I already know Japanese. Besides, my career (scientist) puts me well in contact with the international community. Our birth rate is at replacement and with immigration we are slightly above.
Our birth rate is what, 2.3. Replacement rate is 2.1%. And it's been falling in the US for decades now.
Also, legal immigration may be slightly above. The problem is that illegal immigration is about to amnestied which will blow out of the water our immigration rate.
Now, this knee-jerk reactionary "learn a bunch of new languages" blah blah blah may work if we were talking completely open immigration; but that's not the case.
I would say that legalizing 12-20 million illegals constitutes open immigration. Any time limits on legal immigration are discussed the multiculti's go up in arms calling the US racist and discriminatory. Believing that the US has the will to control immigration is a fool's belief.
We can increase immigration from its current standing and still leave time for assimilation into our society.
That works if assimilation was actuall a priority. As we see the federal government, via judicial fiat, constantly expanding the number of recognized minority groups, providing government documents in multiple languages, etc., there's no incentivize or really need to assmiliate. Hell, in addition to breathing, reproduction, walking being defined as "major life functions" by the ADA effective 1/1/09, I don't think it will be soon before we see that the inability to speak English is classified as a covered disability requiring employers and schools to accomodate. :roll:
We have enough people wishing to immigrate that we can always take from that pool (plus immigration is good for a society).
Only if we assmiliate them. And efforts to assimilate are being severely diluted. We need only look to this past year's Muslim riots in France to see how "immigration is good for society" is working out. You cannot seriously argue that assimilation programs here in the US are being strenghtened.
Removing the entanglement of state and marriage can only force us to reevaluate our overall tax policies and would remove the same sex marriage problem (as you can then nix the marriage license and return marriage fully to the realm of the Church).
The Netherlands is blasting full-ahead on such an endeavor. Give it some time, of course, but I don't see the Netherlands birth rate bouncing back
and, more importantly, "supplemental" immigration is going to fundamentally alter that small nation's cultural foundation and probably not for the better.