Were population groups merely fungible, the current challenges facing America and HispanicLatinos might be less compelling.  If HispanicLatino households reflected the socioeconomic characteristics of the Anglo household, their growing numbers would be what the nation needs to help balance its budget and invest in its future.  But though HispanicLatinos constitute an important strategic asset in the fiscal future of the country, they are in dire straits.  HispanicLatinos earn little more than as 40 years ago.  In a land that aspires to political and societal equality, the economic inequality among its individual components has taken on ominous implications.

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