@Paul

“The best “brute” indicator that we have of well being is GDP per capita so let’s begin with it.

Wikipedia:

“In 2002, the average individual income among Hispanic and Latino Americans was highest for Cuban Americans ($38,733), and lowest for Dominican Americans ($26,467) and Puerto Rican Americans ($27,877). For Mexican Americans it was $33,927, and $30,444 for Central and South Americans.”

Let’s compare this performance with that of Germany, the biggest European economy:

Germany year 2002 US$ 26,600 (GDP per Capita PPP)

Germans were poorer than Puerto Ricans and slightly richer than Dominican Americans, by this indicator. This is NOT third world country performance, got it?”

Average income and GDP/PPP are completely different measures. Even if they correlate well the absolute numbers can’t be compared.

“Let’s do it again with another good indicator of well being, life expectancy.

“Hispanic and Latino Americans are the longest-living Americans, according to official data. Their life expectancy is more than two years longer than for non-Hispanic whites and almost eight years longer than for African Americans.”

Again: this is not Third World country performance.”

This is not a good indicator for all groups because there are genetic differences between groups that affect life expectancy. Something that has been dealt with extensively on this blog btw.

“Last time I checked, Texas, California, Florida and other heavy third-world immigrant descendent states weren’t “poor”: they were richer than Germany for God’s sake!”

By what metric? You don’t provide a source and the only I could find is Wikipedia/IMF’s nominal GDP per capita. It has California as slightly above Germany but Texas and Florida clearly below,

You may also consider that Germany has its own share of third world immigrants so it’s not a comparison to how things go if you allow third world immigration or not. It would be better to compare groups within America on things like crime and poverty. But we already know what that comparison looks like.