The government last week released its annual statistical report on poverty and household income. As usual, we -- meaning the public, the media and politicians -- missed a big part of the story. It is this: The stubborn persistence of poverty, at least as measured by the government, is increasingly a problem associated with immigration. As more poor Hispanics enter the country, poverty goes up. This is not complicated, but it is widely ignored.
The standard story is that poverty is stuck; superficially, the statistics support that. The poverty rate measures the share of Americans below the official poverty line, which in 2006 was $20,614 for a four-person household. Last year, the poverty rate was 12.3 percent, down slightly from 12.6 percent in 2005 but higher than the recent low, 11.3 percent in 2000. It was also higher than the 11.8 percent average for the 1970s. So the conventional wisdom seems amply corroborated.
It isn't. Look again at the numbers. In 2006, there were 36.5 million people in poverty. That's the figure that translates into the 12.3 percent poverty rate. In 1990, the population was smaller, and there were 33.6 million people in poverty, a rate of 13.5 percent. The increase from 1990 to 2006 was 2.9 million people (36.5 million minus 33.6 million). Hispanics accounted for all of the gain.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090401623.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
You have to be blind not to see this and to compound the problem, these immigrants will remain in poverty for generations. Hispanic girls are surpassing every other ethnic group in teenage and unwed pregnancy!!! They by and large do not take advantage of the education opportunities once here which means a high drop out rate. So once they get here, they remain illiterate and then have tons of kids, which by the way are AMERICAN CITIZENS.
2007-09-05
09:57:28
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11 answers
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asked by
Untied States Of Latina
2
in
Immigration