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Jewish World Review Feb 14, 2012/ 21 Shevat, 5772 Life inside the (class) bubble By Michael Smerconish http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) Charles Murray thinks I live in a bubble, and it worries him. He believes that people like me are influential but detached, and that the level of isolation in which we live jeopardizes the well-being of society. When he looks at me, here is what he sees: Big home, Ivy League law degree, kids in private schools, a Stairmaster in my office, and no domestic beer in my fridge. I tried to convince him that he is mistaken, highlighting that I grew up in Doylestown, Pa., in a three-bedroom, one-bath home (with only a tub, no shower) on a quarter-acre lot. I worked at McDonald's when I was 16, and attended public schools. So we put the issue of my detachment to a quiz contained in his new book: "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010." He told me the quiz was designed to show members of the new upper class how isolated they are. The questions, he said, could be answered by ordinary Americans in a heartbeat. Here are a few: -Have you ever walked on a factory floor? -Who is Jimmie Johnson? -Have you or your spouse ever bought a pickup truck? -Since leaving school, have you ever worn a uniform? -Have you ever watched an Oprah, Dr. Phil, or Judge Judy show all the way through? (My total score was a 42; 77 is a typical score for a lifelong resident of a working-class neighborhood.) Murray, a libertarian affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, is best known as the co-author of "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life." His new book is equally provocative. The focus is on class formation, which Murray writes is "a new form of segregation." Murray argues that America is coming apart at the seams, not from race, but from class, which is why he focused on whites in his book, despite believing that the trends do cross racial boundaries. When he looks at America, Murray sees a divide between locales such as Belmont, Mass., and Fishtown, in the Lower Northeast of Philadelphia. While he fictionalizes both locales, the elements on which he draws are accurate - just exaggerated. The upper-middle-class residents of Belmont still embody the virtues of our Founders while the white, working-class in Fishtown are sliding down the socioeconomic ladder. A large part of the problem is that the people in Belmont are no longer connected to the residents of Fishtown, denying the latter a needed form of social order. Marriage, work and community are important constituents of a satisfying life, says Murray, but those institutions are collapsing in Fishtown. "We've always had classes in United States," he told me this week. "There have always been rich and poor folks who had somewhat different customs and mores. But there used to be a lot of interchange and it used to be that even the rich folks had grown up as either poor or middle class and knew what it was like personally. All of that is changing big time. It's going to get worse." The danger seen by Murray is that power is concentrated in the hands of the new upper class, which lacks the requisite empathy to make decisions for the remainder of society. Given the impact the new upper class has on the economy and culture, it would be a "good idea," he told me, if its members could empathize with the rest of the country. Murray views this as a continuation of themes he wrote about in "The Bell Curve" 17 years ago, a book that created a flash point because of its treatment of race and intelligence. "Brains are worth a lot more in the marketplace than they used to be," Murray told me. "So when you get to these divisions of wealth, it's not that somebody is stealing money but that it is worth more to have a lot of ability in certain kinds of intellectual areas than it was 50, 60 years ago, and that's going to continue. And as that happens, you get development of what I call super zips - very affluent, extremely well-educated zip codes in which pretty much everybody is alike." But his biggest concern is not my contemporaries. It's their children, who he believes are being raised completely detached from a society that they are being groomed to lead. I asked him, sight unseen, to describe my bubble. He told me that the people who live around me don't watch TV like the rest of the country ("some brag they don't even have a TV or use it only to watch videos or DVDs"), are more concerned about their weight, have different dietary and child-raising practices, and bear very little relationship to mainstream Americans. Sounds as if he just stepped off the R5. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment by clicking here. Michael Smerconish writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Previously: 02/09/12 Rethinking paths to wealth 01/17/12 Romney must face his work history head-on 01/11/12 Don't let those gift cards be a gift to retailers or the state 01/03/12 Headlines hoped for in 2012 11/09/11 Romney, beware: Cain may bob through the straits 11/02/11 Where there's ad smoke, there's … what? 10/20/11 After husband is murdered, 30 long years of phone calls 10/13/11 Black women should only marry out of their race? 08/31/11 Some political gaffes really say something 07/27/11 An overture of candidates' theme songs 06/28/11 Where's the app for common sense? 06/02/11 Over-scrutinizing lives costs us potential leaders 04/19/11 Taking a chance to say, ‘Hi’ 04/06/11 Race policies should be altered to reflect new demographic reality 11/10/10 Delaware's independent, but short-lived, voice 11/03/10 Papers should leave endorsing to others 10/21/10 Media help to hype perception of bullying 09/23/10 Officer down, killer hyped up 08/04/10 Documents highlight Pakistan's shortcomings as a U.S. ally 07/06/10 On taking back Sept. 11 06/29/10 Name elite corps to develop energy independence? 04/21/10 New account reinforces a serviceman's valor 03/11/10 Medical profession must police itself better 02/18/10 One-trick athletes 02/09/10 Active, retired law officers should be able to carry guns on planes to help stop terrorists 02/04/10 How to bring tech up to speed 01/28/10 Campaign donations must be fully and immediately disclosed online 01/07/10 The flying emperor still has no clothes, and no one is willing to say so 12/24/09 A law to mandate college football playoffs? 12/17/09 Cheney's abuse of freedom of speech 11/26/09 The true cost of freedom from anxiety 10/27/09 If GOP wants to win in 2012, it must reshape its primary process 10/08/09 It's time to get smarter on extended school day 09/03/09 What a summer of eulogizing flawed public figures reveals about society 08/12/09 It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile 08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains 06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter 06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains 05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men? 04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity 03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more 02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden 01/29/09 Torture must remain an option 01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff 12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about ‘plans’ 12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense 12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz 11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system 09/29/08 Closer look at party lines 08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity 08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman 07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click 05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet 02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits 11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship 09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq? 08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival 07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word © 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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