American Society

Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, recently pointed out some statistics which tell a lot about the status of American society today. Here are some of his observations and statistics:

• The underclass has grown at the same time as crime has been decreasing for 13 years. Even though the crime rate has been dropping, the number of young men who commit crimes if given the opportunity has not dropped. We have just locked them up. When Reagan was first sworn into office 0.9% of the population was in prison. In 2003 it stood at 2.4%. This represents an actual prison population of 490,000 in Reagan's time and 2,086,000 in 1903.
  
• Another manifestation of unsocialized young men, most of whom grew up without Fathers, is the proportion of males age 20-24 who choose not to work. In 1954 the figures stood at 9%. In 1999 it had risen to 30% and this doesn't include those which we have locked up in prison.
  
• What evidence is there that growing up without Fathers is related to the problem? In the early 1950's, illegitimacy (rate of births to single women) stood at 4%. In 1988 it reached 25%, in 2003 it was 35% and in 2003 the black illegitimacy rate stood at 68%.
  
• The saddest aspect of all this is the Democrats rediscovered the plight of this underclass following Katrina and blame it all on Bush and the Republicans , or at least Bush, rediscovered poverty and is now claiming that government can fix it. As if Lyndon Johnson didn't prove that the programs which politicians tout as cures are a mismatch for the problems.