Original Link: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/07/19/18517765.php
A new study released Wednesday, entitled The Measure of America, provides a wealth of data demonstrating the profound and deepening social decay of the United States. Commissioned by the Oxfam charity and several foundations, and published by Columbia University Press, the report documents, using government figures, the dramatic decline of American society relative to other advanced industrialized countries and the mounting social disparities within the US.
The study takes the methodology employed by the United Nations Development Report, widely recognized for its insights into the social conditions of less developed countries, and applies it for the first time to the study of an advanced country. The result is a portrait of America that shows much of the countrys population living in conditions that are closer to the Third World than to the American Dream.
The report analyzes figures provided by the US Bureau of the Census in its 2005 census of economic and social conditions. It thus lags significantly behind the actual deterioration in conditions of life, since the census was taken before the collapse of the sub-prime housing market and the ensuing plunge of the US economy into recession. A report based on todays conditions would be even bleaker.
The three social scientists who prepared the study constructed an American Human Development Index which includes both median income figures and data relating to health, life expectancy and access to knowledge (school enrollment and the proportion of the population with college and professional degrees.) The result is a broader picture of social conditions than would be provided by a purely economic analysis.
Read More: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/
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