Thoughts on Coming Apart by Charles Murray
As much as Americans are divided by race, gender, and political ideology, Charles Murray makes a convincing case that a widening class divide could be leading to the end of the American project. Due in to selective breeding by those who attended elite universities and geographical isolation of those people into affluent zip codes, America's class divide has expressed itself not only in monetary terms, but also in a separation of cultures that spells disaster for the country. The decline of marriage, good jobs, and civic and religious community in America's lower class represents an aberration from the vision of the founding, and from Americas more equal past. In De Tocqueville's famous investigation into the way of life in America in the 1830s, he remarked about American's distinct lack of class divide, and their unique combination of political liberty with private virtue. While some had more than others, those that had less were not looked down upon, and did not look down upon themselves, because they possessed valuable things outside of money. These fundamental principle of American life continued into the 1960s, but in the late 20th century has took a surprising turn for the worse. America's upper class is increasingly isolated from the lower class in everything from television shows watched, to jobs worked, to voting patterns. Concentrated on the coasts and in the major cities, the new upper class is more of a traditional ruling class than existed in America in the past. As such, We are approaching a situation less like the America we once had, like that the founders envisioned. If we cannot return to a measure of egalitarianism, culturally, not monetarily, our coming apart could become a tearing apart, and ultimately a permanent separation.
By what measures is America coming apart? While Murray, for simplicity, delineates two groups in his analysis based on education and job-prestige, the actual factors he measures are (among others) marriage, joblessness, participation in civic and religious life, and happiness. To further simplify, he concentrates on whites ages 30-49 in most of the book. The time studied is 1960-2010, roughly when Murray published the 1st edition. The first four of the factors are shown to materially affect the last, happiness, in consistent ways across income divides. The reader will, perhaps, not be surprised to find that, for instance, a married couple, with high job satisfaction and high civic and religious participation, show the highest levels of happiness. The rub, then, is that while these factors affect happiness equally across incomes and education levels, they have rapidly deteriorated only in the lower class, while maintaining relative stability in the upper class. And while the upper class practices these values, and benefits from them, they are reluctant, due to the onset of moral relativism, to preach them to the lower classes and to the culture as a whole.
Murray's four main factors, marriage, jobs, crime, and civic and religious participation, are roughly tied to the four "founding virtues" of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. He then dedicates a chapter to the familiar quotations from the Founding Fathers that a moral and virtuous people are required to participate in the level of political freedom afforded us. The lesson is clear: if these factors cannot be improved, we will cease to be a people fit for self government, because we will lack to social capital to sustain us without a large bureaucratic state. In many ways, this process is well underway. As documented by many others, the decline in intermediary institutions of family, church, and the like, gives way to a political climate that only has room for the isolated individual and the Leviathan state.
Murray divides Americans into two groups, named Belmont and Fishtown. Belmont is the real name of an affluent suburb of Boston, while Fishtown is the real name of a white working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia. These two names are stand-ins for whites with college degrees and high prestige jobs (Belmont), and those with high school degrees or less and working class jobs (Fishtown). There is also a middle class that is in between, which Murray leaves out while telling us that their measures are in the middle across the board. It is also worth noting that, over the 50 years of Murray's data, the percentages of people in each group change. But let us leave the nuances of the statistics to Murray, who pains himself throughout the book and in several appendixes to account for this and other such factors, and proceed with the findings.
First, marriage. In 1960, 94% of people in "Belmont" were married, while 94% of people in Fishtown were married. This shows us one example of a strong cohesiveness in culture across class divide. While Americans had income disparity at this time, the traditional marriage was still the overwhelming backbone in society. Divorce in both groups was under 6%. The percentage of children living with a single parent in both groups was under 4%. Fast forward to 2010: the marriage rate has declined to 83% in Belmont, but declined to 48% in Fishtown. The statistics above are for whites ages 30-49, as most of the statistics in the book are. Next, jobs. The percentage of Belmont whos head of household worked 40 or more hours in the preceding week remained around 90% from 1960-2010, but the percentage declined from 81 to 60 percent. At the same time, the percentage of people filing for disability rose from under 1% to over 5% during the same time. Murray sees both statistics as showing a lack of one of the founding virtues, industriousness, which make up the fabric of a functional society. Thirdly, increases in crime and bankruptcy were shown to disproportionately affect the lower class. Lastly, and to me, most importantly (along with marriage), religious participation. The number of non-believers is raising in both classes. The number of regular attendees to religious services is declining in both classes. However, these statistics are accelerating even faster in Fishtown. The number of regular attendees to religious services in now under 25% in both classes, and around 15% in Fishtown. In 1960, the classes were relatively close in all measures of social capital, they have divided sharply ever since. Murray argues that the combination of the above factors may represent a point of no return. Without a base of strong marriages and churches to form a community, how will the values that underlie these institutions, and convince others to join them, be propagated?
What can we say about the quantitative conclusions of this book? The trends that Murray examines have no doubt continued since 2010 when the book was finished. Intuitively, we recognize these trends in the way the ruling class treats the working class, especially the white working class. Their contempt for the "deplorables" is well known by both sides. The most interesting question, which Murray only briefly addresses, are the causes for these social problems. Murray, bravely, tells us feminism, birth control, easy divorce, globalism, and the welfare state have all contributed to the loss of jobs and social decay. In some cases these trends build on each other. Single parents have less time for church and civic engagement than others. Men without jobs are less likely to be married. The lack of genuine practice of the Christian religion contributes to the cultural rot, and is pushed incessantly upon the lower class by the upper through the influence of mass media.
As always, the problems are easier to identify than the solutions. But social trends do not have to be indicative of any particular. That is why they are statistics, and you are a human being. We can all make choices to get and stay married, pursue a relationship with God, and engage in our communities. To the extent that we all do this, and help others to do the same, regardless of class, we can reverse these trends. While I cannot guarantee that well paid jobs will once again be proliferated throughout society, or that the onslaught of filthy T.V. shows will stop, I can guarantee that every Christian has a moral duty to say "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord", and that every person will stand before God and give an account of the extent to which he has so done.