As Birth Rates Hit Record Levels In The U.S., Are We Becoming More Like China?

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than in any other year in American history--that according to new government figures.

U.S. population is now growing so quickly, it is time for a national conversation on where Americans want to go and what we want this country to look like 50 years from now. Do we want the teeming poverty of China or India? Do we want more urban sprawl? Is the business community's need for cheap labor so important that Americans want, in return, dirtier air and water, more competition for jobs, more loss of green space, and bigger traffic jams?

Mass legal and illegal immigration during the past two to three decades was originally promoted because conventional wisdom was, as long as the U.S. population grew, so would the economy as a result of more consumer spending. This recession has shown us that booming population growth is no guarantee of a strong economy.

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By Bonnie Erbe