U.S. population growth in the 1950s reached almost 2 percent year-over-year. Unchecked growth sparked concern over depletion of food supply, destruction of natural resources and political instability.

The debate, led by philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, infiltrated the White House under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the late 1960s, ending with the establishment of the controversial Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. Rockefeller, naturally, chaired the committee.

Rockefeller believed "the population problem must be recognized by government as a principal element in long-range planning."

Rockefeller was correct that population is a problem, but the crisis Michigan faces today is the opposite. Population stagnation is the real economic boogeyman — not globalization, rapid technological advancement and regulatory policy, though those play a role. Michigan's long-term economic growth is in peril unless Michigan legislators address the population issue with smart policy.

In short, Michigan should pay for population now — or we'll all pay for the lack of it later.

It's a simple math equation. Between July 2010 and July 2017, Michigan lost nearly 75,000 residents. The state's population grew by a paltry 0.2 percent in 2018. Meanwhile, available jobs keep growing. The state projects an estimated 811,000 open high-demand, high-wage career openings to fill through 2024.

Some of that will be filled by the natural cycle of industries and jobs being destroyed, leaving workers open to fill newly created jobs. But even if Michigan businesses hired every available worker willing to work and every person completing an post-secondary education program, including certificates, they would come up short. There were 137,982 certificates and degrees awarded in Michigan during the 2015-2016 school year.

Luckily, there are potential solutions. Michigan must flip economic development on its head to solve population stagnation by transitioning from tax incentives to create jobs to tax incentives to fill jobs.

To rectify the wreckage of the Great Recession, Michigan turned to its Michigan Economic Development Corp. to get more businesses in the state so Michigan residents could keep working, keep paying taxes. The result is in the war for talent, tax incentives became the ammunition. Since 2012, the Michigan Strategic Fund has distributed $181.1 million in tax incentives for businesses to create 22,618 jobs.

We could have a heated debate about the effectiveness of these incentives, but that's not going to happen here. Instead, I'm suggesting a new approach, at least in concert with current incentives, to lure workers with the skills businesses demand.

The prescription: Offering tax incentives to workers, rather than to businesses, to come to Michigan.

It's not a new idea. In 2008, Maine launched the Opportunity Maine tax credit, which offered students who graduated from a Maine college or university an income tax credit to remain and work in the state. The process worked by subtracting the amount an individual pays in student loans from their state income tax. For example, if a recent working graduate owes $3,000 in state taxes and pays $2,000 in student loans in a year, the income tax credit will reduce those taxes owed to $1,000. The program was capped at $4,000 annually per recent graduate.

But fewer than 1,000 graduates applied for the program during its first three years, so the state expanded the program in 2016 to cover graduates from anywhere in the country. In 2017, more than 9,000 recent graduates received $17 million in tax credits through the program to offset their student loan debt, the Bangor Daily News reported in November.

Maine forwent $1,888 per person in tax revenue to keep those educated graduates working in its borders. For context, the Michigan Strategic Fund averaged about $8,000 in lost revenue per job since 2012, according to Michigan Economic Development Corp. data. Meanwhile, 28,057 of the total 50,675 jobs promised by companies during that time were never created.

St. Clair County is even trying this method, but without government assistance. The nonprofit Community Foundation of St. Clair County launched in 2016 the Come Home reverse scholarship program. The program is designed to lure recent college graduates to live and work in the county after graduation.

Since its inception, the foundation has received 57 applications with an average student debt load of more than $74,000, Randy Maiers, president of the foundation, told Crain's. Only 11 applicants have been approved — five were married couples — with an average award of $8,625.

While initially designed for those born and raised in St. Clair County, Maiers said applications are beginning to roll in from around the state and outside the state from those "looking for new opportunities in regions like ours with good quality of life and close proximity to the big city — Detroit."

The program was started because St. Clair's hospitals and education system struggle with attracting educated talent.

In Maine, it was about talent, but also about population — particularly an aging population.

Maine is the oldest state in the nation with a median age of nearly 45 years old. In 2020, Maine is projected to have more residents 65 years or older than under 18 years old — a full 15 years earlier than the nation is projected to cross that threshold.

Michigan isn't far behind. It's the 11th-oldest state in the country, with a median age of 39.6 years old in 2017 and it's getting older. In 2010, the median age was 38.1 years old. Older populations retire, leaving voids in the workforce, and put pressure on health systems, pension funds and the overall economy.

An aging population is such a problem in Japan that its prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called its demographics a national crisis. Adult diapers outsell baby diapers, leaving the country to face pension shortfalls and increased health care costs that could render it bankrupt in the future. It is also running out of workers.

In April, Japan will open up its borders to as many as 345,000 lower-skilled workers who will be allowed to stay in the country for five years and more high-skilled workers with a path to citizenship into the country in an effort to stem the labor shortage, all in a country that is historically resistant to immigration.

Michigan also needs warm bodies. A program to create workers instead of jobs can help alleviate this building pressure. Otherwise, Michigan becomes less important in the country and eventually the world.

The state is likely to lose another congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, taking it to 13 after the next census, according to the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center. The state has lost 5 congressional seats since 1982 and last held only 13 seats in the House in the Roaring 20s.

That's one less voice for national policy that impact Michigan businesses, and one less vote for federal tax dollars toward projects in Michigan.

And the national picture on immigration paints an even grimmer picture for Michigan's options for population. Immigration is trending down as the administration of President Donald Trump continues to limit avenues for legal immigration through reduced visa approvals.

Break down Michigan's net migration — the number of foreign and domestic people moving into the state minus the number of people leaving — and Michigan was largely buoyed by immigrants between 2010 and 2017. The state lost 225,302 native-born residents, but gained 150,756 immigrants during that time.

If immigration numbers continue to fall, so too will Michigan's population.

Michigan now must go to the well to take residents from other states. Offering a new program as part of its overall economic development game plan can at least accomplish some of that goal. Incentives for workers fills jobs, fills homes and, eventually, fills tax revenue coffers.