Counter culture hurt America

This undoing of our society can be grasped quickly by looking at a few raw statistics that signal the presence of the deep and destructive pathologies that are at work.  Since 1960 population has increased by 41 percent while violent crime has risen 560 percent.[2]  The U.S. Department of Justice projects that eight out of ten people will be the victims of violent crime at least once in their lives.  And the most active incubator for this violence is in the ten to seventeen age group, where the rate of the perpetration of violent crime has soared 400 percent since 1960.  Since 1960 illegitimacy has increased 400 percent.[3]  In 1990, 65.2 percent of black children were born to unmarried mothers.  And since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, an estimated 28 million unborn children have lost their lives.  Since 1960 the rate of teen suicides has risen more than 200 percent, making it the third leading cause of death among these young people.[4]  Since 1960 the divorce rate has increased 200 percent; as a consequence, less than 60 percent of children live with both biological parents. And while spending on our public schools has more than doubled in constant dollars since 1960, SAT scores have dropped, on average, seventy-five points. The federal tax burden on families with children is now 24 percent of their income, whereas in 1960, when children were doing better in school and better in society, the federal government only asked for 12 percent of family income.[5]  These facts diminish the hope that we can simply buy our way out of our predicament with larger and larger public outlays.

These, however, are the statistics that are graphic.  Just as telling, and perhaps of more interest, are those that measure more private matters, such as our moral intentions, matters that may not always be matters of law.