US population to reach 420 million by 2050

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

The sender of this link to me, and the article implicitly, calls for a "national growth strategy". Any wonDUrful ideas on what that might entail? -sb


<snip>

Just like rising energy demand, global warming, and racial distrust, America’s population boom is escaping serious attention from both presidential candidates. This is happening —or rather, not happening — even though the United States is growing more rapidly than it ever has before. By 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 420 million people will live here, 140 million more than in 2000. 

Is the country prepared for adding 50 percent more people in 50 years? Hardly. Just look at how America responded to the 33 million more people that joined us here in the 1990s: We paved millions of acres of open land, suffered from record levels of traffic congestion, overwhelmed sewage plans and polluted countless rivers and lakes with storm water runoff. We also widened the economic and social gulf between the outer suburban “haves” and just about everybody else.

<snip>

http://mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16761

[onebigbadwulf]

1. I think it will be a good thing

Major cities will be forced to turn to public transportation ala Europe/Japan and trains and subways will become the norm. This will paradoxically decrease our demand for foreign oil - especially if these mass transit systems end up running on Hydrogen power.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

4. Good points

The growth pattern will have to be changed as well. The space-filling in rectangular blocks that started in Colonial times needs to be replaced with something environmentally sensitive--but this will be over the dead bodies of the current generation of developers.

Think corridors, corridors, corridors....

[SoCalDem]

2. And the EU will have how many??

There should be a lot of young people..We boomers will be mostly gone by then :)

That should make the young'uns happy...More jobs.. (except for the fact that most jobs will be McJobs by then):(

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. For the old EU 15

it's an expected drop from about 380 million now to 350 million in 2050.

http://www.demographia.com/db-eu-pop.htm

[SoCalDem]

16. Does that factor in the possibility of new EU members??

I actually see a shift to the EU and China becoming the dominant entities by about 2030..

By then we should be just about broke and choked with poor people who are underemployed and even angrier than they are now.. That's not a recipe for success:(..

I am kind of glad that I will not be here..Feel bad for my kids though:(

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. No - it's just the 15 members from before this year (n/t)

[ramapo]

3. It's ugly

No time to get into it now but the future looks grim

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Support Birth control policies.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

6. Meaning...

Fed funds for Planned parenthood, free high quality condoms for everyone, or a tax on children (or at least no tax break)? Or what?

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. All of the above.

If you're seriously concerned about population growth, then the feds will have to go head to head with the fundies.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

10. But can it be stopped?

A management plan should be a higher priority than preventive measures IMO.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Growth, Growth Growth!

We're using the same management policies that corporations use. Keeping growing so we have enough young people to take care of the aging population. Keep growing so we can continue to have a builder's market. Keep growing so stocks will rise due to the sheer numbers, never mind that they're too dispersed among the middle class to do them any real good.

Break the lame-brain thinking. Growth isn't the answer. Let's try Quality for a change.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

18. You're confusing two kinds of growth

Population growth does not equal economic growth, as today's "Third World" will attest. We can hope against hope that our birthrate will decline--and even make policies to that end--but in the end we need to come up with smarter ways to occupy land. We're not disagreeing; I'm not salivating over the option of selling Pepsi and disposable lighters to those millions of people. I just think it's unrealistic to think the trend can be stopped through policy, unless we go the Chinese route...

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. I was sensationalizing the headline to accentuate

the corporate mantra. A mantra I don't agree with. Too much short-term thinking.

Just by giving the poor access to birth control information and free services, I sincerely believe we'll resolve a lot of what plaques us. But this is heretic speak.

[camero]

13. Most population growth for the US is immigration

since birth rates have been declining.

[camero]

7. So when are they opening the suicide centers? n/t

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

9. They're already open

They are called "Armed Forces Recruiting Centers".

Turns out the article's wrong--Bush does have a plan to control population growth, and he's already implementing it!

[camero]

12. True

They do recruit some Kool-aid drinkers.

[Dark]

11. 420!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can guess what I'm gonna be doin' in 2050!

:smoke:

[porphyrian]

20. Let's make it legal by then. - n/t

[Ezlivin]

21. Dude, that's a righteous number

420 Points Of Light, anyone?

Damn, I'll be 93 years old when that magic number is reached. My bong will probably be on wheels.

:)

[billyskank]

22. Will it be to do with anything that looks like this?