Mark Steyn is perplexed:
Last Tuesday morning, in a maternity ward somewhere in the United States, the 300 millionth American arrived. He or she got a marginally warmer welcome than Mark Foley turning up to hand out the prizes at junior high. One could have predicted the appalled editorials from European newspapers aghast at yet another addition to the swollen cohort of excess Americans consuming ever more of the planet's dwindling resources. And, when Canada's National Post announced "'Frightening' Surge Brings US To 300m People," you can appreciate their terror: the millions of Democrats who declared they were moving north after Bush's re-election must have placed incredible strain on Canada's highways, schools, trauma counselors, etc.
But the wee bairn might have expected a warmer welcome from his or her compatriots. Alas not. "Three hundred million seems to be greeted more with hand-wringing ambivalence than chest-thumping pride," observed the Washington Post, which inclines toward the former even on the best of days. No chest-thumping up in Vermont, either. "Organizations such as the Shelburne-based Population Media Center are marking the 300 million milestone with renewed warnings that world population growth is unsustainable," reported the Burlington Free Press. Across the country, the grim milestone prompted this reaction from a somber Dowell Myers. "At 300 million," noted the professor of urban planning and demography at the University of Southern California, "we are beginning to be crushed under the weight of our own quality-of-life degradation."
I recall reading a book written about 90 years ago. I think it was early 1914. This book predicted that at then-present growth rates, America would by 1970 have one billion people. And the author celebrated this qualified prediction with chest-thumping pride! And well he should have. One billion Americans producing and inventing as we do now would be far better for the world than 300 million Americans and 700 million still stuck in their countries of birth who never got the chance to become free, productive, and optimistic American citizens.
I don't get the pessimism over this event. How can you look at human history and not consider people an asset rather than a burden? I guess all the people who talk about how we must tax ourselves "for the children" don't really believe that the children are going to do anything much with that education and other support we provide.
Cheer up, people. And look forward to the day when we have 400 million people. Our quality of life will be more than merely a third better than today, I guarantee you that.
And welcome to America, little one! I'm proud you're here.
You aren't even crawling yet, but you're an American. So in twenty-five years, you'll be running past all those stagnating pessimists overseas. Go get 'em!
