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Fast Fact The state’s population will near 60 million by 2050, according to the state Department of Finance. That’s an increase from 34.1 million counted in the 2000 Census. Big brother The first-born is the smartest (maybe) It will take more than a mass of studies to convince parents that the first-born is really smarter, although he often seems so because he is older, and so seems wiser. The latest is a study of 240,000 Norwegian teens that indicates that first-born children – at least in that country – are slightly more intelligent that child No. 2. However, the twist here is not in birth order, but in social rank. The first child, according to researchers Petter Kristensen and Tor Bjerkedal, get more attention, and thus advantages, within a typical family structure. They refer to this phenomenon as “social rank.” One of many websites on the matter (sammijo2787.tripod.com/-index.html) lists several first-born people, as well as other statistics: Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Oprah Winfrey, Rush Limbaugh and Arsenio Hall; more than 1/2 of the U.S. presidents; 21 of the first 23 astronauts; and most entrepreneurs. In the year 2050 Inland Empire’s population primed to explode The people of Riverside County and the entire Inland Empire received a real eye-opener this summer when the state Department of Finance forecast that by the year 2050 the county would have a population of 4.7 million and rank second in California behind Los Angeles County in that category. With a current population of just over 2 million, this means that Riverside County’s population is going to more than double over the next 40-plus years. San Bernardino County’s population is forecast to reach 3.6 million in the same period, up from its current 2 million and ranking it fifth in the state. Regular readers of Inland Empire Family Magazine have seen two major feature stories on this subject of regional growth over the past four years in these pages and the magazine intends to continue following this story and keeping local families abreast of the impact that change may have on their quality of life. The same Department of Finance report projects that California’s population will reach 60 million by 2050, raising major questions about whether the state is prepared to make the decisions necessary to handle this growth. To paraphrase an old car rental company commercial, being No. 2 may mean that Riverside County has to try even harder at tackling those questions. State Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) was recently quoted in the Press-Enterprise on this subject as saying, “It will present a lot of challenges for the county to make sure we have the facilities and infrastructure that we need and have to adopt policies to recognize that the growth is coming instead of trying to prevent it from coming, because you can’t.” –By Michael J. Medley Sandwich generation Learning to take in an aging parent Memo to parents: As your children get older, so do you, and, perhaps most importantly, so do your parents. According to a recent USA TODAY/ABC News/Gallup Poll, some 41% of Baby Boomers (the youngest of whom are 43) are now helping take care of at least one parent and another 37% believe they will be a provider someday. The difficulty of an extending lifespan is the parents of young children who also find themselves being parents to their own parents. Thus, the Sandwich Generation. “We’re still living in the fantasy that there are people at home who can take care of the elderly without giving up too much,” John Rother, director of policy and strategy for AARP, told USA TODAY. “We haven’t caught up to the fact that most women are in the workforce.” Nearly two-thirds of in-home parental caregivers are women, the study determined. In a sample of 500 Americans who are at least 42 years old, here were some responses: > 73% have parents who are alive. > 12% of those parents are living in some assisted center. > 8% of parents needing assistance are living at their child’s home. > 11% say that, because of personal or financial care of a parent, “major sacrifices” have been made within their own family. Yet, 24% believe they should be doing more. > 52% have talked with their parents about healthcare options when they no longer can care for themselves. |
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