Are there really 300 million people in the USA?
Are there really 300 million people in the USA? I’m not convinced. Have you ever been on a camping trip before? There is usually a couple people who are in charge of bringing food and firewood. Someone else brings and sets up the big tents. Everyone is in charge of their own sleeping bags. The whole process is usually a good time and I remember doing it as a teenager without adult supervision. So, 6 to 10 people can gave a great time on a camping trip and cover the necessities. But the USA is supposed to have 300 million people that live here. And I guess more than half of these people are adults of working age. So what’s going on? It doesn’t take more than a few hundred people to have a fully functioning village. Some people farm, somebody is the blacksmith, someone else is the sheriff. But in the USA we have 300 million people? And we produce enough food to feed our entire population many times over. So that means that the distribution of labor doesn’t have to be farming intensive like in a community from the turn of the century. It is almost boggling how 300 million people could be having a decade long recession and constantly be worried about finances. This is especially odd, when we figure that the USA has enough technology and functioning roads to basically make anything if we really put our minds and energy into it.
Yes, I know that the housing market burst and the stock market dropped and all that. But those issues were rooted in one thing: The reliance on the perception of market and economic growth. Why are we basing our economy on growth? We don’t need to grow population-wise anymore. I often ask myself, “What’s the plan with our country?” Simply surviving isn’t good enough for me. I want to feel like our country has a strong sense of purpose and clear, challenging yet achievable goals.
No offense to all the lawyers out there, but isn’t kind of strange how a huge chunk of all the smart people want to become lawyers? And the rest are either accountants or bankers. These jobs are parasitic.
What if half the United States workforce researched and developed new technology and/or manufactured things? Can you imagine the raw power that our country would wield? And the interesting thing is that our country needs new technology more than ever. We are facing new challenges with our way of life. In order to cope with our rate of consumption, new technologies are required to keep our economy sustainable. At the rate Americans consume and discard products, we will need new, more efficient ways of recycling and waste disposal. Don’t forget water. There is no guarantee water will always be as abundant and cheap as it is now. Desalination plants and research into water purification are way behind in order to keep our country secure. Remember, all these economy woes will not matter if we don’t have fresh water. Without water, entire cities will enter into chaos and perish.
Those concerns may seem important right now for Americans. But we won’t need to read speculative blogs for a glimpse into our not-so-secure future. All we need to do is watch how China and India deal with their population expansion, economic development, and environmental consumption/pollution. The issue that I think will shock India and China to the core in the upcoming years is…nitrogen. China and India are produce extreme amounts of nitrogen pollution. So much so that it entering on critical levels. If there is too much nitrogen in an ecosystem then there can be massive issues with plant life as well as oxygen problems. Also, where there is Nitrogen pollution, there is often other major environments issues. Now compound Nitrogen Pollution with water shortages in China and India.
Those issues may seem gloomy, but remember, we are supposed to have 300 million people in the USA that despite what most people think, we are very smart. And if we put our minds to it, the USA could posture itself as the “Solution” country. We could research advanced sustainability and efficiency technologies to help China and India cope with their economic development. There could be literally trillions of dollars that could be made if we are able to help these countries cope with their economic expansion. And at the same time we would be securing our own future by creating technology that will make us more efficient.
The fact is, most other countries want at least part of the life-style that Americans have. They want the iPhones, the unhealthy snacks, the Blue-Ray Discs, the video games, the cars…they want it all. So let’s capitalize on this by helping to make the environments of developing countries more livable. Unfortunately these technologies and the jobs that create them aren’t as glamorous as being the leader of a hedge-fund or a high-powered lawyer. But times can change.
Maybe the threats aren’t clear enough to encourage large amounts of mobilization of our scientific community and technical population. I just hate how we always need a threat in order to do important things on a collective scale. The betterment of our civilization should be reason enough to prepare for the future. No matter how unglamorous it may be.
-Tyler
