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We are not replacing ourselves. But,we need more workers. Maybe immigrants could help? |
The National Center for Health Statistics has calculated the US birth rate for 2017 at 60.2 per 1000 women between 15 and 44 or 1.76 lifetime per woman (3% lower than 2016). This extends the 47 year US sub-replacement trend. This means that as older generations age out of the workforce, there will be an increasingly skewed ratio of retirees to working Americans. A thoughtful immigration policy could make us more dynamic and better able to face the challenges of a connected world.
Our replacements must come from foreigners. But first we need to be brave and work through our fear of people with different accents, clothes, food and religions. Inevitably newcomers will flavor the culture which feeds populist pandering. That is wasteful and self-defeating.
Immigrants earned $1.3 trillion and contributed $105 billion in state and local taxes and nearly $224 billion in federal taxes in 2014, according to the Partnership for a New American Economy, based on an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey.
We need to get real and reject wasteful pandering and fear mongering which holds us back!
Hard Schell Report — written tongue-in-cheek.