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Annual Editions: Social Problems, 40/e
Preface
1. The American Narrative: Is There One & What Is It?, William H. Chafe, Daedalus, 2012.
William H. Chafe shows that America has two major moral premises from the early Puritans until today: serving the public good and individual freedom. These more or less balance each other and over the long run serve us well. The current drive to undo the programs that assist the needy including social security and Medicare may destroy that balance if unchecked and weaken the country.
2. Nice Places Finish First: The Economic Returns of Civic Virtue, John M. Bridgeland and Alan Khazei, Washington Monthly, 2013.
The authors are concerned about the substantial loss of upward social mobility in America. In the past America lead the world in social mobility but now trails several countries. High levels of social mobility are associated with high levels of civic virtue which is working with others for the public good, and civic virtue is related to economic benefits.
3. Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? , Stephen Marche, The Atlantic, 2012.
Marche provides an extensive analysis of loneliness and its linkage with social media. Isolation was increasing before widespread social media, but social media, which is designed to better connect us, has decreased our connections with family and close friends on average and increased our loneliness. The current epidemic of loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill and harming our society.
4. The Rule of the Rich, Bill Moyers, The Progressive, 2011.
All sociologists to some extent accept the power elite theory that the economic elite have inordinate influence over the political system. Bill Moyers presents a cogent version of this thesis and shows how this power structure adversely affects society and so many lower groups.
5. Finding the Common Good in an Era of Dysfunctional Governance, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, Daedalus, 2013.
According to the authors the constitution was created to give government a big role in protecting liberty and well-being. To achieve this they divided powers, involved debate, and provided oversight to minimize corruption. America has moved away from these principles and is now too divided and has become incapable of properly governing. Much has to change if the common good is to be provided by our government.
6. End of Welfare as I Knew It, Diana Spatz, The Nation, 2012.
The new welfare law in 1996 was praised for lowering welfare rolls and pushing many into the job market. It also had its negative side, which Diana Spatz presents. In many places it was administered badly and unjustly. Some of the people who were dropped should not have been.
7. Predatory Capitalism: Old Trends and New Realities, C. J. Polychroniou, Truthout, 2014.
The present capitalist system is harmful to the interests of most people, dangerous to democracy, contrary to American values, and detrimental to the environment. Capitalism is expansionistic and creates greater wealth for its owners but keeps basic wages low. It is excellent for causing economic growth but also accelerates the concentration and centralization of capital and the dominance of finance capital. Add globalization and neoliberalism ideology and the result is predatory capitalism.
8. The Bargain at the Heart of our Economy Is Coming Apart, Barack Obama, Vital Speeches of the Day, 2014.
Barack Obama points out how much Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, laws supporting opportunities and civil rights, and other Great Society laws helped build the middle class. In the last 35 years, however, the social contract that supported these changes began to unravel. Businesses reduced jobs at home doing more with less and shipped jobs abroad. Workers lost power and the owners gained resulting shockingly high inequality and the shrinking of opportunity. Something must be done to reverse some of these trends and Obama offers his plans.
9. The Plight of the U.S. Working Class, Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Report, 2014.
The authors analyze the nature of capitalism and review the evolution of capitalism over the last century. It has engaged in class warfare against the workers keeping wages low and capturing almost all of the gains from increased productivity. It is responsible for the vast increase in inequality in America and thus increasing the relative poverty and economic dependency of the workers. Financialization has temporarily lessened stagnation and increased wealth at the top but is creating long run economic instability. This trend must be reversed.
10. Urban Legends, Joel Kotkin, Foreign Policy, 2010.
Joel Kotkin claims that the theory that megacities are the wave of the future is an urban legend. The truth is that vibrant smaller cities, suburbs, and towns are the wave of the future because at some point centralization is dysfunctional and small cities and suburbs operate at a more humane scale.
11. America’s Immigration Policy Fiasco: Learning from Past Mistakes, Douglas S. Massey, Daedalus, 2013.
America tried to almost stop Latin American immigration but failed and the Latino population grew faster than expected. Mass illegality makes immigration policy almost impossible to enact and the integration of legal Latino immigrants difficult to accomplish. The emphasis today is on controlling the borders, creating a sizeable guest worker program, and creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented U.S. residents. Some progress has been made. Since 2008 illegal immigration is net zero.
12. Overwhelming Evidence that Half of America is In or Near Poverty, Paul Buchheit, Alternet, 2014.
How widespread is poverty in America? Analysts disagree on the definition and extent of poverty. There are many different ways to define poverty. Some would say that America's poor are rich compared to the developing world. Others say that the official poverty rate is too low because the basket of goods on which it is based is not suited to today. Paul Buchheit argues that almost half of Americans should be considered poor. Almost half have no savings. He also observes that the safety net is a big help in lowering poverty rates.
13. The Impact of Globalization on Income and Employment: The Downside of Integrating Markets, Michael Spence, Foreign Affairs, 2011.
Everyone knows that the American economy is in trouble from competition with developing countries. Michael Spence details the impacts and explains the current trends. His conclusion is that the American economy is in serious trouble for the foreseeable future.
14. The Myth of the "Culture of Poverty", Paul Gorski, Educational Leadership, 2008.
The culture of poverty myth accuses the poor of having beliefs, values, and behaviors that prevent them from achieving. Thus their failure is their fault. This myth must be challenged. Most poor people do have the work ethic, value education, and other characteristics which contradict the culture of poverty myth. Opportunity structures play a big role in poverty.
15. Somewhere between Jim Crow & Post-Racialism: Reflections on the Racial Divide in America Today, Lawrence D. Bobo, Daedalus, 2011.
Lawrence Bobo explains that even with all of the progress that has been made in race relations over the years, we still "stand somewhere between a Jim Crow past and the aspirations of a post-racial future."
16. Black Pathology and the Closing of the Progressive Mind, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, 2014.
Ta-Nehisi Coates acknowledges that the cultural argument against Blacks is still prevalent. The conservative version leaves out the role of white supremacy and is theoretically weak. The liberal version notes that structural conditions shape the Black culture which then is responsible for Black shortcomings. The structural conditions can be labeled white supremacy. Coates examines the facts and finds a strong Black culture that highly regarded family life and education when possible. Conditions have changed but white supremacy is still strong.
17. Fear and Loathing of Islam, Moustafa Bayoumi, The Nation, 2012.
Ever since 9/11 American Arabs and Muslims have become an outcast group even though they were very well integrated into American society. Many untrue, terrible stories about Muslims are spreading like wildfire through talk-radio, the internet, and other media that have little regard for the facts. Actually Arab Americans have had an exemplary record as good, patriotic, and successful Americans.
18. Why Women Still Can't Have It All, Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Atlantic, 2012.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and formerly dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, explains why Sandberg is wrong and women cannot successfully pursue career and family at the same time. They must decide which to do well and which to do adequately but not avidly.
19. Human Sex Trafficking, Amanda Walker-Rodriguez and Rodney Hill, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 2011.
The United States not only faces an influx of international victims but also has its own homegrown problem of interstate sex trafficking of minors. Among the children and teens living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion.
20. Free and Equal in Dignity and LGBT Rights, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Speech or Remarks, 2011.
Hillary Clinton gave this speech on the international Human Rights Day proclaiming, as did the United Nations in 1948, that all human beings are born free and equal in human rights regardless of whether governments recognize them. She reports on the wonderful advances minorities and women have on these rights and then supports the increasing demands of LGBT demands for them. She also attempts to deal with objections to LGBT rights.
21. Do Boys Face more Sexism than Girls? , Christina Hoff Sommers, Huffington Post, 2013.
Christina Hoff Sommers focuses on how boys and girls are treated in school. She shows the many ways that the school experience is more unsuitable for boys than girls. It involves unsuitable structure, treatment, attitudes, incentives, judgments, and culture. It is time to improve the treatment of schoolboys without mistreating schoolgirls.
22. Hey Parents Leave Those Kids Alone, Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 2014.
Hanna Rosin challenges current parenting practice as overprotective and stifling children's venturesomness and creativity. The emphasis on children's safety has reduced their independence, risk-taking, and discovery. Since injury rates have not fallen the overprotection does not seem to have accomplished its main goal. Child rearing practices changed because of widely reported accidents. This is understandable but Rosin believes that the development of children has suffered so parents should leave their children alone.
23. Myths and Reality about U.S. Higher Education, Richard Ekman, Vital Speeches of the Day, 2013.
Some myths that Richard Ekman refutes are that college costs too much and are bad investments, student debt has increased greatly, private colleges are way too expensive, most financial aid does not go to the neediest students, and liberal arts m majors do not get jobs. Some of the trends that support these myths have greatly expanded community colleges so average college costs have not risen. Many other adaptations to new economic conditions lead to surprising overall outcomes.
24. Is $600 Billion Enough?, Peter W. Cookson Jr., Washington Monthly, 2011.
Peter W. Cookson Jr. envisions improving schools without increasing costs. Money is not the answer. National per pupil expenditures have doubled since 1970 without improving performance. The answer is new technology that cuts costs while improving learning. New technologies will customize students’ learning so that each student will have an individualized program with frequent testing and revision to boost weak areas. The program will be designed to create interest and excitement.
25. A Thousand Years Young, Aubrey de Grey, The Futurist, 2012.
How would you like to live a thousand years? Aubrey de Grey says that advances in medical and biochemical treatments can overcome the aging process and keep us young for many centuries.
26. Bold Steps to Reform and Strengthen American’s Criminal Justice System, Eric Holder, Vital Speeches of the Day, 2013.
Eric Holder calls for justice for all Americans which requires many changes in the justice system. Issues to be addressed include gun violence, human trafficking, spikes in violence, assisting victims, war on drugs, rape on campuses, and an unnecessarily large prison population. He says about prisons that "too many Americans go to many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason." He calls for new approaches in many of these areas and identifies many programs that are working in some states and communities that deserve wider emulation.
27. This Man Was Sentenced to Die in Prison for Shoplifting a $159 Jacket, Ed Pilkington, Alternet, 2013.
Timothy Jackson was caught shoplifting a jacket and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has already served 16 years. He is used by the author to prove that the criminal justice system in many parts of the United States is too punitive. There are 3281 people incarcerated for life in America for non-violent crimes. One was sentenced to die in prison for siphoning gas from a truck. The point of the article is that some laws and some judicial judgments are crazy but the law is the law so petty criminals die in prison. Change is needed.
28. Crime, Inequality & Social Justice, Glenn C. Loury, Daedalus, 2010.
Glenn C. Loury writes an introduction to a Daedalus issue on crime and punishment and summarizes its contents. It covers the high imprison rates, the racial disparity in imprisonment, and the many impacts of the current judicial system. Although blacks and whites use and sell drugs at similar rates, blacks are imprisoned at much higher rates. Other issues are discussed but the bottom line is that there is much injustice in U.S. justice.
29. Wrongful Convictions, Radley Balko, Reason Magazine, 2011.
Since 1989, DNA testing has free d268 people who were convicted of crimes they did not commit. Seventeen had been sentenced to death. The average exonerate served 13 years in prison he or she was freed and only about half of the people exonerated by DNA have been compensated at all.
30. License to Kill, Adam Weinstein, Mother Jones, 2012.
This article is about the Stand your Ground law, which contributed to the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. It reveals the pro-gun forces that got the law passed in Florida and similar laws in 25 states. In states with these laws the justified homicides have doubled.
31. Toward Fewer Prisoners and Less Crime, Mark A. R. Kleiman, Daedalus, 2010.
Mark A. R. Kleiman analyzes the consequences for the United States of our high incarceration rate and concludes that they are negative. Incarceration has negligible effects on reducing crime. If we reduced incarceration, we would actually reduce crime and strengthen society in several ways.
32. The Year in Hate and Extremism, 2010, Mark Potok, Intelligence Report, 2011.
This article demonstrates the recent substantial increase in hate groups and extremist ideas.
33. War in the Fifth Domain, The Economist, 2010.
The possibilities of cyber warfare are frightening. Cyberterrorists could cause financial chaos costing trillions, screw up electrical grids, or widely infect military hardware. Worst case scenarios include oil refineries and pipelines exploding; air-traffic-control systems collapsing; orbiting satellites spinning out of control, major corporations being hacked to death, and the Internet being crippled. Society could soon break down as food becomes scarce and money runs out. Protection from these attacks is extremely difficult.
34. Low Tech Terrorism, Bruce Hoffman, The National Interest, 2014.
This article is a rather extensive assessment of all (despite the title) current terrorist threats to America. Fortunately terrorists have not yet acquired and successfully set off a weapon of mass destruction though they have tried. The article extensively reviews Al Qaeda's and other terrorist groups' considerable efforts to acquire such weapons and their failure. As a result most terrorism is by guns and bombs.
35. Happy Planet, Robert Adler, New Scientist, 2014.
The current state of the planet is very good and very bad. The current economic systems have lifted billions out of poverty and created great affluence and economic growth. They have also created too much CO2, cleared too much land, overfished the oceans, and reduced biodiversity. Robert Adler points out that continuing on our current path has considerable risks. We must live within nature's limits. He reviews many proposals and predictions and presents his vision of a sustainable world which he thinks could be a happy planet.
36. The New Population Bomb: The Four Megatrends That Will Change the World, Jack A. Goldstone, Foreign Affairs, 2010.
Over the next forty years, the relative demographic weight of the world’s developed countries will significantly drop as their workforce ages and numerically declines. Most of the world’s population growth will be concentrated in the poorest countries. At the same time most of the world’s population will become urbanized. These four trends have significant political and economic consequences.
37. The New Geopolitics of Food, Lester R. Brown, Foreign Policy, 2011.
Food prices have continued to climb, affecting the world’s poor in particular. The upward trend in food prices is being driven by factors that make it more difficult to increase production, including an expanding world population and demand, climate change, and water scarcity due to the depletion of aquifers. With the most agriculturally advanced countries nearing the limits of production, and other countries restricting exports, wealthier countries have turned to land acquisitions in poor countries.
38. Conservative Climate Panel Warns World Faces 'Breakdown of Food System' and More Violent Conflict, Joe Romm, Climate Progress, 2014.
Joe Romm reviews the recent report of IPCC and highlights its more scary findings and implications. The IPCC report is freely available on the web. It is thorough, reliable, exhaustive, authoritative, and detailed but lifeless. Romm selects the juicier observations of the IPCC report to point out challenging some of the conclusions are. If appropriate changes are not made the future could be terrible.
39. The Moral Case for Designer Babies, Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine, 2014.
The issue of how much Parents should determine the characteristics of their children is a moral issue and Ronald Bailey argues for maximum options for parents. Surly they would want to prevent high susceptibility to life threatening diseases by gene replacement. How about height, strength, attractiveness, intelligence and other positive characteristics if they could be genetically engineered? Some people do not want to step into God's domain of forming people but not Bailey.
40. How Innovation Could Save the Planet, Ramaz Naam, Futurist, 2013.
Ramez Naam points first to the great progress the world's population has made in prosperity and health. Then he points to a bevy of environmental problems that the abundant production has caused and the potential crises that they may produce. Ideas, however, are the great resource expander, resource preserver, and waste reducer so ideas and innovation will lead to a wealthier and cleaner future.
41. Annual Report Card on Our Future, Rick Docksai, Futurist, 2014.
This article summarizes the 2013-14 report on the State of the Future by the Millennial Project. In general living standards and health are improving despite environmental deterioration and serious problems with poor governance, political corruption, crime, and violence. Fifteen empirical indicators are examined over time for this report card.
42. The Unruled World, Stewart Patrick, Foreign Affairs, 2014.
Stewart Patrick is a realist who sees the world as badly ruled and governance will not be improved very much around the world. The lesson is that we need "good enough governance." The international institutions and aid agencies and organizations should focus on the minimal institutional requirements for progress and not try to correct everything. High ambitions lead to failure while pursuing "good enough" might work.
43. The Future of History: Can Liberal Democracy Survive the Decline of the Middle Class? , Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs, 2012.
This article examines the rise of China, inequality in the United States, and the Tea Party populist movement. The author questions why the political left has lacked an effective ideology and doctrine in response to the on-going aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis.
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