Michael Parekh comments on the article Boomer’s Good Life Tied to Better Life for Immigrants, published by the Wall Street Journal:
The quality of life for some 80 million graying baby boomers in the U.S. may depend in large part on the fortunes of another high-profile demographic group: millions of mostly Hispanic immigrants and their children. [...]
In California, for example, there were 9.7 million baby boomers between the ages of 40 and 49 in 2005, who accounted for 51% of the prime working-age population. By 2020, they will be 55 to 74 years old, with most boomers on the brink of retirement or about to plunge into it.
The weight of this aging population will swell relative to the pool of working-age people. The ratio of senior citizens to prime-working-age people, 25 to 64 years old, will jump 30% in the decade between 2010 and 2020 and an additional 29% in the following decade, according to Prof. Myers.
All told, the ratio of seniors to working-age residents, including immigrants, will grow from 250 seniors per 1,000 working-age people in 2010 to 411 per 1,000 in 2030, he calculates.
In the spirit of migration changing the world, the WSJ article observes that the tired [...]
The world goes to town is The Economist report on the important milestone that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago in slums of hope: our urban obsession would’ve finally conquered the majority of the world population. A must-read, the special report touches on all the important themes related to the evolution of cities in the age of globalization and migration. Since some of the themes have been recurring in this space, I created a brief summary of the special report with links to my own posts on cities:
The world goes to town: urbanization as the defining process shaping our lives will finally touch at least half of the world population; and most of this frenetic race towards the cities took place in the last 100 years. However, what we have seen is just a preview of things to come
[urbanization] mostly consists of poor people migrating in unprecedented numbers, and the producing babies on a similarly unprecedented scale. It is thus largely a phenomenon of poor and middle-income countries [...] urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030. [...] Within ten years the world will have nearly 500 cities [...]
Jorge from Catenary has a brilliant post about life as an immigrant:
Being an immigrant can be an alienating experience: you come to a strange city and you just take it for granted –you’re there but you could be anywhere, the city’s history is a blur, it’s just a place where you sleep, eat, and work, it’s a space that simply is not home.
Making it home is laborious, but fascinating if you’re up to it. I’ve been in Toronto for more than 3.5 years, and I keep discovering corners and stories that make me appreciate it all the better.
At this point his post does a very interesting analysis of urban archeology, digging precious bits of information about his adoptive city from an old map, circa 1898. In the process of doing so, he has probably become more knowledgeable about Toronto (Canada) than many native Torontonias. And before I get all kinds of rants denying this fact, let me point out that I’ve seen this effect take place very commonly. In fact, I admit that it was only after I left my country of origin that I found myself interested in its history and culture in ways that were [...]
The World Without Oil site is reporting gas prices of US$4.45/gal, that is CAD$1.30/liter for all of us using the metric system north of the border. In Canada, the impact hasn’t been felt as quickly as in the U.S., but the various newspapers are reporting alarming price hikes all over the country with residents of the Vancouver area dealing with CAD$1.28 already, according to The Globe & Mail. The snapshot to the right from the Toronto Star reports:
Gasoline prices in the province are at a nine-month high [...] In February, prices spiked above $1 per litre after a fire at Imperial Oil Ltd’s Nanticoke refinery restricted supply in Ontario. A temporary blip, we were told. Once that mess was cleaned up, the expectation was that prices would inch lower. Or not. Industry experts say the Nanticoke fire merely masked a larger problem south of the border [...] The U.S. Energy Department said last week that U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell by another 2.8 million barrels to an 18-month low.
I wonder what the threshold of tolerance for the common citizen is. How high must prices go up before triggering [...]
The World Without Oil website launched today. But before you panic keep reading:
WORLD WITHOUT OIL is an alternate reality event, a serious game for the public good. It invites everyone to help simulate a global oil shock. People participate by contributing original online stories, created as though the oil shock were really happening.
While it is a game, the end goal is quite serious as their own site explains:
WORLD WITHOUT OIL aims to help fill a huge gap in our nation’s thinking about oil and the economy. As people everywhere grapple with the problem of growing global demand for petroleum, no one has a clear picture of oil availability in the future, nor is there a clear picture of what will happen when demand inevitably outstrips supply. That will depend in large part upon how well people prepare, cooperate, and collectively create solutions. By playing it out in a serious way, the game aims to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance, and to create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the common people to help anticipate the future and prevent its worst outcomes. ‚ÄúPlay it, before you live it.‚Äù
Almost a year [...]
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