Have some compassion man. Has it ever occurred to you that those who immigrated here had it much worse than all the petty 1st World inconveniences you drone on about? You would rather have thousands (millions?) suffer in horrible living conditions than be 'forced' to wait three extra hours in line every five years.
And that is ignoring the obvious coercion involved in forcibly restricting a sovereign human's movement.
staerker said:
Every time a moderator on this forum believes their personal comfort usurps others' personal liberty, I...well I don't know what to think anymore.
So how many is too many? Is there a number you are comfortable with and, if so, what is that number? 400 million? 800 million? 1 billion? 4 billion? Or are you fine at 4 billion+ ?
Our country’s population is at 316 million. How many is too many?
Most of our population growth over the last generation has been from immigration, and most in the future is predicted to be from immigration.
Perhaps we should have a vote?
Personally I remember the country at less than 200 million…
- A big issue for me is that there were no factory farms at 200 million… animals had large grazing areas and weren’t put into cages… they had decent lives and were humanely put down. Many of us have stopped eating meat because we simply cannot stomach what is going on on factory farms. No one expects everyone to be vegan, however, I think the vast majority of Americans believe animals should have a decent life and not be in torture and put in tiny cages where they cannot move their entire lives – and that is exactly what they are in on today’s factory farms. Just imagine the size of these torture chambers if the human population in our country got to 1.4 billion like in China.
- The #1 threat to wildlife according to scientists is habitat destruction from human overpopulation. Huge numbers of species go extinct every year. There’s 400 right whales left on the entire planet – and their lives are threatened right now by seismic blasting then offshore oil drilling off the U.S. East Coast. 400 right whales left on the planet and we’re willing to sacrifice their lives so endless human growth can ride around in SUVs? 600 million birds die every year from flying into the glass windows in buildings. There’s expected to be no more fish in the ocean by 2048.
Yes, if I could vote, I’d vote on a system that completely ended all immigration (both legal and illegal) until the population in the country got back down to around 200 million. I’d like to see birth-right citizenship end, felonies to be given to any employer who gets caught employing someone illegally here – that way people would self-deport. Children here illegally should not be going to public schools.
A lot of people’s views on population probably has a lot to do with their own experiences. People who take the D.C. Metro to work every day during rush hour are basically packed like cattle into crammed subway cars (standing room only); sometimes when the doors open you don’t have to initiate walking into the car in front of you because of the large mob of people behind you pushing you into the car. No one talks to each other; most people are either wearing ear buds listening to the radio or reading magazines or books. Very few people even give eye contact to one another. Why?
And that is the big question: why? I personally believe human beings need space. I know I do. And when you’re surrounded by hordes of people all the time, people are cold to each other. Why? Because it’s too many people. Compare that to walking down the street of a small town. When you come across another human, you’re friendly. It’s natural.
I don’t live in northern Virginia but have been there enough to hate it. It’s cold. It’s sterile. There’s highways everywhere. Stacked apartments where people live along highways. There’s places where there’s 5 and 6 highways built on top of each other. Everything is concrete. Paved. Not natural.
I need nature to survive. I need wide open fields to see sunsets on horizons. All that is quickly disappearing. Some people might be fine with 3 billion people in this country and a concrete jungle. I’m happiest at 200 million.
So how about we vote as a country, or each state vote individually, how large we want our population to be?
And make it law.
Allowing spillover immigration from countries that are overpopulated into this country not only harms our own country but neglects the hard work that overpopulated country will eventually need to do in controlling their population numbers. You may hate me for saying this: but imho the Chinese government had no choice but to implement their one child policy: they've got 1.4 billion people and because of the overpopulation their country is a cesspool. Hopefully we will be smart enough to control our numbers by managing the one thing that increases our numbers (immigration) instead of waiting until we're at a point like China was.