At a time when Americans say that the country is undergoing great upheaval, people are clear about the concerns they believe must be addressed: a quicksand economy and disintegrating families and values.
If politicians, pundits, news media, and others want to understand the public's concerns, they should listen intently to these citizen voices. But they must be careful about what they listen for. The neatly-packaged election-year labels, such as family values, tax cuts, welfare reform, and bad schools are dangerously superficial and misleading. They do not reflect the depth or complexity of people's concerns.
Indeed, it is the shifting nature of America and the implications of those shifts that trouble people most. Many Americans believe that their basic sense of fairness is being violated, and they reject the notion that there are solutions with easy answers.
People see their sense of economic opportunity and security slipping away both at the same time. They feel that slowly but surely they are being overwhelmed by a shift in the economy, as if they are caught in a kind of economic quicksand.
Some people face imminent danger and are grasping for help; for others, the danger lurks, but they are just not sure when it will come.
"I have to work twice as hard to get by," is how a San Diego woman summed up her feelings about the current economy. People looked around and said that the good-paying jobs they once held are gone. In their place are low-skill, low-paying, low-benefit positions. One Des Moines man said, "You can talk about jobs, but when you talk about good-paying jobs, that is a different story." A Tallahassee woman said with a sense of exasperation, "It's very disheartening...four or five years getting yourself through school and you get out and, especially women, you find yourself doing secretarial work."
People were frustrated that both parents are now forced to work to make ends meet.
"Why do my wife and I have to work in order to be able to have a decent living?" a Tallahassee man asked. A Modesto woman, talking about rising prices and the pressures on families, observed: "They raised everything to the point where now [women] don't have a choice -- the mother has to work to make ends meet." And people said single parents have it particularly rough in this changing economy. Remarked one single mother from the Tallahassee conversation, "I am a single parent supporting two children on less that $12,000 a year. I work two jobs...not from luxury, but from necessity."
People said that as Americans struggle to keep up, they have less time for their children and families. A Mason City woman made this observation: "There's a lot of people out there that's got to have two, three jobs to make it...That is why the family is breaking down." A Jacksonville man argued, "It would be nice to have a wife who had a baby or kid that could spend the first couple of years at home. But society won't let us do that. It penalizes you... You have to work to stay ahead." And a Claremont woman, speaking about how the struggle to make ends meet affects children, said, "With two people having to work in a family...they don't have the energy to bring about values."
The current economic situation is preventing many people from fulfilling their aspirations to work. A Jacksonville man asserted that people want to work, but have difficulty finding the right job. "Put us back to work," he stated, "but not at McDonald s." For many Americans, it is not easy to keep pace. "It's just a day-to-day... struggle to survive," a Claremont woman said sadly. Remarked an Orlando woman, "Every time you take two steps, you get knocked back."
Many discussion participants blamed corporate leaders for helping to create these problems. "Corporations had more of a social conscience at one time. Now it s just purely profit, asserted a San Francisco man." A Jacksonville man said, "Big business keeps trying to get fatter and fatter and fatter!" And an angry Nashua man made this observation: "They're going to go to any area where they can maximize their profit."
Many Americans feel that the social compact they thought existed between employers and workers has been broken. "You come to work thinking you have a job, and in the next two minutes you're on your way home without a job," a San Francisco woman observed. Many people were now uncertain about their future, scared about what is in store for them. As a Miami woman remarked, "When I was hired for the phone company I thought, This is it! I'm going to retire with this company. Now I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow." And a San Francisco man told the following story: "They came to me and said, 'Will you please retire. You're making too much money and we don't want to keep you anymore.' It destroyed me as far as caring about what happened to General Electric." His situation led him to conclude about corporations, "They're out to screw their employees."
"In our discussions, people talked about how corporations have increased profits at the same time as they announced layoffs or cut worker benefits. A lot of big companies they cut back," said a Jacksonville woman. "What do they hire? Part-timers, no benefits." And a San Francisco man pointed out, "This is the trend right now... try to get rid of all permanent employees because of the health plan... [Then] find temporary employees." A Miami man said, "Most of your jobs today, people want to pay part-time...so they don't have to pay the benefits." People's frustration about this situation could be heard in the voice of this Tallahassee man who said, "Commission-type jobs with no benefits... that's what they're offering nowadays." But to get enough commissions to make ends meet, he exclaimed, "It's like you have to make more money than God."
Meanwhile, people said that as their pay has been going down, the pay of corporate executives has been going up. "I went four years without a cost of living raise," an Orlando woman started to say, "the bosses all got it. But the people doing the work, we never saw it... Everything around us taxes went up, your house mortgage went up, everything...but you never got compensated to help balance you out."
A Tallahassee man summed up people's sense that something is out of whack in the way American business operates when he said, "We've had this idea of free enterprise that there is a balance. People will make a certain amount of profit, they will be satisfied with that profit, and reinvest." But he continued to say that such an idea was now dead. "We've seen that more often than not [executives] will be eating until they explode, and their company falls to pieces."
People said that current corporate practices made them wonder how America could build a world-class economy for the future. "You cannot develop as a nation without developing methods, new products, and technology in general," a Nashua man asserted. "I mean, you're gonna die eventually." Echoing this view, a Tampa woman said, "We're not retraining the country to think ahead into the future." The result: "There is a lot of opportunity there that we're missing," a Nashua man pointed out.
Much as people felt betrayed by corporate managers, they were exasperated by a tax system that they said violates their basic sense of fairness. Most people in the group discussions believed that in America, the richer you are, the less you pay in taxes. A Des Moines man sounded this common theme from the group discussions: "It annoys me that you have got somebody out there making ten times what I make and paying less [taxes] than I am." And a Nashua man said, "A lot of people aren't privileged enough to be able to take advantage of loopholes. They have to pay more than their fair share," he said.
Many identified the people paying more than their fair share as America's middle class. A Nashua man remarked, "The middle class has taken the burden of the taxes." And a Mason City man said, "The middle class pays way too much."
Linked to people's frustration about taxes was a belief that government misspends their hard-earned tax dollars. A San Diego man said of government spending, "Priorities are distorted." A Los Angeles woman asserted, "The money is going into the wrong places. It's become kind of a warped society." And a Laconia man said, "The federal government has grown so huge... [it's] out of control." He then stated with frustration, "They have abandoned what they really should be doing."
Current conditions have led people to bristle at calls for substantial cuts in government spending or tax increases. People were inherently suspicious of such changes, believing that they will be had once again. "They always cut at the bottom, they never cut at the top, complained a Los Angeles man." An Orlando man angrily put it this way: "They can't tell me I have to cut back when there's so many things they have to cut back first." He then continued, "Every time it comes from us, or our pocketbook."
Americans said that the nation was economically splitting in two. A Davenport man said, We re becoming more like a lot of foreign countries where there is an extreme upper class, and a lower class, and no middle class. A San Francisco woman remarked, We re going to be more like a Third World, with rich and poor and no in-between.
People said they see a widening of the income gap between the rich and middle class in America. Listen to the comments of this Des Moines woman. The difference...between what the guy in the field, or the guy in the production line, or the guy on the construction job makes, and what presidents of the companies make millions and millions of dollars that these people make. There is a great inequality there. Many participants said that they fear the middle class is vanishing. A Miami man put it this way, You We've only got two classes of people now the very rich and the working class.
People said that they wanted to find answers to these problems. But while many participants offered a specific solution or two, there was little agreement about what to do.
Clear tensions emerged as people wrestled with what they envision for America s future. People consistently seemed to focus on these tensions.
How should we think about the American Dream? I m starting to wonder if the American Dream still exists, said a Mason City man. For instance, he and others in the group discussions once believed the adage that if people worked hard, they would get ahead. Such rules no longer seem to apply.
Discussion participants suggested that maybe their expectations were too high about how much they can earn, or the lifestyle they could lead. They questioned if their children could ever have the same expectations that they held in earlier years. Said one Davenport man, There s no future for them. There s nothing there. No job. He then continued, The American Dream just doesn't t exist to them. While people still wanted to believe in the American Dream, they are struggling with how to define it as the nation changes.
What is the compact between employers and workers? Recall the San Francisco man who said, Corporations had more of a social conscience at one time. Now it s just purely profit. People believed that the balance between employers and workers is out of whack on pay, on benefits, on job security, on corporate America s commitment to American jobs.
People wondered what will replace the social compact they once took for granted. They wanted employers to have more loyalty to their employees and to America, yet wondered if that were possible in today s world.
What does it mean for sacrifices to be spread fairly and equitably? As conversations about tax issues and government spending unfolded, there was a clear tension about what fair sacrifice means. Said a Mason City woman, I don t think people mind paying their taxes if they know the rich are paying their fair share. And a Laconia man suggested, People are willing to get to the point where I I'll give up my program if everybody else gives up theirs.
But because people fundamentally felt that they have been had in the past, they were deeply suspicious of efforts to bring about fair sacrifice. Will those with more resources ante up? Will less-well-to-do Americans be stuck with the bill? Just what is fair sacrifice at a time when so many people feel that their sense of fairness has been violated?
How does society help those truly in need? Many in the group discussions struggled with how America can ensure public assistance to those who need it and get people to take responsibility for themselves. At the heart of this struggle was a deep sense of fairness juxtaposed with a desire that their hard-earned money be put to good use. They re raising our taxes and cutting out the programs that are really, really needed, a Los Angeles woman said. The children on AFDC and the old people are the ones that are the most vulnerable...and they re going to get cut. That s not fair, stated a San Francisco woman.
An Orlando woman said I have nothing against helping people, but let s not pay their way. And a Davenport man wrestled with this question when talking about people in need:
The homeless and the people who are starving, most of them need to help themselves. But that doesn't t mean that we should be turning our backs completely...But, on the other hand, some of those people know how to use the [system].
What can government realistically do? People believed that government should have a role in strengthening America s economy. But they were unsure about what that role should be, and how much they can realistically expect government to do. For instance, one Tallahassee woman called for stronger education. It goes back to education and restructuring what it is our kids need to survive in this global world. Talking about the need for government to play a role in the economy, a Mason City woman said, There has got to be some regulation. A Miami woman added, Every time they deregulate government, we get in trouble.
But there were just as many people who said that the key to reviving the economy is for the government to get out of the way. Jobs and employment are real high priorities, a Tallahassee woman started to say. I don t think the government can solve that problem. And a Mason City woman said, Government regulations...they re into everything, telling you ...how to do this, how to do that. She asserted that government intervention inevitably places a drain on people. The paperwork is pathetic.
Participants in our group discussions said that families and values the very core of American society are now disintegrating. Parents and communities spend less time with children, while faceless institutions, media messages of hate and violence, and an obsession with materialism fill the void.
People believed that America has lost its bearings. They found it hard to envision a bright future for the nation under current circumstances. They saw trouble ahead if America s course is not corrected.
To the people in these conversations, America must struggle with the fundamental issues raised by disintegrating families and values. While such issues often get reduced to neatly-packaged slogans during a campaign year, these issues are real and heartfelt to Americans. People are moved by them.
It s like the whole family structure isn't t there anymore, said an Orlando woman. Another woman from the same conversation added: The mom and dad that should be there with their kids... are too busy working two and three jobs to make ends meet.
Throughout our conversations, participants described America as a nation made up of parents stressed out by economic demands and focused on their own personal needs and too often their children get left behind. So much stress and so much happening we re going too fast today, a Laconia man observed. There isn't t the time to spend with the kid. And a Jacksonville man noted, What started the whole snowball is the fact that in order to make a living, both parents had to work. But, he added, Where are the children s controls?... he concluded by saying that the lack of controls has literally broken our society down.
Too many parents, people said, are missing from the daily routines of their children. The kids don t have a home anymore, one Des Moines man observed. And a Tallahassee man said, There is not support of the family around any more. Too many children are growing up without guidance. A man from Los Angeles said, We We've fractured ourselves so much from our own families. The result, according to this Modesto woman: Kids just run around loose. Nobody takes care of them.
Yet people said that many parents often were afraid any longer to control their own children, fearing that they would be reported to social workers by their child or next-door neighbors. A man from Jacksonville remarked, We have the HRS (Health & Rehabilitative Services) and you cannot correct your child without being thrown in jail. An Orlando woman told her group: There are cases, severe cases of child neglect that HRS knew about and these children died because HRS didn't t do anything about it. She continued, Then there s other parents who just barely spanked their kids...and those parents are separated from their children. A Laconia man asserted, A family should have the right to discipline.
People in virtually every discussion told their own stories about growing up and recounted that they saw adults daily on their way home from school, or at the local YMCA, or on the ball fields all of whom watched out for them and kept them in line. One Davenport woman said, When I was growing up...I had nine mothers. They all lived up and down my street. She continued, If someone saw me do something wrong, I got in trouble. A man from Modesto talked about the importance of having such an extended family. There was a time in this country when if the parents couldn't t make it, the grandparents stepped in, or the aunts and uncles stepped in. And a Davenport woman, referring to the street gangs of today, said Back then the gang was all the mothers on the street.
But people in the discussion groups decried what they have seen happening in their own community: that the community no longer helped to raise its children. Parents and kids were now on their own. Observed a Jacksonville woman, Before the family extended into the community. Now the community has shut the door and said, You take care of your own. I don t want to get into your business.
When challenged on why so many people have turned away, group participants were quick to point out that they were afraid to get into the business of children around them believing, as many parents do, that they would be accused of abuse or be chastened by a child s parent. The African proverb, It takes a whole village to raise a child, was mentioned in literally every group conducted for this study. But listen to the Orlando man who then continued after he made reference to that proverb, but we can t do that anymore... you could pull a child from in front of a moving vehicle and...you re going to get sued. A Jacksonville man said, Everybody s afraid of what the parents are going to do if you touch the child or even say something to the child.
Despite these trends, most people in the group discussions agreed with the comment of this Laconia man: It takes a community to raise a child, and that is probably more true today than it was.
Discussion participants were troubled by the extent to which Americans seem to rely on schools to raise their children. They saw similar trends emerging with parents sending their kids off to baby sitters, child care professionals, after-school program managers, and others. They were wrestling with the dilemmas that this situation presents.
People generally believed that Americans wrongly expect schools to be substitute parents. An Orlando woman remarked, Your kids are in schools and day-care and it s just like the whole family structure isn't t there anymore. And a Tampa woman complained, Everyone feels it s the schools responsibility to teach manners and good hygiene and sex and all of this. She said, They re just pushing it off on the schools. A Miami woman said about people s expectations of schools, A lot of parents really expect the teachers to teach them [values]. They think the teacher can do it all. It s not like that!
Still, many group participants argued that since so many adults were shirking their parental responsibilities, teachers had little choice but to fill the gap. An Orlando woman said about children, If they re not getting it at home, then it falls back on the system. And a Claremont woman argued, Schools have to take on a bigger responsibility. But what should the system do? One Des Moines woman said, Parents aren't t teaching their children responsibility. Then she continued, raising once again the fear of lawsuits, a lot of teachers... are scared to death to be a teacher. And a Miami man, talking about the ability of schools to make a difference, made this observation: You ve got to free teachers hands. You ve got to free the principals hands.
Yet many people in these discussions simply were not comfortable with schools filling in as surrogate parents. A Tallahassee woman remarked, What you feel is right for your child may not be the same as what I feel for my child. And a Nashua man said that parents should not be looking to the schools to do work that should be done elsewhere. Religion should be taught in church; morality should be taught at home. A Des Moines woman echoed this view, saying, You can t teach morals in schools. And a Tallahassee woman said with great passion in her voice: I created that child. She is mine to guide and nurture. It s nobody else s responsibility. It s not the school s responsibility.
Besides using schools and other places outside the home to raise their children, too many Americans, the participants said, were using television, movies, videos, and music to fill children s days and occupy their attention. A woman from Davenport asked, Aren't t we as parents sometimes sitting that kid down in front of the TV just to get them out of our hair? An Orlando man said, These children you see in school with these bad...behaviors is a reflection of...lazy parents that don t want to raise their children. He added, They will let the television do it. And a Des Moines bluntly observed, Parents us the TV as a babysitter.
People were especially concerned about this trend because they believe that television, and popular culture in general, undermine American values. People were scared that children will imitate the negative attitudes and behavior they see on television and hear through other media. Said a Mason City woman, Children have a tendency to copy or imitate what they see repeatedly. If they see people shooting each other with guns... whether it s the bad guy...or... the good guy... if they see that repeatedly, they re going to... imitate it.
Participants said that television and other mass media were desensitizing America. A Des Moines woman noted, We are teaching our kids via the mass media that violence is all over...They are desensitized to it, so they can commit it and not feel guilty. A Miami woman said, They hear rap songs and they hear...all kinds of profanity. They hear about assassinations. They hear about executions. They hear language I can t translate for you.
Central to people s fear was their belief that they were losing control of their children. Speaking about drugs on television a Miami woman stated, Our kids are just exposed to these things without any control. And another woman in that group predicted, MTV is gonna rule your house.
People also feared that so much of our popular culture is based on messages of materialism. Everything s advertised and everybody wants everything now you don t wait for anything, a Modesto woman pointed out. A Tallahassee man said, People are working all their time away to buy this, buy that, for kids... and we re investing everything into material. We re forgetting about what the foundation was. An Orlando woman added, We can t drive a Toyota putt-putt. We have to have a big Maxima. We have to be successful because of our mind-set, because we ve been Americanized to this pop culture, and a Mason City woman summed up what many people in the group discussions felt when she point out, We [got] too materialistic. The nation. The family. Everybody.
Parents who try to do the right thing said they have had to struggle to keep pace with the shifts in America. You re showing morals and values and good judgement on one hand, a frustrated Orlando woman said, and everything you see on TV is just the opposite. So kids are...getting these double signals. And a man from the same Orlando group lamented about what it was like to be a parent today, We can t do what we need to do.
Discussion participants voiced deep concerns over people s infatuation with materialism in America. A Mason City woman said, We have given our kids too much. We have not taught them how to value things, how to work for them and earn them. And another woman in that group stated, Somewhere along the line we have not learned the difference between necessities and luxuries.
As people searched for answers in these discussion groups, they did not turn to election- year slogans such as calling for a return to family values, or to punish all bad kids, or to put metal detectors in schools, or to regulate the entertainment industry. They said that they saw no quick fixes to the challenges they raised; indeed they rejected suggestions that there might be easy solutions.
Instead people struggled with a set of tensions about what has happened to society, how society should now respond, and who is responsible for acting. Here was where Americans wanted to focus public discourse.
How can we instill a sense of personal responsibility? People said that key to reversing the trend of disintegrating families and values was for each American to reassume or assume for the first time personal responsibility in their daily affairs. The morality and family value thing...you can t govern those things. You can t legislate that, said a Des Moines woman. And a Modesto man stated, It s not a governmental thing. I don t have to have a law...to me to tell me you must watch your neighbors children or you will be fined. He said that such responsibility belongs on a personal level.
The importance that Americans place on the value of personal responsibility cannot be overemphasized. Said a Laconia man, We know what the golden rules are, and there s a lot of people in our society not playing by those rules. Yet people were not clear on how to spur action on this value. How do you get the common, average, everyday person to say I want to do something? asked a Tampa man.
How can the whole community become more engaged? Discussion participants believed that the current trend of disintegrating families and values could not be reversed unless entire communities pulled together to raise their children. Recall the Laconia man who said: It takes a community to raise a child, and that is probably more true today than it was. And a Tallahassee woman noted, To some extent other people s children are your children. Responsibility for your society is your responsibility.
But people were not sure how to jumpstart that process or what they could do once it got going. One Orlando man said, People sit back and say, Oh it s not my problem. But you know, all these problems are everybody s problems.
What is the right role for government? It was clear from these conversations that people wanted government to play a limited role when it comes to acting on families and values. You don t want them telling you what a family is, asserted a Tallahassee woman. And a Modesto man stated, I don t want them telling me when I should watch TV, what I should watch on TV, how I should eat, what I should do. Another Modesto man said about government, They ve got their nose into where they shouldn't t be. They should put the responsibility back into the family, the parents, the grandparents. And a Davenport woman remarked, We can t push the government to take care of the men out there getting woman pregnant. What are you gonna do? Fix half the men in the country or what?
Still, many people did envision a role for government, but they were torn over what it should be. I have mixed feelings about it, a San Francisco man started to say. On the one hand, I want the government out of my business. On the other hand, I realize that there needs to be some amount of oversight or control to protect people. Or consider this comment from a Modesto man, People want government off their backs, but they re afraid. They see kids who are carrying guns and becoming pregnant out of wedlock. When it came to social service agencies, schools, child care centers, and other areas in which government might play a role, people were divided among themselves, and often within themselves.
How can the entertainment industry become more responsible? People believed that too often the entertainment industry had overstepped the line of good judgment in the music lyrics, movies, and TV programs it produces. They re abusing their First Amendment, a Miami woman said. The media is poisoning the children s minds.
Discussion participants said that they wanted industry leaders to exercise sounder judgment, but they struggled with how that could happen. Said one Tampa man in response to the possibility of government regulation, I don t like the government playing big brother. Other people said that parents themselves must take greater control of the situation. You have the right to turn off the dial on your television, your radio, your newspaper...to make your own decision, said a Miami woman. And a Des Moines man stated, I don t know if you can blame television or the movies. He decided that if people watched what the industry produces, then they can t complain.
Still, many struggled. As a Miami man put it, You can t walk down the
street ...without seeing something that is affected by media. In the end,
people were not sure how to get a handle on this challenge.
[ Issue | Radio | TV | Newspapers | Press Club | Polls | Meet the Candidates | Community Center | Let's Talk ]