As the U.S. population has hit the 300 million mark this past week, the big question to be answered is whether such continued expansion will accelerate the dynamic growth of the American economy.

Although some observers argue that the upward expansion of America's fast-growing population could adversely affect the nation's standard of living, there are major reasons why the opposite should be true:

1) Unlike the Western European experience, epitomized by stagnating population growth and flat economic development, the U.S.'s impressive population expansion has been accompanied by an even more intense economic upswing.

Although America's exceptional results can be attributed to the accelerated growth of the consumer sector, the U.S. economy as a whole has benefited by this trend. The integration of the additional American population mass has had a much more positive economic impact than that experienced by Western Europe.

2) Although America's population will continue to grow to over 400 million by 2040, its density will grow only slightly over most of the 21st century.

While India's population is projected to reach 1,500 per square mile by mid-century, the U.S. will barely cross the 100 mark at that time. This is well below China, which is predicted to top out at 400 per square mile.

3) Although lower birth rates and a lull in immigration seemed to have indicated a slowdown in U.S. population growth in the late 1980s, America set a new course in the following 15 years due to a maintenance birthrate and an explosive rate of immigration growth. Since most of the recent immigration wave has emanated from Mexico and other Latin American nations, this circumstance has not only affected the population as such, but has increased family proliferation. Unlike Americans of European origins, along with today's ethnic Western and Eastern European populations, Latino families still maintain offspring above the maintenance level.

4) The critical key to an orderly future development will be the utilization of the vast open spaces that make up most of the U.S. If the new population growth will primarily contribute to already existing urban sprawl, such growth could eventually become counterproductive to America's orderly expansion. Up to this point immigration has been reasonably well absorbed into the U.S. economic body politic. Although the debate about the growth of undocumented immigration continues unabated, America's 4.6 percent unemployment rate reflects the fact that most of the newcomers have found gainful employment.

5) What may also have gotten lost in the current population debate is the benefits that fresh blood is bestowing on the future American work force. While even China is facing an increasingly disproportional number of retirees, an additional projected 100 million new Americans by 2040 will replace aging baby boomers in the work force, fill social security coffers and add to the economy's vitality.

However, it will also put new stress on America's infrastructure, put additional strains on natural resources and enhance the multicultural nature of America's population base.

Such continued direction will also be reflected in a shift to small business and self-employment from a previous broad scale commitment to corporate life. This will further weaken the trade union movement, other than those relying on public institutions for membership. Corporate pension plans other than 401(k)s will likely become a thing of the past.

Politically such diversity will also introduce a brand new ball game. Both major parties will be affected by immigrant newcomers, as well as upcoming young voters, who will be attracted by platforms which deal more realistically with the problems of ongoing changes.