The melting pot thing....

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U. S. population growth is slowing

…but the shift to more ethnic diversity is increasing….

Read the full post with pictures on my new website:

http://richardsubber.com/u-s-population-slowly-growing/

The “golden years”—does anyone still say that?

Americans who aren't retired yet say they're going to keep working for a while….recently they said 66 is the average age when they plan to clean out the desk and head for home.

  

I think that's optimistic. They're probably going to work a little longer than that, because a lot of folks are getting the idea that Social Security benefits aren't going to get a whole lot better in their realistically attainable future, and, anyway,  most folks who are still working only have about one egg in the old retirement account….

A Gallup poll recently said that folks who are already retired hung up their track shoes at the average age of 61. In the early 1990s that number was 57, so part of the reason that retirees are getting older, aside from increasing life expectancy, is that they're waiting longer to punch out.

The whole notion of "retiring" is a relatively new concept. You only have to look back to the pre-World War II era to see a world in which the average person basically expected to work until she died, or became too sick or frail to work anymore.

American society hasn't completely figured out this retirement thing yet.

  

If  you're in your prime, you really need to think carefully about the current and long term effects of government policies on your personal future. Congress isn't doing anything that makes sense right now.

All of us need to take personal responsibility for retirement, and we have to make sure the government doesn't screw it up..

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.

The times they are a-changin’….

The inexorable demographic transformation of America is part of the context for the current dangerous turmoil in our politics.

For instance, TheAtlantic.com points out that less than half of Americans are now classified as white Christians. Less than 30% of the 18-29 age cohort identify themselves as white Christians.

Nevertheless, it’s true that almost three-quarters of all adults claim to be Christian (including Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and other non-Protestant Christian faiths). So, the minority status of white Christians is largely driven by the increasing proportion of persons of color in the U. S. population.

Increasing diversity of the American citizenry is inevitable. Increasingly, ballot boxes will reflect this trend.

I think these changes will make American society richer in so many ways.

I look forward to the election of more folks who will champion the kind of government an increasingly diverse population needs and wants.

The meteor thing....

Trump actually appeals to "losers"

Another thing I don't understand....

Trump's paying himself to campaign

The unnecessary wall: "for" and "against"

Maybe Trump isn't hustling "new voters"

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.

Kids will be kids—update

There has been a fascinating and, I think, poorly understood evolution of parenting and childhood since the earliest colonial days of the American experience.

Paula S. Fass writes about it in The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting from Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child (Princeton University Press, 2006). A New York Times reviewer points out that the narrative gets a bit lost in the most recent history of “helicopter parents” who are overwhelmingly focused on controlling and protecting their children so they grow up to great lives with success and affluence and notable careers and….cue the all-important play date….make sure Joshua can get into Yale….

It’s intriguing to me to understand that colonial parents rather consciously moved away from the Old World view of children as economic resources, and adopted a more relaxed willingness to give their kids some degree of independence and flexibility in their paths to adult life. Of course, kids were put to work at a young age, but parents gave them opportunity and approval to feel engaged in the work and be open to wider horizons and innovation. Europeans thought that American children were “rude, unmannerly and bold.”

There were many circumstantial differences at work. In the colonies and early United States, there was an abundance of cheap land and a shortage of labor, and thus, pervasive opportunities for personal success. The European tradition of primogeniture was largely absent: on our side of the Atlantic, a father’s land and estate did not pass automatically to the firstborn son, so the more egalitarian inheritance practices boosted the life prospects of most children.

Of course, there’s another side to the childhood narrative: slave children in America were often treated as economic units by their owners. That’s a disgusting reality in our history.

Speed!

Remember "speed dating"?

Washington Monument hanky-panky

That tolerance thing

The cod in "Cape Cod"

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.

Baby Boomers—an update

About 2.5 million Baby Boomers are turning 70 this year. They are the leading edge of the roughly 76 million Baby Boomers who were born during 1946-1964. They’re getting older every day.

Even if you’re not a Boomer, you need to care about this cohort. Folks who are 70+ use lots more health care than younger people, and a great many of them collect Social Security benefits.

In fact, Medicare spending and Social Security benefits account for close to 45 percent of federal spending.

We need to raise the Social Security retirement age, and remove the cap on earned income (now $118,500) that’s subject to the Social Security tax.

That’s plain talk.

Is there anything Trump won't say?

The new bankruptcy

"...ever a child..."

Sanders should feel this burn....

Book review: American Crisis

It wasn't the good old days....

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.

A Rosie by any other name….

Every year I am temporarily fascinated by the Social Security Administration's annual revelation of most popular baby names for the current crop of new Americans.

For 2015:  Noah and Emma (same as 2014!!)

I don't think about baby names much. Noah and Emma seem a bit obscure to me, but of course they're entirely commendable names, bonne chance to all the kids who will take these monikers with them throughout their lives. More than 19,000 brand new baby boys were named Noah last year, and more than 20,000 new baby girls were named Emma--in fact, more than 1 out of every 100 female bundles of joy were given that name. Wow.

In case you’re wondering and your name is Antoine or Alianna, last year there were 999 baby names more popular than yours.

I checked my own name on the Social Security website, see here. It seems Richard dropped out of the top 5 list almost 70 years ago. So be it. What's in a name? Still. I like my name. Hope all those Noahs and Emmas feel the same.

Noah and Emma. Wow.

I did the Boston Marathon again!

No secret about good writing....

Lay down, Sally....redux

Papillon redux

Amos 'n' Andy: good stuff

Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.

The "golden years" – does anyone still say that?

Americans who aren't retired yet say they're going to keep working for a while….they say 66 is the average age when they plan to clean out the desk and head for home.

I think that's optimistic. They're probably going to work a little longer than that, because a lot of folks are getting the idea that Social Security benefits aren't going to get a whole lot better in their realistically attainable future, and, anyway,  most folks who are still working only have about one egg in the old retirement account….

The Gallup poll says* that folks who are already retired hung up their track shoes at the average age of 61. In the early 1990s that number was 57, so part of the reason that retires are getting older, aside from increasing life expectancy, is that they're waiting longer to punch out.

The whole notion of "retiring" is a relatively new concept. You only have to look back to the pre-World War II era to see a world in which the average person basically expected to work until she died, or became too sick or frail to work anymore.

American society hasn't completely figured out this retirement thing yet.

If  you're in your prime, you really need to think carefully about the current and long term effects of government policies on your personal future. Congress isn't doing anything that makes sense right now.

All of us need to take personal responsibility for retirement, and we have to make sure the government doesn't screw it up..

Attention Baby Boomers....

* Just for the record: no polling organization today is capable of reaching a legitimate random sample of people, so all poll results should be viewed as very approximate versions of the "truth."