300 Million People And Counting

The U.S. Population Is Growing Faster Than Any Other Country

(CBS)  Late afternoon in Maricopa, Ariz. is the picture perfect time for the annual homecoming parade in a city that more and more people are calling home.

The city is only three years old, but Mayor Kelly Anderson has lived on a farm in what is now Maricopa all his life. So far, he is the city's first and only mayor. Houses are springing up where he said six months ago, there were none.

Maricopa is a microcosm of the population surge occurring in much of the United States — the fastest growing in the industrialized world.

There are one million new residents every four months. The census bureau predicts we'll reach 300 million people some time the week of October 16th.

"When I was a kid there weren't any houses," Kelly told CBSSunday Morning correspondent Thalia Assuras as he showed her where he grew up. "I rode my bike through that area and we had a fishing pond on the north end of the farm and life was good. It's good now."

Life in Maricopa is rapidly changing. It's population jumped from just 1,500 when Anderson took the helm to 25,000. By the end of the decade Maricopa is expected to explode to more than one hundred thousand.

"It's really fast. At one point the city was permitting 800 permits a month," Anderson said. "And we do the creative math; it's about three people per hour. It's really phenomenal when you think about it."

The growth is so rapid that city hall is housed in temporary trailers. Municipal planners are scrambling to keep ahead of potential transportation and traffic problems as they shape their city. Council member Will Dunn was born here and recently returned with his young family.

"We came here to get away from the growth. It came with us," he said. "We decided at that point, we're gonna work with it."

Dunn has capitalized on the population rise with his pet store. He also sells flowers, saddles and even birds.

"You kinda had to make the choice when this whole explosion happened," he said. "You had to decide whether you're gonna just be mad that people's taking over your area. Or you're gonna say, 'You know what, here's an opportunity.'"

William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said there are three reasons for U.S. population growth: the birth rate is relatively high, we're healthier and living longer, but mostly, it's immigration. He said there is a net increase of one immigrant — legal or illegal — every 30 seconds.

"I have predicted that the 300-millionth American will be a boy born in Los Angeles County to a Mexican mother," he said. "It's not only a prediction, but I think it's, it's more symbolic of what the population will look like in the next several years. The 300-millionth American represents going back to our melting pot roots in a way, because we're now bringing in much of our growth from immigrants, the children of immigrants, and a diversity to our population which we haven't seen in a long time."

Immigration has been a hot button political issue leading into the midterm elections. Frey said that because the 300-millionth American is likely to either be an immigrant or child of an immigrant, some people will "mixed up with all kinds of other issues associated with the illegal immigration debate, with the rancor that sometimes comes along with this in some states where immigrants are a new phenomenon."

[abcdefgh1232]

With respect to your %u201C300 million and counting . .. %u201C, let%u2019s not forget that there were millions here before 1620, well before the %u201Cshot heard around the world%u201D, before %u201C3 million mostly farmers%u201D,etc. Shame on Kuralt and his research staff. Let%u2019s get our heads out of the sand and start reporting the truth for once with the original inhabitants of this once beautiful. %u201C%u2026 3 million; one for every square mile, etc. %u201C. How dare you ignore the forceful removal of Native peoples from their beautiful lands, the genocide, the unspeakable atrocities committed by Europeans, immigrants against Native peoples for their homeland. How shameful your bias reporting on your otherwise excellent journalism. H.Begay, Tonanesdizi

[peaceforusa]

Don't you people realize the Melting Pot of America is full...How much more will we be forced to consume?

[hmsudul]

New families like Russian and Hispanic are
moving in with 6-to 9 children thatis bound to
amke an impact. Middle-class and wealthy are not
adding to the population.....presently it seems
to be the immgrants. Poplulation control is an
unspoken issue and needs attention..
Why is birth control and tube tying so hard to
come. Plus a major education on sensible family
planning.But we seem to be too busy wrangling
over politcial overtones. WAKE UP AMERICA ..too
much over crowding does yield to crime.

[lestb35]

Have we the American people been sold out or what? Does ANY politician represent us?

[peaceforusa]

Have we the American people been sold out or what? Does ANY politician represent us?Posted by lestb35
No.. Politicians are about the other people. The Muslims, the Arabs the Mexicans and Latinos, the Middle Eastern Indians, everyone from every country is represented except the American Indian, and the White and Black Christian. We are slowly being pushed into the worlds trash bin and noone is standing by us. We will have to do that our own to take our country back. And we have to do it now.

[sharncedar]

It's pretty simple that more people makes the wealthy and elite wealthier, for example more people pay more taxes and buy more products. The government sees a direct increase in revenue for every new body, this is how they get growth which is how our economy works. That's the capital in capitalism, its growth on investments, necessary or there will be a general collapse of the system.

When there are too many people there will also be a general collapse of the system, won't there. We are in a real catch-22.

Growth will kill us, but we can't stop growing or we'll die.

We passed the point of no return on death highway many many years ago. A good analogy for our system's current state is a meth addict, stop taking the drug which for us is population growth, and you have to deal with the realization you are ruined without the drug's false feeling of strength. But, the best advice is the same we'd give to a meth addict, which is stop now and there might be a chance at some limited survival after a few hard decades of suffering and work. And the chance of the US taking that advice is about the chance of a meth addict listening. Nevertheless, like with addicts, communicate, be strong, be patient, work diligently, with humility, never give up.

[peaceforusa]

SharnCedar

"Growth will kill us, but we can't stop growing or we'll die."

How do you figure this? All the illegal aliens in the USA are killing America. Get rid of them and we regain some of our strength. Do you know how many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens? Here is just one site with just a few examples of devastation they cause in America. http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/ They suck off of our resources and taxes until America is brought to its knees. We cannot allow this to happen. We cannot allow anymore illegal aliens, or any more poor from other countries to come here, at least not for alot of years. They are making America the trash bin of the world and they are killing America.
America will not die without them, we will flourish. The melting pot is full and we cannot give our country up to any more. There is no room here for any of us, our children, and our granchildren to ever reach the American dream we were so afforded by our Constitution.