Posted by Tina
This article reminded me of what America once was, a nation of individuals who believed in hard work, taking care of the family, and saving for a rainy day. Frugality was the norm; waste was frowned upon.
In Ethnic Enclaves, The U.S. Economy Thrives, by Joel Kotkin Forbes.com
* Dr. Alethea Hsu has a strange-seeming prescription for terrible times: She is opening a new shopping center on Saturday. In addition, more amazingly, the 114,000 square foot Irvine, Calif., retail complex, the third for the Taiwan native’s Diamond Development Group, is just about fully leased. *** How can this be in the midst of a consumer crack-up, with credit card defaults and big players like General Growth struggling for their existence? The answer is simple: Hsu’s mostly Asian customers–Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese–still have cash. “These are people who have savings and money to spend,” she explains. “Asians in Orange County are mostly professionals and don’t have the subprime business.” *** To Hsu, culture explains the growing divergence between ethnic markets and that of the general population. Asians, she notes, whether in their native lands or here in California, tend to be big savers. In tough times, they still have the cash to buy goods, while others stay home or go way down-market. *