Econ Love
Ahh the media. No offense to those that labor in the information game, but seriously, please stop quoting statistics that are actually good as bad things. For instance, this article on MSN NBC:
Census shows a widening gap among Americans
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/CensusShowsAWideningGap.aspx?GT1=8506&wa=wsignin1.0
Maybe MSN. Certainly, the fact that the median household has gotten richer (so the middle class has gotten wealthier) and the fact that the percent of people in poverty hasn't changed (even though the government changes that number every now and again) could mean that the wage gap is widening.
But let's look at some of the statistics quoted in the article:
Per capita income
2005
2004
% chg.
U.S.
$25,036
$24,655
1.5
White
26,496
26,065
1.6
Non-Hispanic white
28,946
28,357
2.1
Black
16,874
16,561
1.9
Asian
27,331
27,040
1.1
Hispanic origin (any race)
14,483
14,577
-0.6
So we note that every race (except for Hispanics) is getting richer on average. That's good right? We also notice that Blacks are actually getting richer faster than Whites. That's good right? Because it is actually narrowing the gap between Whites and Blacks. The same thing proves true for the gap between Blacks and Asians. In that table, its the Europeans who are really beating people. They're widening the gap. And good for them, they're working hard for the money. So what about the Hispanics. While this table doesn't talk about them, I found some statistics on Hispanic immigration. The number of Hispanic immigrants peaked in 2000 and droped for a while, but recently (2004) they've gone back up to approximately 1.2 million people. People who leave Latin America are usually very poor and looking for opportunity, so logically, a large influx of poorer than average Hispanics will lower the average wage of Hispanics. Even though this happens, all of them are better off.
So why is it so hard to tell the good side to the economy? Why is it so exciting to say that our borders are broken and that immigrants are threatening our way of life. In fact, immigrants are much less likely to commit crimes than native born people. I think, I did not have time to look up this statistic, that immigrants use less welfare because of the potenial of being caught. Furthermore, illegal immigrants contribute millions to Social Security that they will never collect.
I know that this started as a wage gap rant and turned into a racism rant, but both are equally irritating to me. Get your stuff right Lou Dobbs or shut up about immigration.
Census shows a widening gap among Americans
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/CensusShowsAWideningGap.aspx?GT1=8506&wa=wsignin1.0
Maybe MSN. Certainly, the fact that the median household has gotten richer (so the middle class has gotten wealthier) and the fact that the percent of people in poverty hasn't changed (even though the government changes that number every now and again) could mean that the wage gap is widening.
But let's look at some of the statistics quoted in the article:
Per capita income
2005
2004
% chg.
U.S.
$25,036
$24,655
1.5
White
26,496
26,065
1.6
Non-Hispanic white
28,946
28,357
2.1
Black
16,874
16,561
1.9
Asian
27,331
27,040
1.1
Hispanic origin (any race)
14,483
14,577
-0.6
So we note that every race (except for Hispanics) is getting richer on average. That's good right? We also notice that Blacks are actually getting richer faster than Whites. That's good right? Because it is actually narrowing the gap between Whites and Blacks. The same thing proves true for the gap between Blacks and Asians. In that table, its the Europeans who are really beating people. They're widening the gap. And good for them, they're working hard for the money. So what about the Hispanics. While this table doesn't talk about them, I found some statistics on Hispanic immigration. The number of Hispanic immigrants peaked in 2000 and droped for a while, but recently (2004) they've gone back up to approximately 1.2 million people. People who leave Latin America are usually very poor and looking for opportunity, so logically, a large influx of poorer than average Hispanics will lower the average wage of Hispanics. Even though this happens, all of them are better off.
So why is it so hard to tell the good side to the economy? Why is it so exciting to say that our borders are broken and that immigrants are threatening our way of life. In fact, immigrants are much less likely to commit crimes than native born people. I think, I did not have time to look up this statistic, that immigrants use less welfare because of the potenial of being caught. Furthermore, illegal immigrants contribute millions to Social Security that they will never collect.
I know that this started as a wage gap rant and turned into a racism rant, but both are equally irritating to me. Get your stuff right Lou Dobbs or shut up about immigration.