If our population size had been stabilized at 145 million, our current oil production would have been largely sufficient for our total oil needs, and our known reserves would have been ample far into the future. In short, we could have avoided the precarious position we will soon find ourselves in with regard to dependency on foreign oil. National power is, and is likely to be even more so in the future, a function primarily of scientific knowledge, technological skills and industrial capacity. These in turn must be firmly based on the twin pillars of resource adequacy and a sound environment, both of which are fostered by a smaller rather than by a larger population. At that rate our population would double in about 80 years, from the present 245 million to nearly half a billion.
Legal immigration accounts for the balance.
Our present total fertility rate is about 1.8 which is slightly below the long term replacement level. A slightly lower total fertility rate would be desirable in the interest of halting our population growth sooner, and that might be achieved if our federal government encouraged couples, by non-coercive means, of course, to have not more than two children. For example, a largely symbolic measure such as limiting tax deductions to not more than two children, and a declaration by the President and the Congress that our national goal was to halt and then reverse our population growth as soon as possible, might well be sufficient to lower the fertility rate slightly. Even if this reduction occurred, however, its effect on our population growth would be gradual, and would only make itself felt over a considerable period of time. But we need an immediate and substantial reduction in our yearly population growth, and we can achieve this by limiting legal immigration.