Most days I wake up feeling like this guy Bill from Gangs of NY, however, on the balance who can deny it’s not a wonderful thing to see our country filled out with productive happy people. We are a thriving growing continent. Bodes well for the future. I know we were crapping our pants re demographics and the social security system some 15 years ago anticipating the huge number of adult Americans (boomers) entering retirement. That’s been somewhat abated by the economics of mass immigration. Is it causing dislocation, fear and loathing? You betcha. Is it growing the economy like a mother. You betcha.
The demographics continue to change and the problems with the entitlement programs [SS, Medicare and Medicaid] conitue to grow worse. If people were "crapping our pants" 15 years ago, I would say that they would have even more reason to do so today. They were prescient.
In 1990 the population of the US was 249 million. Today, it is 302 million. By 2050, the population will be 420 million. The demograhics of the country continue to change dramatically after the the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Prior to the act, the United States was overwhelmingly composed of whites of European descent (89% in 1965), with the only minority group of significant size being blacks (10%). Today, Hispanics are about 15% of the population and non-Hispanic whites about 67%. By 2050, Hispanics of all races will be 24.4% of the population and non-Hispanic whites 50%.
These demographic changes are causing social friction, witness the millions of illegals demonstrating in our streets waving Mexican flags shouting. "Today we march, tomorrow we vote." The Senate attempt at amnesty invited a huge backlash from the public and grassroots ogranizations all over the country are fighting back against the invasion of illegals that are causing huge burdens on our schools, hosptials, penal system, and social programs. Several thousand local and state legislative initiative have been passed or in the process of being voted upon. One in eight residents is foreign-born, the highest in over eight decades and will soon be one in seven the highest in our history. Half of the children 0 to 5 in America are minorities. This should give us some pause because blacks and Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rates and number of single parent households and out of wedlock childern. This is the social pathology for failure.
Our entitlement systems represent an unfunded liability of $60 trillion. And nothing has been done in 15 years to fix them. In fact, they are worse given the addition of prescription drugs under Medicare. SS will start paying out more in benefits than it is taking in by 2017. The SS "surplus" starts declinining in 2008. The Medicare program is in even worse shape and will essentially crash around 2013 or 2014 as it consumes more and more of the federal budget.
Mass immigration, legal and illegal, is making the problems worse not better. The economy will suffer as a result. We are headed for a major train wreck within a decade. Look for increased taxation to "save" the entitlement systems. This will hurt, not help, the economy. Enjoy the good times while they last and then start wearing diapers.