In what has to be more bad news for the increasingly white Christianists only Republican Party, new census bureau figures show that the U.S. population is increasingly diverse and that the fastest growing segment consists of Hispanics - the group that the GOP base wants to deport back across the border to Mexico or wherever else these individuals and families came from. As I noted before, with the GOP base displaying little inclination to drop its definition of the party by who it hates (e.g., gays, blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians - the list is endless), these figures do not bode well for the GOP's future. In contrast, the Hispanic market is one that my firm is targeting for increased marketing and my office manager/head paralegal (pictured above at a recent installation event) is becoming involved in the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce since she is bilingual and we are finding a growing need for bilingual legal services. What is interesting is that - contrary to the claims of the GOP base - the Hispanic population is a positive force for the U.S. economy. Here are some highlights from CNN:*
The nation is becoming even more diverse: More than one third of its population belongs to a minority group, and Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday that the minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million -- or 34 percent of the nation's total population -- on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000. Nearly one in six residents, or 46.9 million people, are Hispanic, the agency reported.
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The quickly expanding Latino population is having a healthy impact on the economy, according to Ken Gronbach, author of "The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Growing Demographic Trend." "Latinos have saved our country," he said. "They represent 14 percent of the population but 25 percent of the live births. The United States is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2 percent replacement rate."
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They will also help to prop up the real-estate market once the economy begins to recover, according to Rakesh Kochhar, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center. During the housing boom, minorities closed much of the homeownership gap, although the bust has worked to widen that again.
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Latinos and other minority workers contribute to keeping the Social Security system solvent, according to Monique Morrissey, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute. The undocumented workers among them often pay more into the Social Security pool than they will take out in benefits. Morrissey said estimates of deficits in the pool's finances were reduced last year when a Social Security advisory board's technical panel revised some unrealistically low assumptions it had made about Latino immigration.
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Once again, reality versus the claims of the increasingly intolerant GOP base are two different things.
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