September 13, 2006

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09/12/06 - A California Reader Wonders Why MALDEF And the ACLU Aren’t Defending The Border Patrol Two

[CORRECTED] A California Reader Reports Income Disparity Greater in U.S. Than Mexico

From:  [Name Withheld]

Re: Joe Guzzardi’s Column: California’s Most Important 2006 Election---Calderon Edges Lopez Obrador In Mexico

[VDARE.COM NOTE: Keen-eyed readers have pointed out, with varying degrees of politeness, that the writer is comparing inequality of income with inequality of wealth, which is comparing apples and oranges, something we try to avoid. This is true. We missed it on deadline. We were thinking of the increasing amount of inequality in the United States, caused partly by the importation of large number of very poor people from the notoriously unequal Mexico, brought north to pick apples and oranges both.]

Guzzardi’s statement “that in Mexico the average income received by the population’s poorest 10 percent is under 2 percent, while the wealthiest 10 percent receives 40 percent of national income" is true.

But he may not know the corresponding figures for the U.S.

According to the University of California at Santa Cruz, in 2001, the top 1% of Americans owned 40% of financial wealth and the top 10% owned 80%. See the complete statistics here.

Hence, the wealth inequality in the U.S. is much greater than it is in Mexico.

This is food for thought for all of us.