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What We Do Together the State of Social Capital in America Today.Pdf S. HRG. 115–69 WHAT WE DO TOGETHER: THE STATE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN AMERICA TODAY HEARING BEFORE THE JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MAY 17, 2017 Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 25–919 WASHINGTON : 2017 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Sep 11 2014 11:03 Sep 06, 2017 Jkt 024745 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 C:\DOCS\25919.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE [Created pursuant to Sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Congress] HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENATE PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio, Chairman MIKE LEE, Utah, Vice Chairman ERIK PAULSEN, Minnesota TOM COTTON, Arkansas DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona BEN SASSE, Nebraska BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia ROB PORTMAN, Ohio DARIN LAHOOD, Illinois TED CRUZ, Texas FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico, Ranking JOHN DELANEY, Maryland AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota ALMA S. ADAMS, PH.D., North Carolina GARY C. PETERS, Michigan DONALD S. BEYER, JR., Virginia MARGARET WOOD HASSAN, New Hampshire WHITNEY K. DAFFNER, Executive Director KIMBERLY S. CORBIN, Democratic Staff Director (II) VerDate Sep 11 2014 11:03 Sep 06, 2017 Jkt 024745 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\25919.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER C O N T E N T S OPENING STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS Hon. Mike Lee, Vice Chairman, a U.S. Senator from Utah ................................. 1 Hon. Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico ..... 2 WITNESSES Statement of Dr. Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA .................................................................................................... 5 Statement of Dr. Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar in Culture & Freedom, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, DC . 7 Statement of Dr. Yuval Levin, Hertog Fellow, The Ethics and Public Policy Center and Editor of National Affairs, Washington, DC .................................. 9 Statement of Dr. Mario Small, Grafstein Family Professor, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA ................................................ 11 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Prepared statement of Hon. Mike Lee, Vice Chairman, a U.S. Senator from Utah ...................................................................................................................... 36 Prepared statement of Hon. Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member, a U.S. Sen- ator from New Mexico .......................................................................................... 36 Prepared Statement of Hon. Margaret Wood Hassan .......................................... 37 Prepared statement of Robert D. Putnam ............................................................. 38 Prepared statement of Dr. Charles Murray .......................................................... 57 Prepared statement of Dr. Yuval Levin ................................................................. 59 Prepared statement of Dr. Mario Small ................................................................ 69 Response from Dr. Putnam to Questions for the Record Submitted by Senator Margaret Wood Hassan ....................................................................................... 84 Response from Dr. Putnam to Questions for the Record Submitted by Senator Amy Klobuchar ..................................................................................................... 85 Response from Dr. Small to Questions for the Record Submitted by Senator Amy Klobuchar ..................................................................................................... 86 Response from Dr. Small to Questions for the Record Submitted by Ranking Member Martin Heinrich .................................................................................... 87 Chart titled ‘‘Real Hourly Wages by Education’’ submitted by Senator Cotton . 89 Report titled ‘‘What We Do Together: The State of Associated Life in America’’ prepared by Vice Chairman Lee’s staff of the Joint Economic Committee ..... 90 (III) VerDate Sep 11 2014 11:03 Sep 06, 2017 Jkt 024745 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\25919.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER VerDate Sep 11 2014 11:03 Sep 06, 2017 Jkt 024745 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 C:\DOCS\25919.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER WHAT WE DO TOGETHER: THE STATE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN AMERICA TODAY WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017 UNITED STATES CONGRESS, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the Honorable Mike Lee, Vice Chairman, presiding. Representatives present: LaHood, Maloney, Beyer, Jr., and Paulsen Senators present: Lee, Cotton, Cruz, Heinrich, Klobuchar, and Peters. Staff present: Daniel Bunn, Kim Corbin, Connie Foster, Martha Gimbel, Heath Hansen, Colleen Healy, Adam Hersh, Christina King, Paul Lapointe, Justus Myers, Thomas Nicholas, Matthew Nolan, Kwabena Nsiah, Victoria Park, Ernesto Rodriguez, and Scott Winship. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE LEE, VICE CHAIRMAN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH Vice Chairman Lee. Welcome. We call this hearing on the Joint Economic Committee to order. The title that we have selected for this hearing is ‘‘What We Do Together: The State of Social Capital in America Today.’’ I want to thank each of our witnesses and our Committee mem- bers for joining us today. Our Nation today faces very real economic challenges. As we heard during our Committee’s hearing last month, economic growth during the recovery has been meager and uneven. The U.S. econ- omy has become less dynamic and innovative than in recent dec- ades. We miss the strong productivity growth America enjoyed in the mid-twentieth century and the unusually large wage gains it brought. However, in historical and comparative perspective most Ameri- cans enjoy unprecedented material living standards. Our economic problems often take the form of unsatisfactory rates of improve- ment. We are growing richer less quickly than we did when we were poorer. Nevertheless, many Americans—poor, middle class, and wealthy—feel that something in our society is amiss. It is a feeling that cannot be reduced to economic anxiety. Rather, there is a sense that our social fabric in America is fraying. (1) VerDate Sep 11 2014 11:03 Sep 06, 2017 Jkt 024745 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\25919.TXT SHAUN LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER 2 And these concerns are reflected in objective measures of family and community health. To cite just a few of the trends that may be grouped under the rubric of ‘‘social capital’’: marriage and church going have declined; distrust of the Nation’s institutions has grown; mixed-income neighborhoods have become rarer; regional polarization has increased; and young men who are neither work- ing nor looking for work have become more numerous and more isolated. We do less together than in the past, and we are worse off for it, economically and otherwise. Today’s hearing, along with a new report released on Monday, launches the Social Capital Project, a multi-year research effort that I have established in the Vice Chairman’s office. The project will investigate the health of the bonds of family, faith, community, and work that define our lives. An emphasis on social capital complements the economic lens through which we typically view national challenges today. Many of our ostensibly economic problems reflect the withering of our associational life. For example, the fragility of so many families today reduces upward mobility. And diminishing trust has implica- tions for the decline in business dynamism since risk-taking re- quires confidence in each other and our institutions. Economic trends in turn affect the extent to which we cooperate to achieve our desired goals. The project’s inaugural report, ‘‘What We Do Together,’’ concludes that rising affluence has reduced the economic necessity of having close ties with neighbors and tradi- tional institutions. It also highlights the extent to which the growth in two-worker families has affected investment in social capital. These economic changes have conferred valuable benefits to be sure, but by depleting social capital they have also come with costs. The twin pillars of economic—of American freedom—a free enter- prise economy and a voluntary civil society—exist and operate within the vital space between the government and the individual where organic communities form and networks of economic oppor- tunity and social cohesion are built. It is my hope that the Social Capital Project will start a new con- versation for our country that emphasizes social solidarity and mu- tual cooperation. As we face today’s economic challenges, policy- makers should ask how we can empower civil society, and what government should or should not do to thicken the middle layers between the individual and the State. I will now turn to the Ranking Member, Senator Heinrich, for his opening statement, and then I will introduce our witnesses. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Vice Chairman Lee appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 36.] OPENING STATEMENT
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