I'm researching income patterns among minority groups here in the United States and I came across the following article. It has bits of information such as the fact that the US Latino consumer market is as big as the entire Mexico economy. Now, given that Mexico is the 4th largest country in the Americas, that's nothing to sneeze at.

I mean, if all latinos in the US could easily buy back Mexico, why would anybody be concerned about us as a burden to our economy?

Minority groups' share of $10 trillion U.S. consumer market is growing steadily, according to annual buying power study from Terry College's Selig Center for Economic Growth [1]

The Selig Center's annual report includes state-by-state projections of buying power for the nation's three most populous racial groups (African American, Asian and American Indian), as well as Hispanics, who are categorized by the U.S. Census as an ethnic minority and not a racial minority. Buying power, also referred to as disposable income, is the total personal income available for spending on goods and services after taxes. The state-by-state projections are broken down by market size, growth rate and market share.

The steep curve of Hispanic buying power is largely the result of immigration and population growth, Humphreys said. The 2000 U.S. Census reported that about one person out of eight living in the United States was of Hispanic origin. By 2012, that population figure is projected to approach one out of every six.

Hispanic buying power has risen from $212 billion in 1990 (the beginning boundary of the Selig Center study) to $862 billion in 2007, representing growth of 307 percent over that time. By comparison, the combined buying power of all non-Hispanics in the United States grew 125 percent during the same period.

These numbers are incredibly interesting. While Republicans paint latinos as an economic burden to the country, this study clearly states that economic immobility is just not the case among "Hispanics" in this country; especially migrant 'hispanic' workers.

So I have to ask : Are the immigrant haters afraid of the fact that, indeed, these brown people from south of the border are earning their keep at a faster rate than them? Are they reacting to the possible future of working with a paper hat and responding to a boss called Juan Pérez?

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