Thread by @bopinion

Last year, American women gave birth to the fewest number of children since 1986.

That amounts to a fertility rate of 1.7 children per woman -- well below the rate of 2.1 necessary to maintain a stable population. bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

A decline in fertility poses a long-term problem for the U.S. 📉👶🏽

More and more aging citizens will be dependent upon Social Security and government healthcare. A shrinking number of workers will have to fund both. bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

Fertility declines in the U.S. are hardly unique:

🍼 Japan: 1.4
🍼 Singapore: 1.2
🍼 South Korea: 0.95

For three decades, Asia's most successful economies have experimented to reverse far more serious rates bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

The only sure way to reverse the trend is to do what the U.S. has historically done better than virtually any other nation on earth: accept immigrants. bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

Singapore's efforts include:

👪 Childcare subsidies
🎓 Matchmaking agency for college grads
💰 Cash bonuses for having kids
🤱🏻 Maternity and paternity leave policies

These policies boost gender equality, but they've failed to increase fertility rates bloom.bg/2HE1ZWAhttps:/…

Asia's wealthiest economies are now turning to immigration as a short and long-term means of addressing worker shortages.

In Japan, where the population is shrinking, immigration increased for the sixth straight year in 2018 bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

South Korea has made major strides: Between 2006 and 2016, the foreign-born population grew from 536,000 to more than 2 million.

By 2020 it's estimated that one-third of all children born in South Korea will have a foreign-born parent bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA

America should do what it's always done to rejuvenate its population and economy: Open the doors to young and skilled newcomers bloom.bg/2HE1ZWA