Ghost Nation

Ultimately, output depends on someone putting out. But who? Native-born American women are not having enough children to keep up.

Monday, July 07^th, 2025

Bill Bonner, from Youghal, Ireland

A quick scan of the news. Al Jazeera:

For years, migrants and asylum seekers travelled north from South America to reach safety and opportunity in the US. But now, with an immigration crackdown unfolding in the US, there are reports of an inverse trend emerging: wherein migrants are retreating from the US border in search of a new home elsewhere.

The Hill:

Treatment of immigrants is harmful, immoral, un-American

In June, 48-year-old Narcisco Barranco, an undocumented immigrant with no criminal record who was working as a gardener in Santa Ana, Calif., was pinned to the pavement and repeatedly hit in the head by four masked Customs and Border Patrol agents. After a formal request by the Mexican Consulate General in Los Angeles, Barranco received medical attention for his wounds and a heart condition. One of his three sons — all of whom served in the U.S. Marines — rebutted Trump administration claims that Barranco had attempted to assault officers with his weed trimmer, and said that if he had treated someone in this way when he was in uniform, “it would have been a war crime.”

CBS news:

Trump signs executive order calling for foreign tourists to pay higher national park fees.

BBC:

As the list of nations issuing travel warnings to the US grows, some visitors are opting to boycott it entirely. Many foreigners are changing their travel plans…

The Mirror:

Patricia Arquette warns US isn't 'safe for tourists' and calls to cancel 2028 Olympics

And here’s News Nation:

The Department of Homeland Security has announced migrants who self-deport through the CBP Home app will not face so-called “failure to depart fines,” which can reach up to $1,000 per day. In addition, they’ll get free flights, a $1,000 exit bonus and the chance to return legally later.

What do these headlines portend? A nation of ghosts?

Your correspondent was one of four children. His friends and cousins all came from families of four , five, even eight children. In 1950, the average American woman had nearly four children. These children are the people we grew up with, who went on to fill the schools…the colleges…the restaurants…and the jobs of contemporary America.

It was this ‘growth’ of people — more people doing more things, earning more money, spending more money — that boosted GDP. Had they not been born, about half of the nation’s GDP growth since then would not have happened.

And now, almost all those people we grew up with are retired…or dead. Many need assistance — either for cutting the lawn or getting out of bed.

By 2001, spiders were already looking for cribs, where they could weave their webs unmolested. American women had only half as many children as a century before — two or fewer on average — less than ‘replacement level.’ And today, Americans have sex for fun, not for children. The ‘fertility rate’ is down to 1.73, resulting in a whole ghost nation of millions of people who don’t exist. This is still not bad compared to Europe and Asia, where they sell more adult diapers than baby diapers. But it raises the question: where will workers of the future come from?

They won’t come from the homies. Since 2007, about half of all new jobs have been taken by immigrants — documented or not. And since 2019 almost all new jobs, net, have been filled by foreigners. So, who’s not showing up for the entry-level job interview in 2025? It’s one of the ghosts — people not born after 2000.

When we left you last week, the Republicans had just rolled out the pork barrel, with more money for war…more deficits…and more debt — always a vote-buying formula. Not to worry, they have numbers…NUMBERS!…to show that growth will offset much of the cost and increased debt.

But where will these numbers come from? Ultimately, output depends on someone putting out. But who? Native-born American women are not having enough children to keep up. So, if the workforce is to grow, the workers will have to come from immigrants.

If the administration wanted to get dangerous illegal immigrants out of the country, it could have done so quietly and calmly, gradually sending them home legally.

Instead, it rounded up thousands of immigrants — many of whom had never committed a violent crime; it treated them disgracefully and made a ghastly show of it.

No surprise, the foreigners are no longer coming in the way they used to. Customs and Border Protection press release:

Border Patrol released zero illegal aliens into the interior of the US, down from 62,000 last May.

Yes, the immigrants are disappearing too…another ghost nation that won’t fill restaurants, clean the streets, or contribute to Social Security. If it is true that job growth is half of GDP growth, and also true that immigrants represent nearly 100% of job growth totals…to the extent the feds scare away immigrants, it could chop GDP growth in half

Tourists, tomato pickers, nuclear scientists — many are now planning on being part of someone else’s GDP. Whether that is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ is not for us to say…but one thing is for sure, it is not is conducive to ‘growth.’

And who will take care of us as we grow old? One of the ghosts?

Regards,

Bill Bonner