.S we should focus on the quality of live for those already living here. That's not to say that we should ban all immigrants. Immigrants are essential and America is supposed to be a place where people can build a better life for themselves.
I agree America is underpopulated in terms of educated people. But NOT underpopulated in terms of PEOPLE.More intelligent and educated immigrants are needed for the country, but not uneducated ones that robs the social benefits without contributing anything into it.
Crowded uneducated immigrants in cities usually lives in ghetto areas of the town,combined with uneducated locals, they will be doing crimes, forming gangs,causing trouble, using up the prison cells. Meanwhile, the educated portion of the immigrants are really not that much. It would be wise for us to attract more wise and rich immigrants and kick out the poor ones.
It's not about the actual size of the population, it's about the POSITIVE part of the population. America alone already have too many uneducated people just waiting to be fed on government aids.
Kevin Ma Period 4
In accordance with all other fellow class members, I too agree that right now would not be the best time to allow more immigrants. The idea is surely a fabulous one. More immigrants whether it be skilled or unskilled is definitely going to help out a nation, but just like always with a large amount of good there happens to be a little amount of bad. With immigrants soaring the country and acquiring jobs, some Americans will be fired from their jobs, and we really don't want that to occur. As a final statement and re-emphasis, I join hands with economic growth through population, but not necessarily at this current point of time.
First of all I don't think this is the best time to bring in immigrants from other countries to US because the unemployment rate is high. As of right now the population per square mile in America is 83 which is underpopulated but if we let immigrants come to US there is going to be more economic growth through unskilled/skilled workers. I also think legal immigrants should be allowed to come to American, but not illegal immigrants.
The potential of many of the immigrants are being addressed today by many people. The more chance our country has to be populated with people of different races and color, we in turn then have the opportunity to capitalize on our abundant resources in terms of labor. A country is able to produce goods to its full potential which causes the economic stability to balance out. There should be control over immigrants to some extent but the freedom should be given if insisted by the people.
The article claims that America only possesses 83 people per square mile, which admittedly sounds like we have buckets of room to spare. That is, until you take into account the wide open spaces of, oh, i don't know, death valley, nevada deserts, arizona wasteland, and pretty much the entire state of Montana. True, America does possess less people per square mile than Japan or China, but last time I checked, China's air pollution was through the roof, and Japanese businessmen and businesswomen were wearing medical masks on their way to work so they wouldn't contract illnesses in their crowded cities. America is a land of wide of fields and amber waves of grain punctuated by centers of economic and political power like Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. And if the immigrants wanting to enter the United States held better qualifications as a group, I would be all for letting them in. But (and don't take me wrong or assume I'm subtly weaving racist undertones in my comments) the immigrants being rejected from this country are generally attempting to enter from an impoverished nation with political and economic turmoil without any particular skill as laborers. Many illegal immigrants that make it past the border patrol manage to eek out a living in the United States, abusing the benefits the federal government provides without paying back to society in taxes beyond the sales tax they pay on items bought at the local convenience store. As far as I'm concerned, Americans were the ones that needed jobs, and if the laborers are as unskilled as they appear to be, then any American can make a living in the job position an immigrant would have filled.
With the condition of our population and the rate of unemployment as of right now, the idea of bringing in more people does not sound so good. Sure, in the future when our economy is more stablized and the unemployment rate goes down a little, we can afford to let our population grow. But a bigger population (i'll edit this later)
More immigrants means less job and less opportunities to trade with foreign countries, when we already have people with skills. America is not underpopulated because they have foreign immigrants traveling and settling in US.
It is true that immigration is a subject to worry about and that many candidates are hostile towards this idea. But, before we think about all that, let us focus on the problem at hand. With our economy having unemployment, I think we should focus on getting it to full employment. If immigrant flow is increased the unemployment rate may go up. The next thing is our lifestyle. We may be underpopulated, but it is a great advantage to us. When other countries are overpopulated, we have the luck of having a lavish an nice life. There is a higher chance of equal opportunity for each, and a sense of individual identity in a nation with less population.
In short, we should focus on ourselves and our problems, and after solving that we have time to broaden our immigrational opportunities.
With the condition of our population and the rate of unemployment as of right now, the idea of bringing in more people does not sound so good. Sure, in the future when our economy becomes more stabilized and the unemployment rate goes down a little, we can afford to let our population grow. But a bigger population means the US has to provide more jobs. So until we get those new jobs, we cannot allow our population to grow more or else our economy will just become worse.
I believe that whether or not America is underpopulated depends on which aspect one is looking at it. One way to look at it would be to look at the US social norms. Each US citizen has a "personal bubble" that extends about two feet around them. Underpopulation is, then, based on one's views on how many people per square mile. Someone's views in population in China or India may be different than those in America. Secondly, one must look at underpopulation on a deeper level. Yes, we are the nation of liberty and freedom. However, there must be a line drawn to keep people from brining in drugs, weapons, etc. I believe that, for now, America is not underpopulated. If our population were to keep growing in the current economic crisis, we would increasingly find it more and more difficult to sustain a larger nation, which is what Malthus was talking about. Therefore, the population is in an acceptable state that does not at all need to be increased for the sake of "persons per square mile."
Though America may not have the number of people needed to fill skilled working positions, that does not mean that our nation is actually underpopulated. Under-population implies that there are an abundance of resources that can, and should be put to work. The fact is that our water supplies, social welfare, infrastructure, and agricultural production have difficulties keeping up with the enormous demands of Americans. Perhaps instead of using more people to try and fill these needs (who will, themselves, need such resources) we should focus on making the people and jobs we have more efficient.
Although I believe that we do not need more immigration,the population growth of the United States is growing slower,as immigration is one of the main factors in the nation's growth. The main question, if we increase the immigration growth, is how are we going to help U.S. citizens that are already unemployed. If the U.S. government can find a way to help our impoverished and unemployed citizens, create more jobs, and decrease the amount of illegal immigration, then i would support for more legal immigration.
I think america is not underpopulated. The unemployment rate is still around 9% which shows us that people don't have enough jobs to meet the demands of the 4.5% unemployment rate. i think once we hit the 4.5% unemployment rate then we could truly say we are underpopulated.
I think america is not underpopulated. The unemployment rate is still around 9% which shows us that people don't have enough jobs to meet the demands of the 4.5% unemployment rate. i think once we hit the 4.5% unemployment rate then we could truly say we are underpopulated.
Calling America "underpopulated" is understated. If we were to add millions of people just to reach the population standard of India and China, then millions of people would not have jobs. We have problems just maintaining the jobs we have right now, how are we supposed to provide for millions of other that come into the country. Another aspect of keeping this country underpopulated is disease control. With more people, the chance for diseases is higher than what we have right now. So being underpopulated has economic and health benefits.
In “A GOP Default,” it is pointed out that America does seem to be under populated compared to other countries. It is true that China and India are much more populated than the U.S. and I do believe that America has enough elbow room to grow; however, many Americans may disagree on encouraging immigration to the U.S. because they believe American people should have “dibs” on American jobs before immigrants. I agree with the point made that the U.S. can use all of the labor force it can get in order to create more production, but instead of discriminating against all immigrants, I think all immigrants working jobs in the U.S. should be legal.
I agree with my classmates on this issue. This is definitely not the right time to promote immigration into the US because of our economic crisis. Although more people are needed to increase our total output,there are certain drawbacks. Higher population means higher per capita output,but, we would experience lower standards of living. On the contrary, everyone who wants to live an American dream should be able to(after the economic crisis).
During this economic hardship, we need to provide jobs for people in the country before trying to increase the population. Why should there be more people in this country at this point when it already hard for the people here to get jobs. By having people move over here to populate the country, we will be increasing the rate of unemployment in America. America is seen as a place where dreams can come true but when the people in this country is having a hard time making their dream come true why should we invite others and dash their hopes. The country has long way to go before it can consider population rates. Immigration might be needed later but not now.
I think that it is misleading to say that the U.S. is underpopulated in comparison to India and China. India and China are just overpopulated. As some have already mentioned these countries have more poverty and disease spread faster. Certainly these qualities are not desirable. Moreover,as of right now it's irrational to bring in more immigrants because we will probably increase our employment rate.
While America is actually underpopulated right now, increasing immigration and overall population will be detrimental for us. In the future, it may be very beneficial, but as for now, we'll only be hurting ourselves more. Also, it isn't fair to compare our population to China and India as those countries are overpopulated and have had to take certain measures to cut down on population. To take a page from Keynes' book, the long run doesn't really matter cause in the long run we'll all be dead.
Even though the United States may be considered as underpopulated because of the "83 persons per square mile," I do not think we should bring in more immigrants. The main reason is because, our country already has a high unemployment rate. If more people come to the U.S the unemployment rate will just increase. So I think, after we deal with all the problems hat affect us now and lower the unemployment rate to about 4.5 percent, then only should we start thinking about bringing people into the U.S.
Tom Malayil, Period 4
The articles argument that immigrants can help in the job force is accurate but its one sided. They can help but they can also hurt. With limited jobs we have now, with more and more immigrants there is no guarantee, more jobs will be created. Also, in the past when America had a HUGE amount of immigrants from the southeast, diseases began spreading, the homeless began to rise, It was chaos. Regulated immigration as we have it now seems like the most plausible route.
I believe the US should not let mmore immigrants into the states because our country already has a high unemployment rate. Also the amount of immigrants that are coming into the United States and are not skilled laborers will not be any benefit to us, but will only make the U.S. more populated. Due the uemployment rate of 9% I believe it is better for immigrants not to come into the U.S. at this time.
Madelyn Hogue, Period 4
I do not believe that the United States should change their immigration policy based on whether or not we are an underpopulated country. The article states tat America is woefully underpopulated when compared to the likes of China and India, but I feel that our population density is actually better than those countries. China and India may be populated appropriately, but the people are forced into concentrated masses in all areas of their countries. I like that population distribution of this country and would not add immigrants to fill up the spaces that are open.
I do not believe that we need more people to work to make our standard living better, people are just lazy. Being an underpopulated country might be a good thing because our economy is already struggling with unemployment, and by taking in more people it would just increase.
Considering the fact that the world is OVER populated, I don't believe any where in the world can, or should be considered underpopulated. Our economy is superior to the entire world, surpassing China and India immensely despite their towering population versus ours. We create the majority of our population via immigration and that is something in recent years we have be lacking in, however immigration is something we can only hinder as their is always a want in coming to America. As most have said, our population is definitely the least of our issues as of now.
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