The Gray And The Brown

[mystieus]

Source: National Journal



In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown.

Two of the biggest demographic trends reshaping the nation in the 21st century increasingly appear to be on a collision course that could rattle American politics for decades. From one direction, racial diversity in the United States is growing, particularly among the young. Minorities now make up more than two-fifths of all children under 18, and they will represent a majority of all American children by as soon as 2023, demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution predicts.

At the same time, the country is also aging, as the massive Baby Boom Generation moves into retirement. But in contrast to the young, fully four-fifths of this rapidly expanding senior population is white. That proportion will decline only slowly over the coming decades, Frey says, with whites still representing nearly two-thirds of seniors by 2040.

These twin developments are creating what could be called a generational mismatch, or a "cultural generation gap" as Frey labels it. A contrast in needs, attitudes, and priorities is arising between a heavily (and soon majority) nonwhite population of young people and an overwhelmingly white cohort of older people. Like tectonic plates, these slow-moving but irreversible forces may generate enormous turbulence as they grind against each other in the years ahead.

Read more: http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20100724_3946.php

[Warpy]

1. Divide and conquer

It's just more phony warfare over crumbs from the plutocracy that has grabbed everything away from us over the past 40 years.

People who fall for this stuff, and there will be many, are fools.

We just need to keep them the hell out of power.

[DeSwiss]

2. Exactly.

As long as we can be goaded into fighting each other, then we're not paying attention nor addressing the real source of everyone's pain: The rich plutocracy.

K&R

[formercia]

5. Agreed.

Let them renounce their citizenship and move to Dubai.

Good riddance.

[Iowa]

6. Well said. I agree.

[jwirr]

3. For centuries this nation has used one group against the other to

achieve the goals of the elite. Black soldiers against native american soldiers on the frontier, enemy tribes settled on reservations next to each other, poor whites against poor minorities, etc. And now they are trying to set the elderly against the youth. We need to call their bluff on this nonsense.

[lunatica]

4. Who cares. Life changes as it should

I don't have any problem with it