Do you think America is Importing Poverty ?

Question

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.

Answer 1

I don't think there is any doubt of it. Wages are the lowest percentage of domestic gross product since WWII per the Fed, and before that was the Great Depression. Obviously, our wages are being driven down.

It isn't just illegal immigration, it is the entire globalist economic model of racing to the bottom in wages and benefits, world wide in order to maximize profits of the few, world wide. However, illegal immigration not only drives down wages but ruins our schools that educate our children to make them competitive on a global market, so it is a double whammy.

Answer 2

"Poverty" and "poor" are two different things. Not all poor people are at or below the poverty line. "Poor" is a relative term. The guy who owns the 10million dollar house in Beverly Hills will probably think the guy whos a $500,000 house a bit down the road is very poor. America needs the middle class and some would say the middle class is "poor." Without the middle class, our economy would crumble. Impoverished people is another story. There's no reason for that, but again, someone has to do the minimum wage jobs for the economy to maintain itself. It really all depends on your perspective.

Answer 3

our government turns the other way while people employ them. the united states has laws that require people have working papers to work here. the government makes a buck an insures votes for not paying attention. you don't treat the symptom when you can treat the cause. if there weren't jobs here they wouldn't come. the sad fact is companies looking to make extra profit will hire them to work because they don't have to pay taxes on them -- they don't even have to pay them minimum wage. many states they are settling in refuse education to the children of illegal workers. in places where they do provide education the kids often meet a hostile environment that doesn't want them there anyway. for every person trying to push forward on education there are five that live in denial of the problem and demand english only education when less and less of the population speaks english. many kids are taking it upon themselves to be bilingual because they understand the future. it seems like the adults don't and would like to live in the eisenhower years forever.

the system is broken on many levels. we are supposed to have a government that runs the system and instead they find other things to do and divert the population with populist stuff like gay marriage instead of real pressing issues. gay marriage can be handled by making a speach. immigration can't.

you are looking at long term consequences. the powers that be are looking at short term profit. they don't care about the long term consequences as long as they have a few extra dollars at the end of the day.

Answer 4

America isn't so much importing poverty as poverty is being smuggled in. Legal immigrants tend to be socially mobile, or not that poor to begin with. Illegal immigrants are the ones swelling the ranks of the underclass.

Not just by being poor, themselves, either, but by competing for the same low-skill jobs that poor and working class citizens tend to do - making it harder to break the cycle of poverty for them, as well.

I will point out, though, that while hispanics constitute the majority of illegal immigrants, not all illegals are hispanic, and, most hispanics are not illegals America has many, /many/ hispanic citizens.

Answer 5

Yes.
The Human Tidal Wave of unwashed has yet to cease invading the US.

BTW----The Give us your poor......poem on the Statue of Liberty has NOTHING to do about importing sick, poor ppl. It is a call for Democracy by its author.

http://www.illegalaliens.us/statueofliberty.htm

Answer 6

your right, except for the last part, they are not American citizens. the 14th amendment does not apply to them. it applies to the blacks after the civil war. i wonder why people have a hard time understanding the Constitution.

Answer 7

As long as it says "Give us your tired, your poor and your hungry: on the Statue of Liberty, that's what we are going to get. You don't see too many rich Hispanics moving here. The exchange rate would kill them.

Answer 8

Yes. How else can the United States compete with the slave labor in China?

Blame the Billionairs...think about it, if you could choose the country in which you are poor, which would you choose?

Answer 9

Yes. Look around...

Answer 10

We are importing it not exactly by choice but by condoning illegal immigration.