1.3 Billion in the U.S.

     James Fallows recently blogged about what the U.S. would be like with a population the size of China's.  First, about geographic size:  the U.S. has about the same land area as China, although China has less arable land.  Next, Fallows used strategic planner Thomas Barnett's image:  if you took the population of the entire American Hemisphere--that's Canada, down through the U.S., Mexico, Central America and South America--and also added in the people living in Japan and Nigeria, that would be about 1.3 billion, slightly fewer than China's current population.  Imagine all of these additional people coming to live with us in the U.S. and sharing our space with them.  That's over 4 times as many people as currently live in our country.  Growing enough food for everyone would be a significant challenge.  There would be many more challenges, trying to take care of 1.3 billion people:  providing clean water, decent housing, electricity, transportation and communication systems--not to mention education, jobs, healthcare, and services for the poor and vulnerable, and on and on.  And we think we're stretched now, taking care of a mere 300 million people in the U.S.!
     Barnett's point was that these imagined challenges for the U.S. are what China is currently dealing with.       Although China has come far in the last 30 years, many people here still live in poverty, without basics that we take for granted in the U.S.   Providing for all 1.3 billion Chinese people will be an incredible challenge.  On the other hand, China's huge workforce wields tremendous power and potential.