Thread: BOOMERS TO BENEFIT FROM IMMIGRANTS ????????

DANIEL WEINTRAUB THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Boomers to benefit from immigrants

February 20, 2007

As baby boomers age and become more dependent on government to tend to their needs, economic growth to preserve their investments and buyers to snap up their suburban empty nests, they are likely to turn to a source few are contemplating today: immigrants.

Those same immigrants, who are now struggling to learn English, go to college and find employment, need an assist from some people who have the means to give it: boomers.

This web of connections seems obvious to Dowell Myers, who studies immigration patterns and their consequences as a demographer at the University of Southern California and has just written a book on the subject. But it's hardly clear to many of today's voters, who tend to see immigrants not as their future caretakers but as a burden.

“It's a cycle of roles,” Myers said the other day. People start out in life generally depending on others, mainly for education. As they move into the work force they begin to pay taxes and spend their money buying homes, starting businesses and making other investments. As they mature and build wealth, they are making their maximum financial contribution, paying a higher level of taxes. Finally, they retire, collect Social Security or a pension, use Medicare and maybe sell their home.

“It's not separate people with separate interests,” Myers said. “Over our lifecycle, we all change roles.”

Very soon, the baby boomers will be on the receiving end. And because birthrates and migration from other states are both falling, immigrants will be the ones paying. We need each other.

That's the central thesis of his new book, “Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America” (Russell Sage Foundation).

As a Californian, Myers has seen his home state go through stages since the big wave of Latin American immigration began in the 1970s. First it was surprise, then anger. But by the time the shrinking white majority lashed out with the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994 – an attempt to limit public services to illegal immigrants – immigration as a percentage of the population had already peaked. Now there are increasing signs of acceptance.

Even as California is beginning to come to terms with immigration, though, the rest of the country seems to be experiencing it anew, and reacting just as we did. As more immigrants have avoided California because of its high cost of living, other states have begun to attract a greater share of newcomers, and now they're lashing back.

Myers sees all of this as an unfortunate misunderstanding because, he said, the data show that the latest immigrants do quite well once they settle in. Their children, and grandchildren, do even better. Furthermore, he thinks immigration is already peaking as a share of the U.S. population, and with Mexico's birthrate plunging, our biggest source of newcomers is drying up.

Myers said native-born citizens tend to see immigrants as frozen in time: forever speaking limited English, working at low-skilled jobs, their children soaking up social services. He calls it the “Peter Pan fallacy,” with everyone looking and acting forever just as they did when they arrived in the country. In fact, he said, settled immigrants, those here 10 years or more, very quickly begin to develop the characteristics of the native-born.

They learn English, graduate from high school and buy homes in increasing numbers.

This is even more true for their children. By the second generation, 80 percent are gaining a high school diploma, nearly 100 percent are proficient in English, more than 80 percent are living above the poverty level and 60 percent will own their own homes, Myers said.

But immigrants and their children are not the only ones changing. The mostly white native population is growing older as well.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, he said, there were about 100 senior citizens for every 1,000 U.S. residents aged 25-64, the typical working age. By mid-century the ratio of seniors in the population had doubled to about 200 per 1,000 and remains there today. But current projections show that this number is about to explode. By 2030, there should be 400 seniors for every 1,000 working-age residents.

That means the labor force, as a percentage of the population, will be shrinking. Between 1970 and 1990, the state's labor force grew at an average of about 3 percent a year. Between 1990 and 2010, the rate of growth will have slowed to about 1 percent annually. After that it will be almost flat.

“Companies won't be able to hire workers,” Myers said. “They'll be stealing them from each other.”

That's where the immigrants come in. To the extent that they keep coming, and keep moving into the labor force, they will keep the economy growing. They'll also pay taxes, buy homes and do all the things the aging seniors need done.

“We need a lot more middle-class taxpayers, because we're going to have a lot more elderly to support,” he said.

And the best way to get more middle-class taxpayers is going to be to educate, train and provide opportunity for the immigrants who are reaching for the lower rungs of the economic ladder.


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Weintraub can be reached via e-mail at dweintraub@sacbee.com.

They're kidding right? We're already on the receiving end if ya catch my drift. Old age surrounded by the criminal aliens in a Third World society sounds worse than death. I think it might have been a good idea to be selective on who immigrates. We don't need South America and Mexico recreated here, lots of good people would come. And Myers is using some off the wall data about educational achievement methinks .

I've read about Dowell Myers recently. Frankly, I'd rather STARVE than be beholden to illegal immigrants! We owe them nothing! I'll grow my own darn garden!

This is crazy! When they grant amnesty, all of them will be able to bring their elderly parents and relatives into the country and it will destoy any benefits the baby boomers might receive adding millions who have never paid into the system to collect cheating the boomers out of all the ss and medicare they have paid into all these years.

They learn English, graduate from high school and buy homes in increasing numbers.

This is even more true for their children. By the second generation, 80 percent are gaining a high school diploma, nearly 100 percent are proficient in English, more than 80 percent are living above the poverty level and 60 percent will own their own homes, Myers said.

Well this "80 %" must be the ones in hidding. Because the so called 20% are living under poverty (at their own preference) and are much more visible across the nation.

Besides. this Myers has completely lost the point.

We need a lot more middle-class taxpayers, because we're going to have a lot more elderly to support,” he said.

As if we`re frozen in time.

[quote:thqyvcqn]And the best way to get more middle-class taxpayers is going to be to educate, train and provide opportunity for the immigrants who are reaching for the lower rungs of the economic ladder

[/quote:thqyvcqn]

This guy has no idea of what is actually going on out here.

In fact, he said, settled immigrants, those here 10 years or more, very quickly begin to develop the characteristics of the native-born.

They learn English, graduate from high school and buy homes in increasing numbers.

Is this idiot Myers for real? Since when has learning English been a prerequisite for an ILLEGAL stealing a home from a U.S. Citizen?

“Companies won't be able to hire workers,” Myers said. “They'll be stealing them from each other.”

That's right---to keep from paying real living wages and benefits to the educated, tax-paying, hard working Citizens of this country, corporations will do anything to shirk their economic responsiblty to those that gave them the initial capital to succeed!

That's where the immigrants come in. To the extent that they keep coming, and keep moving into the labor force, they will keep the economy growing. They'll also pay taxes, buy homes and do all the things the aging seniors need done.

PAY TAXES? 26 BILLION DOLLARS EXPORTED TO MEXICO ANNUALLY? Then reducing housing stock, and inflating prices, by using ILLEGAL INCOME to enrich (a dunce-cap mentality) "boomers"?

The thought here is to REPLACE hard working Americans opportunity to succeed with CRIMINAL TRESPASSERS?

“We need a lot more middle-class taxpayers, because we're going to have a lot more elderly to support,” he said.

Why don't you pay attention to the middle class you are advocating to destroy? Myers' fantasy is nothing but an economic holocaust for the "middle class" he feigns to support!

I, for one, am SICK AND TIRED OF THE S--T OF THE SELFISH "BOOMERS"!
What a bunch of lame assed sell-outs! Stick their fists in the air when it's covenient, voting in secret for corporate puppets disguised as human beings, and drive their titanic SUV's to their exhorbitant McMansions, stopping on the way to pick up ILLEGAL NANNY WORKER to raise their savant offspring, while checking wireless blackberries to see how the "portfolio" is performing!

Get in line to vote your "conscience", you miscreant boomer trash, and guarantee the McCain, Clinton, Gore, and Bush legacies your "hard earned retirement". What a group of myopic IDIOTS!

Originally Posted by ThomasMoore

I, for one, am SICK AND TIRED OF THE S--T OF THE SELFISH "BOOMERS"!
What a bunch of lame assed sell-outs! Stick their fists in the air when it's covenient, voting in secret for corporate puppets disguised as human beings, and drive their titanic SUV's to their exhorbitant McMansions, stopping on the way to pick up ILLEGAL NANNY WORKER to raise their savant offspring, while checking wireless blackberries to see how the "portfolio" is performing!

Get in line to vote your "conscience", you miscreant boomer trash, and guarantee the McCain, Clinton, Gore, and Bush legacies your "hard earned retirement". What a group of myopic IDIOTS!

As a baby boomer, I haven't cried around for anything from anyone! What selfish boomers have you known?

Bush and friends think illegals will sustain S.S., we boomers don't think that!

How could they support anything when they are mostly unskilled labor? My fears are they will try to bring socialism to the USA.

As for a lot of new gadgets, it seems to me, it's the teen agers that have most of them!

My fears are they will try to bring socialism to the USA.

Socialism has arrived and is prospering, look around you.

Myers said native-born citizens tend to see immigrants as frozen in time: forever speaking limited English, working at low-skilled jobs, their children soaking up social services. He calls it the “Peter Pan fallacy,” with everyone looking and acting forever just as they did when they arrived in the country.

This is what 80% of Americans are exposed to every single day. Why else would we be so focused on keeping illegal immigrants out? They aren't assimilating, but are actually dividing our nation.
That is why we need fences, walls, and every other device to stop their flow. It is literally bankrupting America.

The mostly white native population is growing older as well.

Is anyone else as tired as I am about hearing how the white native population is aging? The media is so obsessed with youth that they have to stereotype us too! The citizens of this nation are composed of all colors and they are not just white!!! Last time I looked the people with black and brown skin are aging too. So what? Everyone ages! It also makes us sound worthless just because we are aging. In many cultures getting old is a good thing. According to our media it's not and we have to be replaced by young immigrants(media sterotype politicaly correct word) i.e. criminal illegal aliens(what they are).