5 ms·

Well just keep desperately importing people from other countries, unlike Japan and Co. Or, for the other side of the political spectrum, ban abortions/birth con

Well just keep desperately importing people from other countries, unlike Japan and Co. Or, for the other side of the political spectrum, ban abortions/birth control.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
The first option reminds me of the Netflix show 3%.
Qwertious 4y ago
Banning abortions/birth control has already been tried by Romania. It was the inspiration for the book The Handmaid's Tale. In Romania today, banning abortions/birth control would be a political death sentence due to peoples' memories of the results the last time it was tried.
- boppo1 4y ago
  >memories of the results the last time it was tried. What happened?
rayiner 4y ago
While slowly turning the country into Bangladesh. Fantastic.
- ch4s3 4y ago
  We have a TON of space, unlike Bangladesh and we’re already a developed economy with strong institutions and rule of law. From a lot of vantage points, the US has enviable problems.
  - xyzzyz 4y ago
    - reverius42 4y ago
      Yup, we definitely have rule of law! They're going to lock him/her up any minute now!* * Substitute whichever "him" or "her" you are convinced has committed crimes and not been locked up.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  It will be well beyond our lifetime when the US gets comparable to Europe in terms of population density. Bangladesh levels are way far away and there are good reasons to believe that the US can keep increasing their population via immigration and never achieve Bangladesh levels of density. For anyone not following, Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world once you exclude city states. This is a classic example of a slippery slope argument.
  - rayiner 4y ago
    I’m not making a point about population density, but rather changing culture and reducing social trust. Immigrants make their new country more like their home country: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594
    - BeetleB 4y ago
      > Immigrants make their new country more like their home country This is a more refined concern than "While slowly turning the country into Bangladesh." There's no reason to believe that Bangladesh will dominate the influx. We're talking changes in immigration policy to make up for a domestic population decline. It would be naive to think that the only change would be "Let's just take more people without constraints." The US has in the past put restrictions on who can immigrate, and continues to have restrictions (whatever moral judgement is attached to them is left for the reader). You can restrict the countries they come from. You can restrict the education levels. You can restrict the number entering. You can restrict how long they need to be here before they can vote. And so on. Moreover, maintaining the current US culture is not entirely desirable. It has its good points and its bad points, but in general, a lack of change tends to become a regression rather than improvement. Many of my friends from different countries emigrated to Canada in their teens or early twenties, and I visit the country often. It's clearly benefited from the mix of cultures that came in. The US really doesn't deserve the image of a "melting pot". Do they occasionally have problems related to the various cultures that come in? Sure. Is Canada still better off? Definitely. Also, more people coming from Bangladesh can't be all bad. At the very least it will supply interesting folks on HN to have discussions with ;-)

Well just keep desperately importing people from other countries, unlike Japan and Co. Or, for the other side of the political spectrum, ban abortions/birth control.

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago

The first option reminds me of the Netflix show 3%.

Qwertious 4y ago

Banning abortions/birth control has already been tried by Romania. It was the inspiration for the book The Handmaid's Tale. In Romania today, banning abortions/birth control would be a political death sentence due to peoples' memories of the results the last time it was tried.

boppo1 4y ago
>memories of the results the last time it was tried. What happened?

rayiner 4y ago

While slowly turning the country into Bangladesh. Fantastic.

ch4s3 4y ago
We have a TON of space, unlike Bangladesh and we’re already a developed economy with strong institutions and rule of law. From a lot of vantage points, the US has enviable problems.
- xyzzyz 4y ago
  - reverius42 4y ago
    Yup, we definitely have rule of law! They're going to lock him/her up any minute now!* * Substitute whichever "him" or "her" you are convinced has committed crimes and not been locked up.
BeetleB 4y ago
It will be well beyond our lifetime when the US gets comparable to Europe in terms of population density. Bangladesh levels are way far away and there are good reasons to believe that the US can keep increasing their population via immigration and never achieve Bangladesh levels of density. For anyone not following, Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world once you exclude city states. This is a classic example of a slippery slope argument.
- rayiner 4y ago
  I’m not making a point about population density, but rather changing culture and reducing social trust. Immigrants make their new country more like their home country: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594 https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35594
  - BeetleB 4y ago
    > Immigrants make their new country more like their home country This is a more refined concern than "While slowly turning the country into Bangladesh." There's no reason to believe that Bangladesh will dominate the influx. We're talking changes in immigration policy to make up for a domestic population decline. It would be naive to think that the only change would be "Let's just take more people without constraints." The US has in the past put restrictions on who can immigrate, and continues to have restrictions (whatever moral judgement is attached to them is left for the reader). You can restrict the countries they come from. You can restrict the education levels. You can restrict the number entering. You can restrict how long they need to be here before they can vote. And so on. Moreover, maintaining the current US culture is not entirely desirable. It has its good points and its bad points, but in general, a lack of change tends to become a regression rather than improvement. Many of my friends from different countries emigrated to Canada in their teens or early twenties, and I visit the country often. It's clearly benefited from the mix of cultures that came in. The US really doesn't deserve the image of a "melting pot". Do they occasionally have problems related to the various cultures that come in? Sure. Is Canada still better off? Definitely. Also, more people coming from Bangladesh can't be all bad. At the very least it will supply interesting folks on HN to have discussions with ;-)