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I saw some statistics lately suggesting that the vast bulk of job growth has been for recent immigrants. American citizens are actually experiencing a mild job loss. I'd wanted to write a top-level about it, but I had no computer at hand.
These numbers long ago became a political game, and they're gamed. Small differences add up and make all the difference.
I remember long ago when one hurdle to Obamacare passing was CBO releasing an estimate that Obamacare would raise the deficit. (Or was it OPM?) So Obamacare's drafters rewrote a bunch of details so that estimated savings for Americans could be taken as evidence of fiture savings in spending. There was probably some pressure behind the scenes, and the next official estimate showed Obamacare lowering the deficit. But the policies were all the same.
This stat is pushed around in various right-wing and conspiratorial circles online but it is fully explained by the fact that natives are older than immigrants and are aging out of the workforce. Unemployment among prime working age native adults is near historic lows and their workforce participation rates are very high.
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This is a good point: what does a white American care if recent Indian and Chinese have raised median wages? It factors in zero to their lived experience, except perhaps in a negative way. Since 2018, white wages have decreased, Hispanic and black have increased, and Asian has stayed the same (after a considerable increase since 2012).
https://www.pgpf.org/sites/default/files/income-varies-widely-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-in-the-united-states.jpeg
Furthermore, although these numbers are adjusted for inflation, if inflation itself is undercounted...
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Yes, this is true.
Another thing that's happened is that the bottom quintile of workers are actually seeing much higher wages while the middle class stagnates. This makes sense as nearly all of the bottom quintile is doing useful work while many in the middle class are not.
What's the result of higher wages for the working class? Answer: the middle class feel much poorer. But it's actually quite nice for those willing to work with their hands (increasingly immigrants these days).
Saudi Arabia solves this problem by importing hordes of immigrants with zero rights. Then they use government funds to give the native-born cushy do- nothing jobs. We're halfway there in the U.S. but of course a native-born West Virginian and an illegal immigrant have basically the same rights nowadays. Also, we'd have to import a billion laborers to get to Saudi Arabia levels.
Obamacare has been a disaster.
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