Arkady
President
Ever since Clinton left office (and before he came to office for a couple decades) poverty has been rising in America. The conservative tendency is to blame the poor, and by way of them, the government, for having created a dysfunctional culture among the poor. Essentially, the argument is that poor people are poor because they behave badly, and government support enables and even supports that bad behavior. But, among several problems with that argument, is the fact that the behavior of people has actually been improving, during this era of rising poverty:
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/americans-are-better-behaved-than-ever.html
This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone here, since we've posted about a lot of these trends. But, it runs so counter to the conservative narrative of moral decline that it bears repeating. Crime is actually way down, with murder rates being down to levels only seen in a half dozen years over the last century or more. When it comes to serious violent crime, we're living in an "Ozzie and Harriet" culture.
We have also hit an all-time record low for teen pregnancy. Dropout rates are also at an all-time low while college education continues to rise. And educational performance continues to rise, as measured by standardized tests, especially among minorities. Most forms of substance abuse have become less common, too, with a gigantic drop in smoking.
So, it's as if the poor and middle class are trying harder and harder to "play by the rules," and yet the game is increasingly stacked against them. Despite continually rising real GDP per capita (more wealth to go around), the cut taken by the rich just keeps growing, leaving more people to slip below the poverty line.
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/americans-are-better-behaved-than-ever.html
This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone here, since we've posted about a lot of these trends. But, it runs so counter to the conservative narrative of moral decline that it bears repeating. Crime is actually way down, with murder rates being down to levels only seen in a half dozen years over the last century or more. When it comes to serious violent crime, we're living in an "Ozzie and Harriet" culture.
We have also hit an all-time record low for teen pregnancy. Dropout rates are also at an all-time low while college education continues to rise. And educational performance continues to rise, as measured by standardized tests, especially among minorities. Most forms of substance abuse have become less common, too, with a gigantic drop in smoking.
So, it's as if the poor and middle class are trying harder and harder to "play by the rules," and yet the game is increasingly stacked against them. Despite continually rising real GDP per capita (more wealth to go around), the cut taken by the rich just keeps growing, leaving more people to slip below the poverty line.