This column is a great luscious orgy of optimism. Because the fact is, despite all the problems, America’s future is exceedingly bright.
Over the next 40 years, demographers estimate that the U.S. population will surge by an additional 100 million people, to 400 million over all. The population will be enterprising and relatively young. In 2050, only a quarter will be over 60, compared with 31 percent in China and 41 percent in Japan.
In his book, “The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050,” über-geographer Joel Kotkin sketches out how this growth will change the national landscape. Extrapolating from current trends, he describes an archipelago of vibrant suburban town centers, villages and urban cores.
Wait, wait, wait…I thought over-population was bad. Besides, I thought the US was only at a replacement birthrate, so where are these new 100 million people coming from…oh, that’s right, illegal immigration.
Is it OK if my cheers are from the bronx?
I agree with Brooks long-term. But short-term we have some painful lessons yet to learn. I think in 10 years things will be better, but not in five years.
He and Kotkin may be correct … but only if the current political philosophy of consolidation of economic and social power in Washington is not corrected at the polls in the next two elections. Otherwise, I believe there will not be this new young 100 million, because population growth will be slowed even more than now, due to economics; future economic opportunities in the private sector will be sparse; and culture of individualism that drives the kind of suburban and urban (????) social and economic hubs Kotkin envisions will have ceased to exist as the majority culture in our country – may have already ceased to exist. I think Kotkin (and Brooks) have adopted an ostrich approach to the future, based on the way Americans have always done things in the past. I don’t think they understand the “fundamental change” that the BHO Administration has brought to the country and the social and economic change that will continue, unless the voters make the change in the next two elections necessary to reinstate American spirit of individualism and independence that has fueled the entrepreneurial spirit in our culture in the past.