N.C. deficient in planning for rapid population growth

Good editorial. Growth has been oversold.

1) From an economic standpoint, there is NO RATIONALE for a growing population. Professor George J. Borjas, is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and among the nation's foremost labor economists. Excerpt below from a 2001 interview with Peter Brimelow, editor of VDARE.COM :
http://www.vdare.com/pb/071226_borjas.htm

Brimelow: "Is there any economic reason to have a growing population?"

Borjas: "No. I’ve wondered why people worry about this. Assuming constant returns—if you double input, you double output—it wouldn’t really matter what population level we’re at. What matters for an economy’s wealth is not the number of people, but the kind of people we have. In Europe, people worry about that a lot. But I don’t quite understand why cutting the population by 10% would imply that they are 10% poorer. Per capita income needn’t fall at all."

***

As to reasons North Carolina is growing so fast, North Carolina's leaders have made the state a magnet for illegal immigration. Quoting from a letter I recently published in the Greensboro News & Record:

"North Carolina's Democratic Party — as represented by the governor and leaders of the state House and Senate — have a different record [than Senator Elizabeth Dole] best encapsulated by the News & Record’s own Taft Wireback in a Jan. 26, 2005, report,“DMV memo OKs licenses for illegals”:

“'North Carolina has a wide-ranging reputation as a mecca for illegal immigrants from throughout the eastern third of the country seeking fraudulent licenses ... The state's poor reputation was the subject of a report broadcast nationally last week on CNN.'”

"Under public pressure the state’s Democratic Party leadership tightened up on drivers licenses in 2006 but are otherwise 'staying the course' on illegal immigration."

"In the 2007 session alone, they buried in committee and/or refused to allow a vote on a score of bills targeting illegal immigration."

***

As to the direct costs to schools of mass illegal immigration, a recent Congressional Budget Office [CBO]study indicates there additional costs associated with special needs of English language learners and in terms of total enrollment:

Higher Per-Pupil Costs: "Analyses from several states indicate the cost of educating students who did not speak English fluently were 20 percent to 40 percent higher than the costs incurred for native-born students." (page 2)

Ten Percent Higher Public School Enrollment: "Current estimates indicate that about 2 million school-age children (5 to 17 years old) in the United States are unauthorized immigrants; an additional 3 million children are U. S. citizens born to unauthorized immigrants. According to the most recent population data released by the Census Bureau, as of July 2006, there were 53.3 million school-age children in the United States." (pages 7-8).

Thus, ten percent of U. S. public school enrollment is a direct result of illegal immigration.

Link to CBO report:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/87xx/doc8711/12-6-...

Growth is certainly not all it's cracked up to be. It can easily destroy quality of life and seriously impact the environment and natural resources, as wehave witnessed in WNC.

Grow or die is a myth. Change or die is more accurate ... but we can change without destroying the beauty of what we are blessed with here.

Another issue the article does not address is the consumption of energy required by the new construction ... especially the 10,000 sf mega-mansions. Maybe it's time to explore the possibility of a cap on the size of homes ... or charge appropriate fees for those that will utillize more than their fair share of resources.

The other critical issue is how quickly we are losing valuable farmland. Oil will eventually peak - and the cost continues to increase for transportation of food and other materials. If we develop every last inch of green space, what will happen when we need to be more self-sufficient in terms of growing our food locally? What happens when it becomes too expensive to transport food long distances and we don't have any agricultural land left to use?

Just some thoughts on the ultimate realities of the situation - and asking for some foresight and planning. Dirty words, I know ... and I guess it's a tall order for politicos. The status quo is cover your butt and pass the buck instead of trying to create real solutions and be held accountable. Listen to the people ... they have the answers.