[extropy-chat] Psychology of investments in infrastructure

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Wed Jul 5 10:45:48 UTC 2006


On 7/5/06, Fred C. Moulton wrote:
> Everyone needs to take a deep breath and get a grip; this is supposed to
> be a list for Extropians; you know those people who try to do some
> detailed research and analysis.  Maybe we should practice these skills
> before we all go rushing out for our Jupiter sized brains.
>
> First according to the 2000 census figures on the web from the state of
> California Hispanics are not the majority
> http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/SDC/documents/table4.xls.


The 2000 census figures are six years out-of-date.  Obviously!  :)

California issued these estimates in 2004:
<http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/ReportsPapers/Estimates/E3/E3-00-04/E-3_2000-04.asp>

Quotes:
Although still the largest race/ethnic group, Whites were, by 2004,
44.6 percent of the population, down from 47.2 percent in 2000.
In the same period Hispanics grew by 2.3 percent to almost 35 percent
of the total. Asians grew from 11 percent to 11.6 percent of the
total, and Blacks dropped to 6 percent from 6.5 percent. Multirace
persons held the next largest share, 2 percent, with the two smallest
groups, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, holding 0.58 percent
and 0.35 percent shares, respectively. These rates of growth and
decline resulted from very different patterns in the components of
change (births, deaths and migration) by race/ethnicity.

In fact, three fourths of the population growth of California by 2004
was Hispanic. It is projected in a separate report that Hispanics will
become the largest race/ethnic group in the state by 2011.
---------------------------------


So you are correct that Hispanics are not yet the largest single
ethnic group in California. But in total, whites were in the minority
in 2000, a smaller minority in 2004, and expected to continue reducing
as a percentage of the California population.

You point out the problem of classifying the ethnic origin. The census
bureau has discussed this at length, and agrees that the statistics
could be misleading, or double-counted for people of more than one
ethnic origin.


I think what *really* worries people is the illegal immigration which
may never appear in the official statistics. People believe that the
situation is much worse than stated despite the reassuring noises made
by government.

BillK



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