Median Age of U.S. is 36.7

The median age of the American people is approximately 36.7 years and that of African Americans is a little more than 30 years while that of Latino/Hispanic Americans is about 29.5 years.  Whether these demographics are perceived as high or low, depends on the countries with which we are comparing ourselves (see link).

Canada, Japan and several countries in Europe have median ages greater than 40 years.  Few countries in Africa, Asia, Central, South America and the Middle East come anywhere near a median age of 40 years.

I am in no position to make global prognostications, but I will suggest that we consider the not-too-distant future when today’s school children (and their children) will lower the U. S. median age even further with the median ages of African Americans and Latino/Hispanic Americans moving toward 27 or 28 years.

ALL OF US, but especially those responsible for our public schools, should try to contemplate the future when students in our public schools will be part of an even younger majority.  They represent our future work force and community leadership.  We ignore them and their schools at our own peril.

Family Assets in U. S. ( Whites: $100K; Blacks:$5K )

This link is to an article in the May 17, 2010 issue of The Guardian in which are reported some startling results from a Brandeis University study on the disparities between white family assets and African American family assets.  The following quotation captures the essence of the findings:
 
“White families typically have assets worth $100,000 (£69,000), up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families’ assets stand at just $5,000, up from around $2,000.”
 
Given the troubling conditions of too many schools attended by African American students and the intense and glittery consumerism beamed to them by television and other media, I’m compelled to ask:  What does all of this portend for the future?  How can students from families with such limited economic resources and prepared in schools that are too often substandard and chaotic, replenish the workforce?  How will they acquire their expensive, media-defined “toys” when they will have neither the money to buy them nor the skills to earn them?
 
Given current demographic trends in the United States, we should all contemplate how these economic and educational disparities will affect the long-term maintenance of Social Security, pension funds, tax bases, etc.