The United States is an industry leader in so many areas, and when it comes to its population, it ranks third in the world, of which, the size of its population is definitely a contributing factor to its success, because it has to be acknowledged that the more people that a nation has, the better the opportunity there will be to increase the collective knowledge of that country, which will often be beneficial for the people of that land.
That is to say, that knowledge builds upon knowledge, just as iron sharpens iron, and when there is a shortage of those that are actively trying to learn more and to see things that previously were unseen for they no longer are standing on the shoulders of giants, then that nation will not be able to make the types of quantum leaps in progress, because it has not the learned people, along with the necessary infrastructure and governmental encouragement to accomplish such.
While there are plenty of people that proclaim that our greatest resources are tangible things such as oil, clean water, agricultural knowhow and the like, the bottom line is that none of these things are going to come close to reaching their full potential without the minds and the follow-through generated from those that are able to take such resources and maximize or enhance the value of these.
Look, humankind has been around for generations upon generations, but it is only within very recent times that we have seen the quantum leap in medicine, transportation, shelter, and the ease, as well as convenience, of having easily accessible material goods of all kinds, of which, appropriate credit should be accorded to our superior higher educational facilities, considered to be unparallel in this world, which are filled with minds that are perceptive, willing to learn, and that take their capabilities and thereby do something constructive and meaningful with such, so that we as a people, from top to bottom are able to benefit from this.
All of the above, would seem to strongly stipulate that those that wish to see our population be stymie, through such things as the sharp reduction in immigrants permitted to reside here, or under the belief that the more people that live here, means less of the share of pie that each individual will get, are suffering from envisioning things from the perspective that people are the problem. In contrast, the correct way to view this is to see that people are the solution, and especially the fact that it is through our knowledge, collectively distributed, that improvements and breakthroughs are generated, which necessitates more, not fewer people, because when there is a shortage of collective brainpower, there will also be a corresponding shortage in progress.
In short, our most precious resource is knowledge, but not knowledge which is restricted to just the few, as was done in previous generations, in which only the elite and the orthodox religious faith were literate, but rather is knowledge which is not just widely available but also is our top priority to encourage and augment, all done for the greater good of the people.