MEASURING POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES.

MEASURING POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES. Kids, economic statistics—like baseball statistics— have to be used with care and this Robert Samuelson article on poverty statistics makes a point which is usually overlooked. (link via Realclearpolitics). Immigration of really poor people into the United States necessarily makes the percentage of poor people higher than it would otherwise be. It can then seem that poverty has increased and that this is a failure of the economy. It is difficult to collect the information, but the comparison over time should include the incomes for the people before they immigrate. If the immigrants get better jobs and higher incomes in the United States, they are better off. Samuelson says that: “Poverty ‘experts’ don’t dwell on immigration, because it implies that more restrictive policies might reduce U.S. poverty.” I think that the opposite is true—ignoring immigration when discussing poverty ignores an important argument for immigration: immigrants are made better off—world poverty is alleviated. There are lots of factors to consider, of course, but the difficulty of collecting data on the lives of immigrants before they arrive should not prevent the improvement of the lives of immigrants from being measured and taken into account.