FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


Q Why did you decide to write about population growth in America?
A It began for me just as it begins for most populationists--people concerned about population growth--with concern for our environment. It doesn't take long to understand that most of the environmental problems we try to mitigate--disappearing wild lands and wildlife, polluted water and air, depleted natural resources--are exacerbated by human population growth.

Q Why do you describe America's population growth as an addiction?
A If a person knows something is bad for him--excessive smoking, or drinking, or gambling--but he continues doing it regardless, we say he appears to be addicted to that destructive behavior. If we know exponential population growth is exacerbating America's societal and environmental problems but we allow it to continue, it suggests to me we are dealing with an addiction.

Q What are the factors causing America's population to grow?
A There are only four factor that cause America's--or any nation's--population to change: Births, deaths, inward migration, and outward migration. If birth exceed deaths and if inward migration exceeds outward migration, a nation's population grows. During some periods America's population growth has been caused primarily by births exceeding deaths. More recently, America's population growth is caused primarily by inward migration exceeding outward migration and by greater than replacement fertility among some inward migrants and their children.

Q What do you mean by "greater than replacement" fertility?
A When women on average have approximately two children, we call that "replacement fertility," because it reflects the replacement of one man and one woman when they eventually die.

Q The general perception is that "growth is good." Why isn't population growth good?
A Population growth is just another way of saying more people. More people can be good or can be bad. On a 200-seat airplane, population growth from 100 passengers to 200 passengers would be good--especially for the airplane's owners. However, population growth to 300 passengers would be bad--for everyone. In this case, the key question is: What is the carrying capacity of the airplane. In America's case, the key question is: What is the carrying capacity of our nation?

Q What is the carrying capacity of our nation?
A Nobody knows precisely, but among the various scientists whose work I have read, America's carrying capacity is estimated to be between 100 million and 200 million. Today America's population is 300 million... and growing. Like our hypothetical airplane, America may be heading for a crash landing.

Q How fortunate do you consider it that your book was released just as immigration reform had become front page news?
A On the one hand, it is fortunate that people are thinking and talking about one factor of population growth--inward migration. However, it is unfortunate that mainstream media fails to relate that single factor to the other three factors affecting a nation's population. Thus, the general public has a lack of understanding of those other three factors.

Q What example can you give of this lack of understanding?
A When I give my talk, "One Billion Americans!," I suggest one way for America to achieve population stabilization would be to balance births with deaths--in other words, have replacement fertility--and to balance inward migration with outward migration. People will ask, "But doesn't that mean cutting off all inward migration?" Well, no, it doesn't. And if mainstream media was doing its job, these people would know America has approximately one-quarter million outward migrants annually. Thus, America could accept one-quarter million inward migrants annually or 2.5 million inward migrants per decade and still achieve population stabilization.

Q How can Americans become involved with this issue?
A Think population. It is as easy as that. Think population. Every time one reads or hears a story about some local, state, or national problem, ask, "Will this problem be easier or more difficult to mitigate if the local, state, or national population continues to grow?" Nine times out of ten, the answer will be "More difficult--and more costly." Ask and answer that question often enough and you will become a populationist--concerned about the underlying cause of a majority of America's environmental and societal problems.

Q How have you reconciled your obligations as a personal financial advisor with your demands as an author and a speaker?
A My clients have children and grandchildren and grandnieces and great-grandnephews and are as concerned about what exponential population growth is doing to destroy quality of life for their descendants as I am. They have read my book and are more than willing to give me flexibility in meeting their needs in order to do work on behalf of future generations of Americans.

Q What do you particularly want readers to take away from reading The Population Fix?
A That America is marching mindlessly toward a population of one billion, that such a march is neither desirable nor inevitable, and that Americans have the right, the responsibility, and the capability to reverse that march, if they so choose.

Q How optimistic are you about America's future?
A Ask me again in one year after I have toured the country and talked with thousands of Americans about problems created by population growth. I have seen signs increasing numbers of American's are concerned about some of the environmental and societal problems created or exacerbated by exponential population growth and are conveying their concern to the only institution empowered to do something to change it--Congress. For now I would describe my feeling not as optimistic, but as hopeful.

Ed Hartman invites you to ask him directly your question on population growth issues. Send your question in an email to: info@thepopulationfix.com