Why are Asian-Americans Wealthier? (companies, currency, job, paying)

[tony23]

Originally Posted by dorado0359

You can add Heavy Metal and Goth Satanic music to that list also.

What, exactly, is "Goth Satanic" music? I've listened to "Goth Metal" and "Gothic Industrial", but I've never heard of anything called "Goth Satanic"

[Talibanic]

Originally Posted by ndfmnlf

I check census stats periodicially PINC-11--Part 1, and the thing that always stands out is that Asian-Americans consistently have higher incomes than other ethnic groups - higher even than non-Hispanic whites. For an ethnic group that is fairly new to the US, that's quite an achievement. Is there something the Asians are doing right that the rest of us can learn from? Are they more entrepreneurial? Better educated? Both? My hunch is that they are more entrepreneurial. They like to take risks. Whenever I go to Chinatown here in Chicago, I'm struck by how many Chinese here could barely speak English, yet they own businesses that seem to print money left and right. I also know a couple who owns a small fast food Chinese restaurant in the suburbs. Their English isn't very good. Yet their son is now a junior in medical school.

They're inordinately polite, honest, smart, have a great work ethic and deep family values. They adapt to foreign cultures easily and with success yet continue to maintain time-tested cultural values. They value education.

Sure, they can't drive worth s*it but that's a small price to pay in exchange for such exemplary citizens. How could they NOT be wealthier?.

[Tret]

Asians are smarter and more talented.

[Tret]

The Asian Americans who are successful are truly amazing and talented. They had to fight so many barriers, obstacles, and racism to get where they were. They didn't have the help of "Old Boys" networks or any gifts. Pure talent got them to where they got. Give Asian Americans credit where its due. They didn't "work harder." They just had talent. Just like Michael Jordan. Sure he worked hard. But he had talent and ability. Mathematical and science ability is not about working hard, for example. It is talent. Many people can work their butts off and still not do it. Of course, more BS areas like politics and business are different.

[CTR36]

I agree. I have many Asian friends. All are successful in their careers. I hardly have any Latin friends. For some reason Asians gravitate towards me. I am Mexican. I am an immigrant like they are. I am also successful. Put myself through college, bought a home, etc. I am pushing my children to excel in school though. I think it's mostly the culture. There are exceptions such as myself. My grandmother pushed me to excel in school and encouraged me to pursue higher education. My father was a lawyer in Mexico and I have a half sister there that is also an attorney. I come from a middle class culture in Mexico. It makes a difference. Most of the Mexicans I meet, their kids get knocked up young and they end up working menial jobs like their parents. Not that there's no hope for them but I just notice these types of things. I prefer to surround myself with people who have the same values as I do. I am even contemplating sending my son to a local Chinese school to learn more math and science since he has such an interest in it.

[drshang]

I remember after I first started dating my girlfriend I asked her this question...her response...

"Asian immigrants are generally pretty wealthy before they got here. It's expensive to move to America and upper class people in Asia are much more likely to move to the US."

Yes, there are refugees and people coming to the US for political asylum and other reasons. And this is a broad generalization, but we're talking about "averages" here. In Los Angeles, a large percentage of Asian immigrants that move here were pretty well off before they arrived. This brings in a tradition of wealth and success that supersedes generations.

I do think cultural values play a role too and when you combine it with the above statement it creates a combination of factors that lead to a wealthy demographic...Malcolm Gladwell discusses this in his latest book, "Outliers" and gives a decent enough overview about why these Asian cultural values of hard work are so prevalent hundreds of years later. But I think it's also important to consider why Asian immigrants are moving to the US compared to traditional immigrants such as Italians or Hispanics, which came here to largely take on low end job opportunities, and have worked their way up the social and economic ladder due to hard work and perseverance.

[drshang]

Humboldt,

I wrote my post before reading yours. You are exactly right. The highest income immigrants, on average, come from Africa. That statement is perplexing to most people since they think of Africa as extremely poor and the fact that there is a perceived racial imbalance against African-Americans in the US. Basically success breeds success and that statement can not be overstated enough. The percentage of people that "advance" in the socioeconomic ladder from one generation to the next is not nearly as high as the pop media would suggest with their constant "rags to riches" stories.

[M3 Mitch]

There are indeed 2 major factors - #1 noted first by Humbolt, is that Asian-American immigrants, legal immigrants, are a self-selected group who are already fincancially successful and are ambitious to succeed in America. That's why they came here and these conditions had to be met for them to get immigrant visas.

#2 Asian cultures, painting with a very broad brush here, do emphasize delayed gratification and the family sticking together, tend to value academic achievement, etc. Compare India, China, Japan, South Korea, to whatever country in Africa, or even Europe or dare I say the good ol' USA - hell they simply work harder, and generally they work harder. The stereotypical Chinese laundry or restaurant always have kids, inlaws, etc. working and you can bet they work cheap or for free, it's to make sure the business succeeds. They consider themselves to all be in the same boat and it's a collective duty to keep that boat in good nick.

[texdav]

From what I have seen they are very tuned to the opportunity that this cpuntry provdes and wiling to work very hard. I remmebr living near some vietnamese which were a large family. The children were very delightful;almost like 50's kids. Whne they got into elementary school they always did their homewrok after getting home before going out to play. They made every good grade altho their paernts spoke only broken engish. Drive to succeed was very high in both the parents and children.Most kids ihn the neighbor were either lazy or did good but much less drive overall to succeed.I also imagine that like thier asian counterpart thier savings rate is much higher than other americans.

[AnesthesiaMD]

Originally Posted by Tret

The Asian Americans who are successful are truly amazing and talented. They had to fight so many barriers, obstacles, and racism to get where they were. They didn't have the help of "Old Boys" networks or any gifts. Pure talent got them to where they got. Give Asian Americans credit where its due. They didn't "work harder." They just had talent. Just like Michael Jordan. Sure he worked hard. But he had talent and ability. Mathematical and science ability is not about working hard, for example. It is talent. Many people can work their butts off and still not do it. Of course, more BS areas like politics and business are different.

Yeah, and black people have an extra bone in their ankle making them better at sports.

Your statement is complete racist nonsense. If they, as a race, are so much smarter and more talented, how come there are BILLIONS of them that are dirt poor? It is 90% about hard work and 10% talent. Some cultures just value education and hard work more than others. Besides, who says that money has anything to do with intelligence. I know smart people who are scientists and teachers who do not make a lot of money, while Jessica Simpson and Brad Pitt are rich, so explain that one.