Author : Charles A. Murray
Publisher : American Enterprise Institute
ISBN 13 : 9780844771311
Total Pages : 60 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (713 download)
Book Synopsis The Underclass Revisited by : Charles A. Murray
Download or read book The Underclass Revisited written by Charles A. Murray and published by American Enterprise Institute. This book was released on 1999 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Murray examines the current state of the underclass, which he defines as the population cut off from mainstream American life not because they are poor, but because of their problematic relationships with productive work, family, crime and community. He examines statistics on three 'markers' of underclass status - illegitimacy, criminality, and the dropout rate from the labor force - for four checkpoints from 1954 to 1997, and concludes that even at a time when many general and social indicators appear encouraging, nothing really changed for the underclass. They have disappeared from the national radar screen because they have been simultaneously subsidized and walled off through a growing use of 'custodial democracy', but Murray questions the ability of the U.S. to retain its political and social culture in the presence of a permanent - and possibly growing - underclass.