Great article. USA has the extraordinary benefit of being a large growth society in almost any way with a low population density.
The traditional European way of ensuring enough wealth for everybody is to set cultural rules for marriage and having children, reducing fertility for those that did not have access to production facilities, keeping production and population size in sync. Urbanization destroyed this, of course, leading to a huge population explosion. Population growth has now been slowed down again, largely because of kids are now expensive again - and the population growth/reduction rate is now one of the hottest political topics in Europe. A reduced fertility rate is often connected to more immigration, by people that don't always blend in nicely - meanwhile, a negative population growth is the best first step against any kind of pollution and climate problem, but it increases the retirement age.
I assume that Japan had similar mechanisms in the early 20th century, efficient or not, and the government's role to support growth limiting mechanisms probably added to the mess-up in their thinking.
The absence of such mechanisms in USA is a blessing, believe me. However, I think most Americans would not like to see a couple of billion inhabitants in USA, so you will eventually get them, too. |
