"Rest assured that hospital publicists, canny obstetricians, entrepreneurial chambers of commerce, baby food manufacturers, public officials and countless others pursuing some political social or personal agenda, abetted by the media, are already guesstimating the growth rate to anoint any number of unsuspecting newborns as the mythical American who pushed the nation's population to 300 million.
In 1967, when the population reached 200 million, Life magazine dispatched 23 photographers to locate the baby and devoted a five-page spread to its search. Instead of deciding on a statistically valid symbol of the average American newborn, the magazine chose the one born at precisely the appointed time...
Given the demographic changes recorded in the 20th century, the 300 millionth American, born in the same year the first baby boomers turn 60, will be a very different person from the paradigm in 1915, when the nation's estimated population passed 100 million, or even in 1967, when it topped 200 million.
The symbolic 300 millionth could be an immigrant, arriving by plane or crossing the border illegally, but most bets by those who study such things are on a native-born baby. About 11,000 are born each day.
"The 300 millionth will be a Mexican Latino in Los Angeles County, with parents who speak Spanish at home and with siblings who are bilingual," said William Frey, a demographer with the University of Michigan Population Studies Center."
¿Qué significa este evento para el país y para el mundo? Significa muchas cosas, desde mayor presión a los recursos hidricos hasta mayor presión para mantener un estilo de vida claramente no sustentable. Y significa que EU es cada vez una sociedad más y más diversa.
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