Commentary
If the United States wants to recapture its former economic strength, it will need more workers and to find ways to make all workers more productive.
Without a larger, more effective workforce, the country will have to settle for slower growth than previously, something like the 1.8 percent a year projected recently by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That is a disappointing prospect compared with the 3.1 percent annual real growth rate averaged during the last 70-some years.
Innovation doubtless will continue to improve worker productivity, but given the low birth rates of past decades, immigration is the only way to get additional needed workers. There are, however, better ways to do this than today’s chaos on the southern border….