Have Things Improved Too Much?

What will Judge Robert Bork do now that social conditions have improved? Rather than "Slouching toward Gomorah" we are slouching toward continued economic growth. Even with periodic market adjustments on Wall Street, we enjoy full employment with no inflation.

Americans have put on happy faces. Between 1992 and 1998, according to the Market Data Group run by the Wall Street Journal, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by a factor of 2.9. During the same period of time, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons tells us that the number of cosmetic surgeries increased by a factor of 2.5. As our social statistics show fewer wrinkles, so do we as a people.

But, have conditions improved too much for neo-conservatives? Can they tolerate a nation not falling apart? What will egg-headed liberals complain about now that capitalism has made us whole again? How will Tammy Faye Bakker make a comeback?

The one thing we could always count on to scare the masses — crime — has let us down. Violent crime has dropped for eight consecutive years, according to FBI data. Reality television screens the same criminal profiles. With statistics down, producers don’t have enough crime files to bloat their schedules. According to the FBI, the most recent seven percent drop in serious crime is the longest running decline on record. The murder rate is at a 33-year low. Figures for robbery, aggravated assault, and rape are all down. In a Charles Dickens’ sort of way, these must be the "worst of times" for neo-cons who have made careers and fortunes, railing against culture and the slow disintegration of Western Civilization. It can be no better for liberal factions convinced that economic growth is the devil.

We get no kick from cocaine. According to National Institutes of Health, there are 62% fewer cocaine users in the U.S. since 1979, when Jimmy Carter’s "malaise" afflicted the land. Even with drug use figures no longer high as a kite, we fight the Drug War over and over. Without the external enemy of Communism, we zero in on domestic demons. In Texas this year, a prison sentence for theft of a candy bar was 550 days longer than for marijuana possession, according to the Smith County District Attorney’s office in Tyler.

In the war against drugs, teens are heeding the message. A recently released government report shows that, for 1999, more American teen-agers continued to reject the use of illegal drugs for the second year in a row, reversing an upward trend that began in 1992. "This year’s survey definitely shows that we’ve not only turned the corner — we’re heading for home plate," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, upon release of the report that indicates that 14.8 million Americans were using illegal drugs in 1999. That’s a smaller number of drug users than either neo-cons or liberals would guess on a quiz show. Illicit drug use among the general population ranged from a low of 4.7% in Virginia to a high of 10.7% in Alaska. Six of the 10 states with the highest rates were in the Western region, and eight of the 10 states with the lowest rates were in the South.

Shalala’s survey also estimates that 66.8 million Americans used a tobacco product in 1999, and about 105 million used alcohol at least once during the 30 days prior to their interview. The prevalence of alcohol abuse was highest in the Northern states and the Midwest region, while the use of tobacco products was more prevalent in the South. Despite Penn State (and Bloomsburg University and other institutions), college drinking isn’t what it used to be. Binge drinking, which is considered five or more drinks on a single occasion for men and four for women, often develops in high school. The problem of binge drinking appears worse than it is because of how the behavior develops. For example, those who binge drink as teen-agers are more likely to continue into their college years, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In short, as is the case with drug use, those who start binge drinking early continue, but that’s not all college students. Interestingly enough, being white, in a fraternity or sorority, or an athlete, also increases one’s chances of over-indulgence.

With education morphing into an election buzzword, and enough voucher remedies to fill a school library, educational reform remains on center stage. Yet consider this: according to the College Board, the organization that administers the test, SAT scores for kids schooled at home is only 81 points higher than children taught in public schools.

Teen pregnancy and teen births have been steadily declining since the early ’90s — led first by less sex, then followed by more contraception. True, four out of 10 girls still get pregnant at least once before age 20 in this country, according to Planned Parenthood. Although an improvement, the U.S. still has the highest rates of both teen pregnancy and birth of any industrialized country.