Questions concerning U.S. population growth—–

If the US now in 2022 has 330 million people, when will the US finally have enough people? What is that number? 400 Million? 500 million? 600 million?

How have immigration policies favored by our leaders helped Native Americans preserve their water rights, hunting rights, and fishing rights?  How have these policies assisted Native Americans in preserving their traditional right to roam over what were their lands? 

 How have these same policies, where successive waves of people are allowed into the US, assisted African Americans in gaining equal employment, educational, and economic status as one of the earliest non native groups to arrive in the US ?

When the amount of Representatives in the House of Representatives was set at 435 after the 1920 Census, the U.S. had about 100 million people.  This means that after removing the 50 guaranteed Representatives allocated to each state, we had a math problem of 385 seats into 100 million citizens.  That math problem (385 into 100 million people) yields 259,000 people per Representative.  That same math problem now gives us 985,000 people i.e. 385 seats into 330 million. Wouldn’t that best be called “a dilution of representation”? Do we want to continue diluting representation?

Does dilution of representation make people feel more or less important as voters? 

According to the World Almanac Book of Facts for every 1000 people in the US we have more than 800 vehicles. If the US added 130 million people since 1970, how many additional bug splattering, fume spewing, atmosphere heating, road kill causing vehicles were added and how many additional tires would slowly grind into particulates on our streets and highways and eventually run into our streams, rivers, and lakes?

Would more vehicles increase or decrease traffic in cities and between cities?

Does growth give us less sprawl into farmland, forest land, wild life habitat, or open space?

Does growth result in less trash? Will we use less plastics?

Does growth result in less endangered species?

With growth is there less pesticide use?

Does growth reduce the probability of water shortages? 

Does growth result in less government?

Does growth result in fewer laws regulating us?  Does growth result in our having more freedoms?

Does growth result in more societal intimacy, more of a sense of belonging?

Does growth mean it is easier or more difficult to gain access to National Parks.

If population growth is an international problem, should we wait for other countries level their own population before we level our own?

Are there countries with little or no growth that are prosperous? Is it possible to have a high standard of living without population growth?

Does growth reduce our contribution to global warming?

Why did Governor Tom McCall say  “Visit Oregon but don’t stay”?

Are Beaverton, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene, Medford, Portland, and Salem better cities now or when Tom  McCall was governor when they were less than half today’s size?

Back to transportation and growth–If we add 800+ vehicles each time we add 1000 people to the country and we added 130 million people from 1970 to 2020, how many fume spewing, tire grinding, atmosphere heating, bug and bird splattering, and wild life killing vehicles were added in that same period?  Answer– 104 million vehicles.

We have been adding 25,000,000 people every 10 years since 1970.   If we consume one square mile each time we add 3000 people, how many square miles of farm land forest land wild life habitat or open space were consumed as we added 130,000,000 people? The math shows that to accommodate that growth we consumed roughly 43,333 square miles of farmland, forest land, wild life habitat, or open space. How many square miles are in Virginia? Answer–42,775 square miles. Do we want to continue consuming that much land in order to accommodate growth?

If we were to think ahead Seven Generations or 175 years, as Native Americans reportedly tried to plan for, and we grew by 25 million people over those 17.5 blocks of 10 years how many additional Americans would be the result?________________ If we have 332, 000,000 people in the US now what would be the total around the year 2395? ___________________.