The deterioration
of neighborhoods in our inner cities, the decline
of elemental safety — never mind education — in many
of our schools, the
burgeoning of jail populations (to the point that we have the highest percentage
of incarcerated citizens
of any
country in the industrial world), the great strains on the family, the general slackening
of discipline, which a consumerist and media - driven society relentlessly encourages, and a huge transfer
of wealth In the 1980s and «90s (during this period, the upper 1 percent
of Americans more than doubled its
wealth, while the lowest 20 percent suffered an actual decline)-- all these changes signal a community at risk.