1st Edition

The Vanishing American Dream Immigration, Population, Debt, Scarcity

By Virginia Deane Abernethy Copyright 2016
    350 Pages
    by Routledge

    350 Pages
    by Routledge

    The United States has gone off track, allowing domestic and foreign aid policies to be co-opted by a government—abetted by mass media—that serves special interests rather than the greater national good. Americans' tendencies to trust, play fair, and help have been abused and require replacement by a realistic outlook.

    The Vanishing American Dream posits solutions to get America back on the right track. Abernethy sees population growth driven by mass immigration as a major cause of economic and cultural changes that have been detrimental to most Americans. The environment has been degraded by over-crowding and increasing demands on natural resources. Work is cheapened by explosive growth in the labour force creating a buyer's market. One salary or wage no longer supports a family and educates children. Women working outside the home is a necessity, not a choice, for most American families. Furthermore, feminism, aimed originally at balanced gender roles, has been turned viciously against males of all ages and ultimately against females through degrading their traditional and valuable contributions.

    Abernethy proposes that Americans need time to regroup, untroubled by a continuing influx of foreign peoples. The family, small business, and responsive local government are centres around which a solvent and confident citizenry can prosper again.

    Contents
    Preface

    1 Trust
    Introduction
    Jobs, Politics, and Immigration
    Effects of Mass Immigration
    Immigration Misinformation: Teeming Masses and Funny Numbers
    Census Bureau Distortions Hide Immigration Crisis: Real Numbers Much Higher, Part I
    To Reform Welfare, Reform Immigration
    Immigration and the Nation's Health

    2 Carrying Capacity and Complexity
    Introduction
    The Politics of Conservation
    Doing Government to the People
    Carrying Capacity: The Traditions and Policy Implications of Limits
    A State Shows the Way
    Population Problems

    3 Explaining Fertility Rates: The Search for Causality
    Introduction
    Foreword to Aldine-Transaction Edition of Ester Boserup's The Conditions of Agricultural Growth
    Population Planning in a Premodern Context
    The Shipibo: Modernity Begets Fertility

    4 Surprised by Sex: The Fertility Opportunity Hypothesis
    Introduction
    Fertility Decline No Mystery
    Crowd Control. Review of George M. Moffett's Critical Masses: The Global Population Challenge
    Population Dynamics: Why We Can Sit Back and Watch Fertility Fall
    Eskimo Adaptation to a Harsh Environment
    Why Asian Population Growth Is Grinding Down
    Fertility Decline in Former "Asian Tigers"

    5 The Unintended Consequences of Redistributed Wealth
    Introduction
    Optimism and Overpopulation
    The Demographic Transition Revisited: Lessons for Foreign Aid and US Immigration Policy
    Immigration Reduction Offers Chance for Softer Landing
    The "One-World" Thesis as an Obstacle to Environmental Preservation

    6 Population Growth Threatens Women and Children
    Introduction
    Coverage of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
    The World's Women: Fighting a Battle, Losing the War
    Cultural Perspectives on the Impact of Women's Changing Roles on Psychiatry

    7 Winners and Losers from Population Pressure
    Introduction
    Population Politics
    Family Formation in America
    Changing the USA's Population Signals for a Sustainable Future
    Environmental and Ethical Aspects of International Migration

    8 Marriage, Motherhood, and Power
    Introduction
    Compassion, Control, and Decisions about Competency
    American Marriage in Cross-Cultural Perspective

    9 Seeds of Conflict
    Introduction
    Government for the People?
    Census Bureau Distortions Hide Immigration Crisis, Part II
    Book Review of Ethnic Politics by Milton J. Esman

    10 Restoring the Tradition
    Introduction
    Report Confuses "Diversity," "Multiculturalism"
    Promotion in the San Francisco Fire Department
    Responsibility—The Lost Virtue
    Marriage and Reproduction Make Sense After All

    Epilogue

    Index

    Biography

    Abernethy, Virginia Deane