Insecurity over the Past Fifty years

As of 2022, more than 36% of workers in the U.S. held temporary, part-time, contract, or gig jobs. These are frequently subject to unstable and irregular schedules that make family life difficult. A Federal Reserve report, "Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2023," showed: "37% of adults were either unable to pay their monthly bills or were one $400 financial setback away from being unable to pay them in full."

Renters

Affordable rent is generally defined as less than 30% of a family’s gross income.  As Figure 3: The Number of Cost Burdened Renters Hit an All-Time High above demonstrates, the number of renters paying more than 30% of their income in rent is nearing 50%, while those paying more than 50% of their income for rent stands at 22%. That accounts for approximately 12 million renter families.

Meanwhile, the stock of low-rent units is falling.

Evictions are an ongoing feature of housing precarity. From UC Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project report 7.13.2021:

• "41% of all households in our 53 metro study area (26.9 million) live in neighborhoods where there is a high level of vulnerability to evictionor displacement
• 52% of all renters live in neighborhoods with a high riskof displacement or eviction.
• 73% of Black-headed and 63% of Latinx-headed renter households live in neighborhoods with a high riskof displacement or eviction.
• 74% of Black renters live in neighborhoods with a high riskof eviction."

Unhoused

Home Ownership

In the early 1970s, the price of a middle-class starter home was three times the family's income. Today it is approaching eight times.

Health insecurity in the developed world is a distinctly American phenomenon. Every other developed economy guarantees healthcare to its citizens as a right. In the U.S., we spend significantly more per capita, nearly twice as much, on healthcare than any other country, yet our healthcare outcomes are dismal. Concerns about access to healthcare are persistent. The enormous healthcare market consumes 19% of the U.S. GDP, compared to roughly half that of our developed country peers. It serves as a glaring example of the misapplication of market capitalism.

The Commonwealth Fund regularly surveys the state of our healthcare system. Their 2020 Biennial Health Insurance Survey reported:

"In the first half of 2020, 43.4 percent of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 were inadequately insured. This is statistically unchanged from the last time we fielded the survey in 2018.The adult uninsured rate was 12.5 percent. In addition, 9.5 percent of adults were insured but had a gap in coverage in the past year, and 21.3 percent were underinsured. These findings are also statistically unchanged from 2018.

The insured and uninsured face significant financial risks due to healthcare expenses. Americans collectively owe over $195 billion in medical bills. "....9% of adults – or roughly 23 million people – owe more than $250 due to health costs. About half of those reporting significant medical debt owe more than $2,000. A small share (representing about 1 percent of all adults, owes more than $10,000, and the group accounts for the majority of all medical debt people owe in the United States.  Although comprehensive data is lacking, numerous studies indicate that more than 50% of bankruptcies in the US are linked to medical debt.  Many people avoid doctor visits and do not take prescribed medications due to cost.

Our health outcomes are remarkably poor for such a rich country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 12.7% of the U.S. population has been food insecure over the last decade. This amounts to approximately 41 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans. Food insecurity refers to "one or more household members experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at times during the year because of limited money and other resources for obtaining food."

The Federal school breakfast and lunch programs feed more than 14 million kids daily. 

The Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, provides food assistance to over 44 million Americans, which is 1 in 8 people.

Approximately 39 million people, or 13% of the U.S. population, lived in low-income and low-access areas, defined as being more than 1 mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural) from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store, according to the USDA’s most recent food access research reportpublished in 2022.  Within this group, researchers estimated that almost 19 million people — or 6% of the nation’s total population — had limited access to a supermarket.

In 1948, 32% of women participated in the formal labor market. Today, that figure has risen to 57%. Nonetheless, the wage gap between men and women remains. In 2019, the average wage for men was $53,544, whereas women earned, on average, $10,150 less, totaling $43,394. This means women received 78% of men's wages. Contrary to what one might expect, the gap for college-educated women was even larger, at just 74% of men’s pay.

Since capitalism does not recognize the reproduction of the species as productive labor, women engage in significantly more unpaid work at home, caring for the family.  “According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), today in America, women spend approximately 4.5 hours per day on unpaid work, while men spend only approximately 2.78 hours.”

Pause to reflect on the impact of the insecurities we have already examined—jobs, housing, healthcare, food, time, and childcare—on the formation and functioning of families. These challenges are especially burdensome for women, who continue to be the primary organizers and providers of most family activities. Many lower-income families are forced to hold multiple jobs just to afford daycare for their children.

Then, we confront the dismal state of maternal illness and mortality during pregnancy and childbirth. America’s heavily market-driven healthcare system shows little regard for women and infants. The experience of being pregnant and giving birth is yet another uniquely challenging aspect of American life. This highlights a social indicator where the US lags significantly behind its peers in the developed world.

Education has long been a central American value and is seen as a key to improving one's position in life. Parents struggle to find and enroll their children in the best public schools available. However, there are significant differences in the resources available because nearly all K-12 education is funded by property taxes. For example, Allentown, PA, spent about $14,854 per pupil in 2019, while the town of Salisbury to the immediate south spent $22,841 per pupil. That is 54% more. This illustrates how your postal ZIP code determines the quality of education available.

Examining the issue on a national scale, a recent study reveals a distribution of educational insecurity that looks startlingly familiar. The SAT for college admissions has been widely utilized for decades. A score of 1300 and above indicates a high likelihood of acceptance into elite colleges and universities. A recent study, summarized by the NY Times (see chart below), displays a shocking resemblance to the grotesqueries of US income distributions.

The rich send their children to prestigious private schools and provide intensive tutoring—hardly a fair playing field.

Rising education costs are often financed through personal debt taken on by students, creating a significant stressor in the lives of millions. It seems likely that higher education administrators view government-backed student loans and grants as an endless source of funding to sustain their increasingly larger budgets.

US teachers at all levels are underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked. The US "...pays them, on average, less than 60 percent of the salaries of similarly educated professionals....."  US higher education is perhaps worse, with a significant increase in adjunct faculty who are poorly compensated and lack job and schedule security.

Over 90% of employed people in the US are covered by Social Security. However, Social Security payments alone barely exceed the poverty line. Employer-based traditional pensions, also known as defined benefit plans, have been declining for decades, except among public sector employees. Replacing them are 401 (k) plans and other self-funded retirement savings programs. Participation in these individual-centered programs has been, and continues to be, primarily the domain of the top earners in the economy. 47% of men and 50% of women have no personal retirement savings at all.

Like most other elements of the US social welfare system, long-term care for the elderly is chaotic, expensive, or often simply unavailable. The US allocates significantly less to this than nearly all other developed countries.

The US has a notoriously poor mass transit system. Housing, zoning, highway construction, and inadequate funding for bus and rail transport force nearly everyone to own and drive cars. Individuals in the lowest 20% of income earners spend 29% of their income on transportation, second only to housing costs. The population in the 20% to 40% income range spends nearly 23% of their income on auto expenses.

In Europe, individuals in the lowest income fifth allocate 7.5% of their earnings to transportation.

Rural America, like its urban and suburban counterparts, is a conflagration of precarities. The globalization of manufacturing in the 1990s transformed rural America into a manufacturing desert. All those well-paying, full-time, long-term jobs vanished. The agricultural sector underwent technological changes, with large farm tractors and equipment significantly reducing the need for workers, except for the migrant labor required during harvest time. Monopolization also affected agriculture, with giant corporations controlling the processing and distribution of most foodstuffs, particularly in animal production.

The rural poverty rate in 2020 was 15.4%, compared to 11.9% in urban areas. The median national family income in 2022 was $92,750, in contrast to $69,560 in rural America.

These are not the only sources of insecurity for rural America. Small government policies exacerbate the impacts of the changes noted above. Eliminating government policies or investments to address or improve these conditions places all of the burdens on individuals. Acting for the common good is not an option within the extreme small government ethos.

Americans work more hours than their peers in developed countries. In 2020, the average annual hours worked in the US was 1,791, compared to 1,497 in the UK, 1,490 in France, 1,427 in the Netherlands, and 1,349 in Germany.  Thus, on average, Americans work 20% more hours than those in the Netherlands or 55 additional 8-hour days compared to Germany.

Uncertain work schedules pose a significant problem for families, particularly for women, who remain the primary caregivers for children of all ages. Beyond work schedules, there are expectations for workers to be available 24/7. This requirement is likely more pronounced among "creatives" and professionals. In my personal experience, this is evident through emails, text messages, and phone calls at almost any hour. The weekend is no longer a time for privacy and personal activities. Notifications from co-workers and bosses frequently disrupt dinner time.

The family is one of our species' fundamental social units and plays a central role in reproduction. In America, the traditional middle-class family unit consists of a mother, father, and two children. The conventional model of a single breadwinner supporting a prototypical American family is no longer viable. Now, both partners are working, which introduces various stresses into the family dynamic. Childcare, social time, family outings, and more are significantly limited. The additional responsibilities of childcare for younger children exacerbate this situation. Scheduling uncertainties create challenges for maintaining a stable family environment. All of the other insecurities increase tensions and frustrations for the family.

Mental health is also influenced by insecurities.  There is substantial evidence that insecurity leads to mental (behavioral) health issues, including persistent anxiety, generalized anxiety disorders, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation.  Also note that persistent stress and insecurity contribute to physical health problems.

In the US context, mental illnesses²⁰ are exacerbated by the fact that, as a nation, we have poor access to medical professionals and institutions for their treatment. This can be seen in our massive prison system, which houses many of the mentally ill with little or no attention from medical professionals.²¹

Being happy in life seems like an obvious goal. Defining happiness and measuring it is daunting. In 2011 the United Nations adopted a resolution Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development. This led to the first World Happiness Report in 2012. The current 2024 report (the report has been issued annually except for 2015) establishes a countries happiness based on six metrics:

1. GDP per capita: Reflecting economic prosperity.
2. Social support: The availability of reliable networks to provide assistance during challenges.
3. Healthy life expectancy: Emphasizing physical well-being and healthcare quality.
4. Freedom to make life choices: Perceptions of autonomy and empowerment.
5. Generosity: Measured through charitable donations and a general sense of community sharing.
6. Perceptions of corruption: Lower corruption aligns with higher trust in institutions and governance.

More than 2,000 people in each country are surveyed to provide scaled rankings of their satisfaction with these metrics, along with several questions about the frequency of positive and negative emotions.

The ranking of the US has been declining since the report's inception. In 2012, the report's first year, the US ranked 11th. By 2024, it has fallen to 23rd. This trend has largely stemmed from decreasing levels of happiness among younger adults. "The report finds a dramatic decrease in the self-reported well-being of individuals aged 30 and below."