[lbo-talk] question about poverty statistics

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sun Sep 4 10:32:26 PDT 2005


On Sun, 4 Sep 2005 stannard67 at aol.com wrote:


> Of the cited increase in poverty, a conservative colleague of mine
> retorted: "The percentage of Americans 'living in poverty' is guaranteed
> to increase in any year where the growth in the immigrant population
> exceeds the growth in the native population. Which is every year. Its a
> statistical illusion which, if you controlled for status of immigration,
> vanishes."
>
> Is this true?

I'm sure Doug will dig up the data; a couple of observations.

1. "Guaranteed" increases in poverty? What, anyone who immigrates from another nation must be poor and uneducated?

2. If you eliminate some poor people from the group of people living in poverty, the poverty rate goes down: what a surprise! If we eliminate other groups from consideration, we could make the poverty rate go down even further! (Note the assumption here: it doesn't count if immigrants live in poverty; they're not real people, I guess.)

Miles



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