After a recent interview with progressive Matt Yglesias, an author responsible for publishing a book urging the United States to triple its current population from 330 million to 1 billion, Glen Beck, the owner of Blaze TV, tweeted “Having ONE BILLION AMERICANS is a goal worth striving for and crucial to keeping China from overtaking us as the top global power.”
Despite Beck’s best efforts, his creative excuse to triple the U.S. population is weak, to say the least, and negligently destructive at the most.
Yglesias, Beck’s guest, is a senior editor at the progressive Vox.com; in 2013 and ‘14, his support for the tremendously terrible “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill was deafening. This bipartisan legislation would have flooded the U.S. labor market with 30 million immigrants in just ten years – boosting investors while causing irreparable harm to U.S. wage earners, virtually, Wall Street’s dream bill.
Now, seemingly not learning from (or caring about) Americans’ rejection of the “Gang of Eight” bill, Yglesias wants an additional 670 million people as soon as possible. He explained his dangerously flawed thinking to Beck;
We’re sort of the number one power in the world. We have been for a long time, 100 years or more. But that’s slipping, right? We are facing a sort of relative decline vis-à-vis China. Their economy is growing very rapidly. In a lot of ways, that’s a good thing; global poverty has gone down a lot. It’s good to see other people doing well. But when you have a country of 1.2 billion people, it’s four times our population. If they get to half of our per capita wealth, they become a much stronger economy than we are in the aggregate. Right. And so we should do something about that.
Beck’s concerning Twitter claim prompted a lot of righteously indignant criticism on the platform; one respondent gave a particularly accurate response summing up the true reasoning behind such a claim. Twitter user, Roger Ross responded:
They want a BILLION Americans so they can depress wages like they did in China. Not only that, they want degradation of the environment, the depreciation of natural resources, & declines in individual’s quality of life, all for the sake of GDP. Only oligarchs want that.
Beck sadly agreed with Yglesias but made sure to insert some “mainstream conservative” talking points while completely ignoring the devastating deeper impact of his plan, topically arguing that ‘incomers should work hard, speak English, and accept the civic and constitutional principles of the United States.’ Beck even repeats some of the most insulting arguments often used by open border supporters and corporate sympathizers.
I think every conservative that I know has no problem with people coming in if they are going to come in and work, and they want to better their lives, which is almost every immigrant I have seen from, you know, Mexico and Latin America. They work far harder than most Americans, especially American kids. It renews us. It’s good.
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Yglesias responded. “I wish that all conservatives thought the way you’re thinking about immigration.”
Beck’s arguments are beyond disappointing, effectively spitting in the face of all Americans who work to put food on their tables, support their families, and provide a better quality of life for themselves and their posterity. His comments were particularly damning of young Americans, including the millions of American college students and recent graduates actively working to provide for their education, livelihood, and families in the hope of achieving the American Dream of self-determination. The same young Americans, who upon graduation, find a non-existent job market eradicated by uncontrolled mass immigration and despicable cheap-labor/outsourcing preferences.
In fact, given what is going on in the country at the moment with the economic and jobs crisis due to the Coronavirus resting predominantly on the backs of working Americans, Beck’s comments teeter on the verge of disgusting. Just last month, the Unemployment Rate was still resting at 8.4%.
Shockingly, in addition to all those actively searching for work (the U3 unemployment rate mentioned above), over 50 million more Americans are out of the labor force entirely. Still, political elites, corporate open border sympathizers, and now “conservative” talk show hosts continue to express their contempt for working Americans while demanding that the US continue its commitment to endless GDP growth, no matter the cost.
Plus, Beck seemingly forgot to explain how he expected the US to accommodate two new immigrants for every one person already present in the country, possibly because it just isn’t feasible.
Beyond exacerbating the nation’s destructive cheap-labor trends, further stagnating wages, and expanding America’s already prolific income inequality problem; Beck’s dream would cause irreparable damage to the country’s environment and the quality of life of all Americans and already present immigrants alike, all in the name of some GDP cold-war with China.
For the last half-century, Congress has already imposed a population boom in the US solely through immigration, despite the American people’s clear choices affecting population growth.
Over the last 20 years alone, 83% of all population growth in the US can be attributed to federal immigration policies. This is responsible for eroding approximately 22,000 square miles of America’s coveted pristine landscape through uncontrollable sprawl. It also results in the average commuter spending over 19 days in traffic solely to and from work and has doubled the average class size from recommended levels for an optimal learning environment.
As most Americans do, NumbersUSA recognizes the unsustainable nature of Congress’s immigration population boom (you can find a multitude of scientific evidence showing the negative impact population growth has on the environment at NumbersUSA.org). Following these current trends, the US can expect to reach 404 million people by the year 2060. As if that was not already bad enough, Beck and Yglesias actively hope for a population topping 1 BILLION, as soon as possible.
Speaking with Breitbart News on September 11th, Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, hit the nail on the head when he stated that Yglesias’s population idea “is the most ludicrous manifestation of a pretty widespread view of immigration as a tool for America’s elite to compete with the rest of the world.” Krikorian went on to explain, ‘“What he is proposing is a nation-breaking policy,” immigration policy should “serve the interests of individual Americans,” rather than the personal interests of globalist advocates.’ He concluded:
For all his flaws, Trump understands that government policy, including the federal immigration program, should be designed to help Americans thrive and live better lives. It is not to play some kind of geopolitical chess game.
What should be more important for the U.S. government? The gas station attendant in Iowa or the state of geopolitics in Burundi? The gas station attendant is the one whom the American government is supposed to serve.
It is almost comical to hear from the left-wing editor of Vox that we need to be engaging in a geopolitical population race with China.
For more on this story, please visit Breitbart News.
Take Action
Your voice counts! Let your Member of Congress know where you stand on immigration issues through the Action Board. Not a NumbersUSA member? Sign up here to get started.
Donate Today!
NumbersUSA is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that relies on your donations to works toward sensible immigration policies. NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation is recognized by America's Best Charities as one of the top 3% of well-run charities.
Immigration Grade Cards
NumbersUSA provides the only comprehensive immigration grade cards. See how your member of Congress’ rates and find grades going back to the 104th Congress (1995-97).