Changes in Amrican Society

How society has changed.

Work and marriage have been central to American civic culture since the founding, and this held true for the white working class into the 1960s. Almost all of the adult men were working or looking for work, and almost all of them were married.

Then things started to change. For white working-class men in their 30s and 40s—what should be the prime decades for working and raising a family—participation in the labor force dropped from 96% in 1968 to 79% in 2015. Over that same period, the portion of these men who were married dropped from 86% to 52%. (The numbers for nonwhite working-class males show declines as well, though not as steep and not as continuous.)

Work and marriage have been central to American civic culture since the founding, and this held true for the white working class into the 1960s. Almost all of the adult men were working or looking for work, and almost all of them were married.

Then things started to change. For white working-class men in their 30s and 40s—what should be the prime decades for working and raising a family—participation in the labor force dropped from 96% in 1968 to 79% in 2015. Over that same period, the portion of these men who were married dropped from 86% to 52%. (The numbers for nonwhite working-class males show declines as well, though not as steep and not as continuous.)

These are stunning changes, and they are visible across the country. In today’s average white working-class neighborhood, about one out of five men in the prime of life isn’t even looking for work; they are living off girlfriends, siblings or parents, on disability, or else subsisting on off-the-books or criminal income. Almost half aren’t married, with all the collateral social problems that go with large numbers of unattached males.

In these communities, about half the children are born to unmarried women, with all the problems that go with growing up without fathers, especially for boys. Drugs also have become a major problem, in small towns as well as in urban areas.

Consider how these trends have affected life in working-class communities for everyone, including those who are still playing by the old rules. They find themselves working and raising their families in neighborhoods where the old civic culture is gone—neighborhoods that are no longer friendly or pleasant or even safe.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-america-1455290458

Global poverty declines significantly but who cares?

Every generation grows up in a new world. Some of my college students have trouble remember if the Vietnam War was before or after World War II, for example. To them, the wars are dates in a history book. For me, the Vietnam War was a major issue, just as World War II was for my parents.

Consequently, younger generations become upset or outraged when they discover problems in the world that have not been solved. One example is global poverty. Kids are horrified to find out that millions of people around the world have little to eat, or don't have homes or medical care.

They have no historical frame of reference. Even if they knew the facts, it wouldn't matter to them that global poverty rates have dropped significantly in the last two decades. Here's the article:

Global poverty declines significantly over two decades - See more at: http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/steep-decline-global-poverty#sthash.Qnf9Oaau.I3Oytq2B.dpuf

The percentage of people living in extreme poverty dropped from 43.1 percent to 22.4 percent between 1990 to 2008, according to a recent United Nations report. - 

The reason I bring this up is the latest fascination with socialism in the United States. The kids don't realize that the prosperity they enjoy is attributable to the economic system they live in: capitalism.

"The survey, taken at the end of January, found that 43 percent of Americans under 30 had a favorable view of socialism. Less than a third of millennials had a favorable view of capitalism. No other age or ethnic demographic preferred socialism over capitalism."

Their teachers in grade and high school, as well as in the universities, are poorly educated about economics and lack historical perspective themselves. They have done their students a disservice by teaching a dishonest, or at least highly ideological, view of capitalism.

This editorial had a good take on it:

Even if millenials aren’t swayed by the dramatic improvement in worldwide living standards, one would hope they would see the benefits of capitalism in the products and services that inhabit their world.

They live, and thrive, in a consumer-driven, on-demand society. They have immediate access, at their fingertips, to more knowledge, art, music, and communication than the wealthiest oligarch just a few decades ago.

Each and every one of the products and services they use every day was developed by someone chasing profit and market-share. It is a cliche to say that capitalism has powered the technological and scientific innovations that have improved all our lives. Apparently, however, it is a cliche that bears repeating.