Putnam on the ‘American Dream’

By Elise Vasko, Staff Writer

Widely acclaimed social scientist and Harvard University professor Robert Putnam stands center stage in Taylor Auditorium. The room is packed. All eyes are on him, and all ears are tuned to his voice.

"I want to talk to you today about what's been happening in America, since I was growing up in Ohio 50 years ago," he said. "I want to talk to you about some big trends and tell you some painful stories."

Part political scientist, part historian and part humanitarian, over Putnam's career, he has served as President of the American Political Science Association and counseled several U.S. Presidents.

He has written 14 books and is one of the most cited academics in the world today. His most recent book, "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis," is about his research on the widening opportunity gap in the United States.

"America has become a more segregated society, not on racial terms, certainly not on religious terms, but in terms of income and social class," said Putnam. "Increasingly, Americans are living either in affluent enclaves or impoverished enclaves, and fewer of us are living in mixed-income neighborhoods."

Putnam's research suggests the working class in America is shrinking, and the divide between the upper and lower class is increasing dramatically. With this, the opportunities kids in America today are given differ significantly depending upon the annual income of the household they are born into.

"Things are getting better and better for kids coming from the upper third of society and worse and worse for kids coming from the lower third of society, increasing the opportunity gap," said Putnam.

Putnam's studies have found that family income is now a better predictor for whether an individual will graduate from college than intellectual ability.

"Today it matters much more what your parents have done than what you can do, and that directly violates the promise of equal opportunity in America," said Putnam.

Putnam argues that the root at the cause of these problems is embodied in the term "our kids."

"The meaning of the term 'our kids' has shriveled over the last 30 or 40 years," said Putnam. "Now, when people use the term 'our kids' they mean their biological kids. They are all our kids, not just in a moral sense but in an economic sense."

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Tim Melley, director of Miami's Humanities Center, described the effect of Putnam's talk.

"What Putnam does so well is he presents rock solid social science evidence but he humanizes it with compelling stories and it is the stories that allow people to register an emotional and engaged understanding of the problem," said Melley.

Melley also sees the growing economic inequality as one of the major challenges in American society today.

"It's a problem that has been recognized by people in both political parties and by leaders in business and academia," said Melley. "This is a problem that has the capacity to completely undermine our democracy."

First-year Avery Walke was especially impacted by what Putnam had to say.

"My biggest takeaway from the talk is that this problem is our problem," said Walke. "I always assumed that the problem was bigger than myself, and I think that Dr. Putnam did a fantastic job of changing my whole view of the situation."