Nations, like tides, rise and fall with the numbers,
A swelling crowd is a promise and a peril.
In youth, the many are labor and armies;
In age, they are a weight upon the state.
Leaders count heads, not lives,
Calculating strength in the aggregate.
A vast populace fuels markets,
Fills the factories, swells the tax rolls.
Policy bows to the short-term reward,
Blind...
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