A Fantastic Read
For New Year’s, I picked up this book from Barnes and Noble. Let’s just say that I couldn’t help but read this book ASAP.
Once I finished this book, I knew that I had to write a blog post about it. Too good to pass up indeed.
I selected this book for one reason: it seeks to describe the societal decline of United States post-1960. That topic has piqued my interest these past few months. Without a doubt, Charles Murray’s 2012 book Coming Apart hit the nail on the head when it comes to America’s class structure.
The book is somewhat similar to Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone–which I reviewed on this blog last summer. If you enjoyed that book, then you’ll enjoy this one as it’s a little less dense than Putnam’s book.
This post will summarize some of the important ideas that Murray discussed in his book.
A New America
For background, the first part of the book describes the formation of the upper class. The second section analyzes the formation of the lower class; the final section explains the why the collapse of American community matters and what two alternative futures lie ahead.
Murray’s main premise is that two distinct classes have formed in the United States between 1960 and 2010: the upper class and the lower class. America’s class divide is not purely economic–as many liberals might paint it out to be. It’s not a matter of re-distributing wealth that will fix the problem (poor Americans today are doing a lot better than poor Americans in 1960). No, it’s division based on several factors–culture, lifestyle, geographic/neighborhood separation, family life, etc.
Now, Murray does not make the case that America was never a classless society. The change is that America’s new upper class is far removed from America’s working class. In 1960s America, the country’s upper class lived in the same neighborhoods and acted the same way as everyone else–for the most part. Times have changed. Let’s now discuss some of the ways that America’s upper and lower class are “coming apart”.
1. Cognitive Homogamy
According to Murray, “cognitive homogamy occurs when individuals with similar cognitive ability have children.”
Simply put, college grads are now marrying college grads., and high school drop-outs are marrying high school drop-outs. For instance, only 3% of American couples both had college degrees in 1960. That percentage grew to 25% in 2010. (pp.62). Clearly, American society is seeing fewer marriage of people with different educational backgrounds.
The issue here is that the children of college grads have a higher IQ on average than the children of high-school drop-outs (pp. 66). Sure, hard-work is a key to success in one’s education and career. However, the American economy is becoming much more cognitively-based. Most high-paying jobs nowadays are based on cognitive ability. So, the children of college graduates are at a clear advantage with the way that the American economy is trending.
With less inter-marrying between Americans of differing educational levels, we’re now seeing a self-perpetuating cycle of upper-class people only marrying each other and having children that more likely to succeed in a cognitive-based American economy.
2. Elite Neighborhood Concentration
Until recently, American neighborhoods consisted of families of different income levels. Even the most elite American neighborhoods in the 1960s still possessed significant amounts of working-class famllies.
Times have changed. Affluent Americans have increasingly isolated themselves from the rest of America. Higher-income Americans are moving into elite, “gated” communities with only other upper-class families.
Murray brings up Manhattan, New York as a prime example of this trend (pp. 72). in the 1960s, Manhattan was primarily a blue-collar community. Today, nearly all of Manhattan’s residents are businessmen, lawyers, and other professional service occupations.
In short, America’s elites are concentrating into high-end neighborhoods/conclaves in major metropolitan areas (i.e. NYC, Washington D.C., and LA/San Francisco).
3. Dysfunctional Family Life in Working Class America
Family life is quite different when comparing upper-class Americans and lower-class Americans.
In Chapter 8 of Coming Apart, Murray shows that lower-class Americans nowadays are much less likely to get married and stay married–especially compared to upper-class Americans. Divorce rates are much higher and more children live in broken families in lower-class America (pp. 159-163).
The interesting part here is that working-class Americans had similar marriage patterns and family structure to upper-class Americans in the 1960s. However, a divergence started taking place between the two groups in the 1970s and 1980s.
4. Labor Force Participation Rates
This post is getting long, so I’ll make this point quickly.
The labor force rates for white working-class men is significantly lower than white upper-class men. By 2010, nearly 10% of white American men (age 30-49) with a high-school education-or-less dropped out of the labor force (pp. 177). That means they aren’t employed and aren’t actively seeking a job.
Takeaways
Why did I discuss this book? Why does it matter?
The reality is that America’s ruling elites either don’t care for or show antipathy toward working-class Americans. If you’ve ever spent any time in upper-class America, then you know what I’m talking about.
Daily life in our country is becoming more dysfunctional day-by-day for millions of working-class Americans. These people are our neighbors, our former schoolmates, and our fellow countrymen. This reality affects everyone.
The plight of your fellow citizen will eventually affect the surrounding community. Lower labor-force participation rates, increased out-of-wedlock births, higher crime, and other troubling trends are all plaguing our communities.
In order to improve the decline of American civic life, Murray claims that America’s upper-class must step up to enact a civic revival in America. We have to hope something of this nature will occur.
At the end of the day, large-scale change starts on a small-scale level. We first have to take action in our own personal lives and communities before changing national-level trends. It starts with us, champ.
Anyways, thanking you for reading today’s post. Stay classy, my friends!