The Hungry Economy

America is built upon the foundation of being known as a “melting pot” full of diverse communities. However, although we are all of the same nationality, some ethnic groups have definitely made their way into the American community. Some are more prominent than others. Take for example the Asian American community. Several families from Asia have made the long voyage to America in search of new opportunities as well as an American citizenship. A good amount of them have started up their very own family owned businesses. Although running and starting a business from basically nothing is a difficult task, many of these Asian Americans have flourished with success, ultimately boosting the American economy.

I’m sure many of you have noticed that there is a considerable amount of Asian American operated businesses throughout metropolitan areas. In fact, “Asian and Pacific Islander businesses in the United States totaled about 913,000 in 1997” ("Census Brief" 1). All of these businesses in total “employed more than 2.2 million people and generated $306.9 billion in revenues” ("Census Brief" 1). As you can see, these statistics are pretty shocking. Between “1992 and 1997, the number of businesses owned by Asians and Pacific Islanders increased about four times as fast as the total number of businesses” ("Census Brief" 1). This was way back in 1997, over a decade ago, so one could only imagine the numbers today even with our recent downfall in the economy. Who ever knew that just the category of certain ethnic owned businesses in general could produce so much revenue, thus contributing enormously to our economy?

Not only have Asian Americans taken over the business world by storm, but they have also done it in an extremely smart way. They have targeted metropolitan areas as a solid foundation in starting a business. That is how successful businesses start out; you are bound to get customers regardless. Basing it off the patterns seen in states, more than 1 in 3 Asian and Pacific Islander owned firms could be found in the following metro areas: New York, NY, Honolulu, HI, and Long Beach, Orange County, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, CA ("Census Brief" 1). Orange County alone was dominated by about 45,000 businesses, which employed 135,000 people while generating receipts of $15 billion. As you can see, by choosing a well trafficked area of hungry consumers, businesses will generally pull in a great amount of statistics.

Such Asian American owned businesses ultimately feed the ravenous monster called our economy. Without them, our economy would never be completely satisfied. Many of those owners once had a dream and eventually fulfilled them. Without a dream in the first place, our economy would be severely affected. Thanks to that dream, the monster of our economy can sleep safe and sound at night without having to worry one bit.


Works Cited

"Asian and Pacific Islander-Owned Businesses." Census Brief (2001): 1-2. Web. 5 Nov 2009. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/cenbr01-7.pdf

*Note: I don't know how to format the "Works Cited" properly with the hanging indent because it's on a blog and not Microsoft Word!