Category: Series: Social Indicators
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Crime (Part 1)
SOCIAL INDICATORS 2006 Crime (Part 1) A fundamental indicator of a deteriorating society is increased criminal behavior. Crime analysis in the United States has focused on two primary measures over the last few decades. One measure is based on crimes reported to law enforcement officers. These are compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and…
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Suicide
SOCIAL INIDCATORS 2006 Suicide The ultimate pathology is suicide. Suicide should be on the increase in a society that is in decline. Due to the stresses and strains of decaying society, people whose mental health is at risk should increasingly be pushed over the edge. What is happening with suicide in the United States? The…
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Infant Mortality and Life Expectancy
SOCIAL INDICATORS 2006 Infant Mortality and Life Expectancy Several factors contribute to having a high quality of life. These include safe environments, adequate diet, adequate health care, sufficient education, adequate financial resources, nurturing families and communities, to name just a few. Some measures tell us about each of these variables, but demographers tend to start…
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Social Indicators 2006
Is America in decline? Is society coming apart? This is a question I have heard people raise several times in recent conversations about American society. On more than one occasion, I have heard comparisons made to the moral decay and fall of the Roman Empire. Frankly, I think most of us suffer from a parochialism…
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Social Indicators: Indexed and Rated
Any economist, sociologist, or other person who quantifies human behavior knows the mantra: “It’s easy to lie with statistics.” True. But it is even easier to lie without them! Quantified observations are a good place to start a conversation about social forces at work in the culture. Over the past three weeks, I have written…
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Social Indicators: Global Warming and Environment
There is a long history of environmentalism in American life. Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872. The Audubon Society, formed in 1905, was one of the earliest environmental groups. President Teddy Roosevelt (1901-1909) was probably the first "environmental president" with his conservationist policies. More modern environmental groups can be traced to events like the…
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Social Indicators: Ethnicity
I have avoided giving an extensive analysis of subgroups within American culture during this series on social indicators. I have been focused on trends at the most aggregate level. However, one measure of the quality of life for the whole society is the degree to which each person has an opportunity for a quality of…
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Social Indicators: Economic Status (Part 2 of 2)
[Continued from Social Indicators: Economic Status (Part 1 of 2)] The Gini Index is a measure of income inequality. The index ranks income distributions from 0 to 1, where 0 equals equality, and 1 equals inequality. Gini indexes had been calculated for families from 1947 to the present in the US. However, household income is…
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Social Indicators: Economic Status (Part 1 of 2)
Economic status is usually cast in terms of income and wealth. When discussing economic justice, we typically have one of two things in mind. First, we ask if each person has sufficient resources to live on. Second, we are asking how income and wealth are distributed throughout society. Is it concentrated in the hands of…
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Social Indicators: Education
Education is critical for societies with complex modern economic systems. However, measuring the quality of education over time is difficult. As the economy and society become more complex, so do educational needs. As the rate of technology change increases, some jobs disappear, and others are created. Workers must be more adaptable than ever before and…