The Tea Party's Worst Nightmare: More White Americans Are Dying Than Being Born

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Call it a milestone – an indifferent one, grim one, or positive pluralistic one depending upon your perspective — but the census bureau just reported that more white Americans are dying than being born.

The Washington Post headline about this statistical entrance into a new era states it succinctly: “Whites’ deaths outnumber births for first time.”

In a Christian Science Monitor editorial of June 13th entitled, “Falling white birthrate: The new American ‘us’: America’s white majority is slipping away faster than ever, affecting issues from the immigration debate to the future of the economy,” the editorial board reflected on the development:

One demographic fact is clear: As white America ages, it will be relying more and more heavily on hardworking, tax-paying nonwhites to build a prosperous economy and fund programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, that seniors rely on.  The “we’re all in this boat together” American experiment will have a different shade of hands rowing the oars.

These demographic trend lines also suggest the importance of investing in America’s nonwhite youths. Today some 40 percent of whites ages 25 to 29 have graduated from college, compared with only 23 percent of blacks and 15 percent of Latinos. Those numbers will have to move upward and quickly. They reflect on the entire US education system, since success in college traces back all the way to getting a good start on education as early as preschool.

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