Why are Asian-Americans Wealthier? (capitalism, 2009, free market, limitations)

[John23]

This is generalizing, but...

-They don't make excuses. How often do you really hear the typical asian complain about the man, the system, the white man holding him down. Or worrying about what the US did to them 50 or 100 years ago.They work and do something while others complain.

-Honest, straight forward, no nonsense.

-True, they might be wealthier than other immigrants coming here. But they're still immigrants in a foreign country. That's never easy, regardless of how much money you have. The language barrier being one example.

-They dont need special assistance or coddling. Or special labels to make them feel good.

-The flip side, and this isnt politically correct....but some immigrant groups come here, and they're into garbage. Its not that asians are so superior and genetically gifted, but if you compare them to some that dont do anything, or dont take advantage of the same opportunities, then they look better.

-Some of it is definitely cultural, no denying it. I dont think asian women marry or get pregnant nearly as early as women from other places, therefore they can work, get an education, contribute to household income.

[texdav]

Originally Posted by 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.

They mau have some wealth but mnay came with tehe shirt on thier backs, they have amny impediments such as langiage difference that they have to obver come alos. No;I don;t thnik it has anything to do with wealth advatnage. Basically native americans have all the advantage but juts don't take advantage of it is plan and simple. I thnik it often is cultural really and values.I opften think all the so called advantages becomne disadvantages we give people because they then lack drive which is so important.

[eatfastnoodle]

The key is education. I gave my 2 cents on why education is such a highly valued commodity in Asian culture in my posts to this thread. Check it out.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/educa...ml#post7642672

[runningncircles1]

-Some of it is definitely cultural, no denying it. I dont think asian women marry or get pregnant nearly as early as women from other places, therefore they can work, get an education, contribute to household income.

That's definitely NOT true. They get married younger and have children earlier on average.

-Honest, straight forward, no nonsense.

I'm going to sound racist here, but that isn't always true either. I've worked for Asian bosses before, and they complicated things more than they should have been and disobeyed several ordinances (health and business). Not to say all Asians are like this, but I do not think "honesty and straight-forwardness are necessarily ideals for all Asians (just like they aren't for all whites, aka Enron and banks).

[Craig121]

Because they are all linked to organised crime.

[stan4]

The median household income for asians in the US is almost $9k more than whites.
Personal income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Education and being involved in their childrens' lives is the best reason I can come up with...they really stress education and working hard (at school, athletics, music, whatever).

Indian Americans do better than other asians because I think they try harder to assimilate. Plus, a lot of them know english before they get here.

Indian Americans best educated, top earners: US Census- Corporate Trends-News By Company-News-The Economic Times

[Thomas R.]

America for a long time restricted Asians from coming here. There were "Asian Exclusion Acts." When we cut this back we initially, more or less, placed quotas that sometimes limited it to the "best Asians."

Also, generally, Asians come to America highly motivated to succeed. Granted all immigrants do, but I think it's more intense when you're further away in distance and language.

I'd avoid any generality about "Asian values" as Asian is a diverse place with many values. The Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures do place high value on education and hardwork. Also on self-sacrifice and conformity. However the Japanese have a pretty strong "punk" element, judging by my sister who teaches there, and other Asian cultures are quite different than the ones I named.

Lastly some of these stats might be misleading or obscure certain things. There's a good deal of poor Chinese immigrants who are illegals smuggled by "snake-heads." Chinese women working in sweatshops or brothels might not be counted in these figures of Asian wealth. Someone might even make it their business to not be counted in a way even Mexican illegals wouldn't. (There are Chinese illegals that come much close to being practically slaves than Mexican illegals. I know of illegal Mexican construction workers who make a passable living)

[AnesthesiaMD]

Let's not forget that as a culture, Asia has failed. Between India and China there are like 3 BILLION people. America has more like 300 million, yet in spite of having 10x less population, WE put a man on the moon 40 years ago! WE came up with a constitution that provided liberty and freedom! WE invented just about everything that the modern world uses. It's AMERICAN companies that dominate the world market. WE have (by far) the largest economy in the world. People like to say that China is taking over, that we owe them so much money, blah, blah, blah. We hold all the cards. They cant call in their markers for fear of self destruction. All they have is paper. We have all the real currency, all the gold, all the silver. So what makes them smarter? The fact that we happen to skim off the cream of the crop doesn't make them any smarter as a whole. In fact, history has proven that in spite of our small size, America has been the country made up of the smartest people, and China and India have a lot of catching up to do.

[ndfmnlf]

Originally Posted by AnesthesiaMD

Let's not forget that as a culture, Asia has failed. Between India and China there are like 3 BILLION people. America has more like 300 million, yet in spite of having 10x less population, WE put a man on the moon 40 years ago! WE came up with a constitution that provided liberty and freedom! WE invented just about everything that the modern world uses. It's AMERICAN companies that dominate the world market. WE have (by far) the largest economy in the world. People like to say that China is taking over, that we owe them so much money, blah, blah, blah. We hold all the cards. They cant call in their markers for fear of self destruction. All they have is paper. We have all the real currency, all the gold, all the silver. So what makes them smarter? The fact that we happen to skim off the cream of the crop doesn't make them any smarter as a whole. In fact, history has proven that in spite of our small size, America has been the country made up of the smartest people, and China and India have a lot of catching up to do.

There are 2 things that gave the US a leg up over the competition:

1. slavery - $20 trillion (inflation adjusted) in uncompensated labor generated the seed capital that was later used to build American industries from the ground up

2. science - the Founding Fathers were products of the Enlightenment and were strong supporters of the scientific method

Combine the 2 elements together: massive amounts of capital fused with science and sure, you'll get a technologically advanced society. However, these 2 advantages are found in our past. Slavery has already been outlawed (no more free ride there), while science is being threatened by religious fundamentalism.

I also don't believe that we invented everything in the world. That's just bull crap. Scientific knowledge is evolutionary. Nothing comes de novo. If the Chinese, Arabs, and Indians hadn't invented math, the Americans would not have been able to send anyone to the moon.

If the Chinese were to put a patent on everything they have ever invented over the last 5000 years (eg paper, gunpowder, the compass, printing, math etc), we Americans would be paying through the nose for the royalties.

That's not to say the Chinese and Indians are superior to us. It's just an acknowledgement that these much older civilizations have bequeathed us Americans a legacy of knowledge that we have built upon and we ought to be thankful for, instead of us gloating (like you do) that we are the master race.

[DazsGirl]

Originally Posted by ndfmnlf

For an ethnic group that is fairly new to the US, that's quite an achievement.

Please define NEW, because they've been in the US since the 1800s.

Asian-American History — Infoplease.com