The Social Health of the Nation: How America is Really Doing

Concerned with more than the Dow and the GDP, the Fordham Index of Social Health aims to provide a more humanitarian picture of the social and economic dimensions of American life. Measuring the nation's health by examining such key pulse points as child abuse, drug use and income inequality, the index was developed in 1987 by the Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy, which coauthor Marc Miringoff founded and directs; Marque-Luisa Miringoff is a Vassar sociology professor. The index findings are by turns depressingly familiar and jolting. Among them: one in every five children in the U.S. lives in poverty; violent crime is almost double what it was in 1970; youth suicide rates have tripled since 1950; the gap between America's rich and poor has widened steadily; and middle-class economic security is increasingly precarious. Although infant mortality is at a historic low, the rate among blacks is double that among whites. White and black high-school students have made notable strides in completing school, yet Hispanic dropout rates are soaring. The U.S. compares unfavorably with most other industrialized nations not only in high-school graduation rates but in poverty among the elderly, teenage births and lack of health insurance. Descriptive rather than prescriptive, this report offers powerful evidence of the nation's skimpy investment in human capital and should be required reading among every public policymaker in a position to act on its immensely valuable insights. (July)