How population growth exacerbating budget deficits
The median household income in the United States is below $51,000 a year. Yet the cost of educating a child a year alone nationwide averages well over $9000 and can exceed $14,000. Aside from education, there are myriad expenses our federal and/or state governments need to cover: Welfare and healthcare to needy people, construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, fire/police/emergency/prison/court services, traffic/pollution control, homeland security measures, etc. Therefore, the taxes that most families pay are not likely to offset all the costs of infrastructure provided to residents. Considering the fact that today's high-tech economy requires fewer and fewer low-skilled workers and because many professionals are still out of work, adding 3 million people every year to the United States does put additional pressure on our government budgets. Needless to say, population growth also puts additional pressure on our environment and is largely responsible for growing traffic gridlock.