People + People = More People

So, somewhere around 7:46 EST this morning, the U.S. passed the 300 million mark in population. At the onset of the Baby Boom Generation, in 1946, the U.S. only had around 140 million people. So, if it feels twice as crowded today as in your youth, it probably is, depending how old you are now. Every 11 seconds, we add a net one person to our total.

Half of all babies born in this country are not of the Caucasian persuasion.

Meanwhile, in China, the world's most populous country, it is estimated that there are now 60 million more males than females. That sounds like there are going to be a lot of frustrated guys over there pretty soon...

If it is true, as many female friends used to tell me, that it can be hard to find a good man, maybe in the not-too-distant future American women will be connecting via some sort of Match.com service with lonely Chinese men.

According to the New York Times, Link to story, thousands of young Japanese women are coming to the states, especially New York City, seeking a freer lifestyle than is possible for them back home.

What's clearly true is that there is a great drift of people, shuffling here and there around the globe. Shantytowns surround many Third World cities; refugee camps dot the landscape wherever major conflicts are taking place. The great waves of living and dying all add up to an ever-increasing global population. Only the demographics will shift.

The world of the rich is getting smaller, older, and whiter. The world of the poor is growing larger, younger, and multi-racial. The best promise of the US is that it could be one of the few truly multi-ethnic, multi-racial societies in the future, where it no longer much matters what you look like or where your ancestors came from.

The monopoly on power, as epitomized by our gallery of Presidents, all males, and all white, will have to eventually be broken. The time is overdue.

***

I started out by mentioning the Baby Boom. Those of us born between 1946-1964 doubled the total US population all by ourselves. Now the oldest Boomers are reaching the age of 60, and the youngest their mid-forties, this distinct group is putting its stamp on the political economy of the country.

The headlines are continuous. Have we saved enough? Will we 'break' social security? Will young people generate enough wealth to support the social compact with us as we age?

None of these heady questions concern me today. No, I am thinking about the question of dating.

Date within the Boom, I say. People aged 42-60 form a natural cohort: the post-war generation that established, for better or worse, the hegemony of the middle-class consumer culture in the developed countries. It is our styles, our music, our movies, our books, and our high divorce rates that largely define the social sector of the rich world now.

We dominate the top positions in the public sector, the private sector and the non-profit sector. Older people still abound -- our older siblings and some of our parents, though increasingly they are retired and withdrawing from active life.

Younger people, as is age appropriate, make a lot of noise and get a lot of notice.

But when it comes to finding love, my advice, FWIW, is date within the Boom. Don't date older people and don't date younger people. (Please, no outraged messages.)

After all, it's only my perspective. I'm agnostic, no positive, on same sex dating, inter racial dating, cross-cultural dating. The point is -- as it almost always is with me -- follow the numbers.


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