When will the population of the USA be considered as overpopulated?

[Robson]

Poll question: When will the population of the USA be considered as overpopulated?

I submit that the population of the USA is already nearing the point of critical mass where our environment will be over stressed and our country will no longer be self sustaining in food and water supply. The USA, once the so-called breadbasket to the world, will be beholden to the world in obtaining needed food supply. Every additional person in the USA requires more energy which results in more harm to the environment and more food requirements.

The warning signs are already in front of our face. One can't go to the ocean beaches on either the east or west coasts without swimming with feces from the surrounding cities. Our oceans are being overfished and the schools of ready fish and sea food are dwindling. Everything about our infrastructure is overcrowded.

The business elite would have us believe that they need never ending growth of consumers and a cheap labor work force to survive and increase their millions or billions or wealth. So where does that eventually leave us? Obviously the wealthier these business elite become, the more political influence they will have, and will propose policies that increase our rate of decline

When our ground water is depleted and fresh water contaminated, our shortages of food supplies overwhelming, our energy in short supply, our atmosphere corrupted, and the USA stressed to the point that where it affects the quality of life of every American citizen, we will ask why but then it will be too late.

The US Chamber of Commerce believes we should import millions of people every year. But it is only to the short term benefit of the US business elite.

I fully support abortion and choice and birth control.

[sabbat hunter]

1. a question and point

1) "One can't go to the ocean beaches on either the east or west coasts without swimming with feces from the surrounding cities"

I dont know about other beaches, but the major beaches here in the NYC area are fine to swim in, except maybe after a big rainstorm. but on a daily basis the beaches like coney island, Jones beach, fire island, can be swam in without any problems.

Also what do you suggest to prevent our population from rising? If we were to completely close our borders to legal immigration and prevent any illegal immigration our population is going to grow, be above 350 million.

what do you suggest we should do to stop that?

[Robson]

2. How about.......

.....if we just enforce our current immigration laws for a start?

First.....Immigration laws are based upon both politics and the current views of the people of our country. If our democracy and its people support a need for more citizens, then our elected politicians will go along and increase immigration rate. I don't see our citizens supporting still more population.

However if special interests which benefit from population growth are allowed to run the country then it will be in their interests and not in the interests of the citizens.

Secondly ......I would propose that income tax laws be revised so that they discourage additional children.

Thirdly I would encourage that woman be offered government bonuses if they have an abortion.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. I agree, but MAN are you in for it!

I have the scars to show for it from when I have dared to go up against the Cult of Parenthood. Yowch!! ;)

It has long been a source of vexation for me that I get to pay higher taxes because I am child-free. Excuse me? What's wrong with that picture? I don't necessarily think I should get a tax cut for it but I think the child tax credit should be scrapped and the money used for something productive. It was nothing but a sop from Clinton to curry favor with a powerful voting bloc. It's ridiculous to just hand people money because they procreated. I actually know a couple who used theirs to buy JetSkis.

JetSkis! :argh:

[Robson]

6. Greater good

We must all begin to look after the greater good of our country. Overpopulation is the biggest threat to the greater good of the USA, and for that matter the world in general. Too bad we can only control our country...but we can't even control that. Millions of illegals cross our borders yearly and too many American women become essentially baby factories instead of responsible parents and mothers.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. I don't blame immigration.

Immigration has added several million people to our country, admittedly, but most of our growth has come from longer life spans and a stable birth rate.

Other than a brief period in the early '70s when the Zero Population movement was getting some attention, the very idea of discussing population control has been verboten, even in environmentalist circles. Population is the giant elephant in the room that threatens the world. Claiming that the problem comes from the high birth rates in poor countries, or immigration in our country, is to deny the culpability of American culture. Americans use more resources and cause more pollution, by far, than any other nationality. Replacement birthrates in the U.S. will escalate the damage to the environment. We need negative population growth. Obviously, the idea of a draconian one-child policy like China's is abhorrent, not to mention socially disastrous. I wouldn't even propose such a thing. I'd like to see people here being encouraged to really think about the impact that producing offspring will have on the planet and to make their reproductive choices accordingly. I don't expect it to happen.

Flame away. :hide:

[BlueJazz]

4. We either control Population Growth with Laws or ....

...over-population will kill us all.

[polichick]

7. According to many scientists...

We reached safe sustainability numbers back in the 1960s, with regard to the environment. Sobering, huh?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. The population has nearly doubled since 1960

[skids]

8. It will only be overpopulated if...

...the population is less than 95% serfs. As long as they are subserviant wage slaves owned by the factory store, we can cram as many in as will fit shoulder to shoulder. Sure some will die from overcrowding, but we'll still have plenty left to work our lawns, and some of them will always be pretty enough to bring us cocktails, though it might be best not to trust them with the fine silver

[Robson]

9. Bingo! That's an interesting way to look at it.......

and likely the way the wealthy and elite would view it. There can never be too many surfs. Keep them in pens, just like cattle, to do their bidding at minimal cost.

[welshTerrier2]

11. here's some info from the Census bureau

sorry, no link. read this a few months ago ...

by the year, 2050, the US population is likely to increase by 120 Million people.

by the end of this century, the US population will likely be double what it currently is.

the implications to almost every aspect of life are overwhelming. when we think of the global impact of population increases, especially with such survival issues as global warming, food and water, it's clear radical changes are urgently needed.

[Robson]

12. Root cause

The root cause of ALL the problems of the environment, overfishing, and increase in poverty, crime, etc is overpopulation. Yet it never gets discussed. In the USA we need to go to negative population growth instead of another doubling of the population.

[Robson]

13. No comments?

No comments? Surely that is not the Democratic party that I stand for. Help the poor and rich procreate while they screw most of us.

[welshTerrier2]

14. ALL problems?

overpopulation puts a major strain on the environment and on all manmade institutions. without a doubt, the areas you cited, the environment, overfishing, poverty and crime, are all put under severe stress by overpopulation.

but I can't really agree that it is THE root cause of ALL problems. I just finished reading Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason. One of Gore's key themes is that when our society empowers mechanisms that let reason prevail, the collective wisdom of our citizenry generally fosters policies that are in the country's best interest. When those mechanisms are corrupted, say by "special interests" pouring money into political campaigns or lobbying efforts, or by corporate owned mass media spewing pro-corporate propaganda instead of truth, or by allowing a revolving door to exist between industry and government, the rule of reason no longer prevails and the results cater to profits at the expense of society.

It is this corruption, in my view, that sits at the core of the problems we face. To be sure, overpopulation, coupled with the almost total empowerment of the corporate elite and the ruling classes, plays a significant role in worsening our problems. To see overpopulation in isolation, however, without seeing the underlying distortions of democracy and the resultant corrupt and harmful policies they cause, sets the focus just slightly askew of the most dangerous enemy that confronts us.

[flaminbats]

18. why use information to make policy decisions?

:wow: an immigration policy based on population size?

why bother if our government looks the other way as thousands of illegal immigrants sneak across our border?

I doubt population growth would ever be a problem, if our country let in only enough immigrants to make up for a loss in population. otherwise we'll be facing the same environmental and economic problems which now exist in China and India. yet it isn't right to place these kind of limits on those who follow the rules, until illegal immigration is stopped.

[Zynx]

15. Put it this way. Wisconsin has more land than Britain. And we're not crowded here.

[Robson]

16. Contrary to the opinion of some

it takes square miles of natural, unspoiled, undeveloped real estate to provide ecological balance, food and water resources per person. The density of NYC and urban areas are not self sustaining, they are self destructing.

[eweaver155]

17. Never.

The U.S. land capacity is enormous and as the population grows, americans will expand into it's natural resources in order to accommodate growth. Don't believe that humans will stop building, depleting our national forests and continue displacing wildlife with no little regard for nature. As the population grows, the economy grows and that old standby (money)is the motivator. So the future may advance, but nature has a way of correcting itself contrary to our actions and we are beginning to pay the price for that through global warming, unseasonal weather conditions and the yet to discuss loss of precious wildlife. In the future, we will look the part of the most powerful and technically advanced nation in the world but we will pay a huge price for it just to make a dollar.

[sanskritwarrior]

19. Agreed

Look at the population density of Belgium...........we are nowhere near that........

[EndlessMaze]

22. Nature has many weapons in her arsenal

I believe that human beings have already exceeded the carrying capacity for our ilk on this planet. Population growth studies again and again show that a population of creatures can grow in numbers, quite far beyond their actual capacity, in a kind of "Wiley E Coyote" effect running over the cliff, and running their feet over the abyss before they actually look down below to see where they are headed.

I hate to say it, but we are already over the cliff. There are so many signs, that many of us don't seem to be willing to see. Wake up!

[sanskritwarrior]

20. I really hate crap like this

the USA has more undeveloped land than any nation save Brazil and Russia.......You want to see unsustainable......

Germany: 137,000 square miles of area........ 82 million people/ 599 people per square mile
Belgium: 11,700 square miles of area.........10.5 million/ 892 people per square mile

India: 1,122,000 square miles of area......1.12 BILLION people/ 852 people per square mile
China: 3,700,000 square miles of area......1.32 BILLION people/ 363 people per square mile




USA: 3,710,000 square miles of area..... 302 MILLION people/ 80 people per square mile


YEAH we are overpopulated............ :eyes:

[EndlessMaze]

21. As an Environmental Scientist

I believe that us folks living in the U.S.A., and just about everyone else wherever they live on this planet, already live in a place that has exceeded it's carrying capacity for the human beings living there. The only thing that's keeping us from realizing this is cheap oil, and that is soon to go. Then we'll need to figure how to cope with the aftermath of cheap energy. I predict that the world's human population will inevitably drop to a more reasonable/sustainable level. Hopefully, it won't be ugly, but I am not optimistic about that.

My main contribution of trying to solve this, was to have only one child. Growth for growth's sake, will soon pass, no matter where you live. If we haven't already screwed it up beyond all repair, we will soon shift over to a focus on a "real" quality of life for all. Growth will focus on quality, not quantity. And the pope will go crazy, or concede.

It's a comin'