over the past decade, we might reach quite a different judgment. Over the past few years, there has been not only slower economic growth but also indications of significant downturns in a variety of areas. Perhaps, to recall Wildavsky's assessment, people are "feeling worse" because they are far more affected by the events of the recent past than by the long-term trends of the postwar years. One other qualification needs to be made about any general assertion of progress toward quality-of-life goals. Whether we are assessing the subjective state of the nation or measuring progress toward such objective goals as adequate income or housing, we need to distinguish between the well-being of the population as a whole and that of specific groups or minorities. Clear evidence of improvement in the nation's health, housing, or income does not necessarily imply equivalent advances among the various ethnic or racial minorities. It is one thing, for example, to note that since 1960 there has been a substantial reduction in the percentage of the population who fall below the poverty line and a substantial increase in the proportion of blacks who have moved into positions of relative affluence. However, a different conclusion can be drawn if we note that blacks are still more than twice as likely to be poor than are whites and that, in 1979, more than 30 percent of all blacks had incomes below the poverty level as contrasted with fewer than 10 percent of all whites. With these considerations in mind, let us examine the research on social indicators and ask what it tells us about factors that contribute to or detract from the quality of American life. Considering the impression of malaise that one gets from the media and from so much of the recent commentary about American life, the most striking conclusion from recent surveys is that Americans seem to be quite positive about their personal lives. Recent Gallup surveys have found, for example, that while 69 percent of the respondents are dissatisfied with national life, no fewer than 77 percent of Americans say they are generally satisfied with their personal lives. When people are asked what contributes most to a happy and satisfied life, family life stands out as the greatest source of satisfaction, with nearly two-thirds of the respondents in recent reports saying they are "very satisfied" with this aspect of their lives. And contrary to the impression one gets from an everincreasing divorce rate, an even higher percentage-84 percent-reports being "completely satisfied" with their marriages.3 What do these reports mean? Perhaps, as Angus Campbell notes, such reports about the most personal Overall 24 domains of life reflect the "persistent human impulse to see the world positively." Attempts have been made to compare feelings of subjective well-being in various nations. None of these studies is definitive, but they do show that reported feelings of well-being are at least as high in the United States as they are elsewhere; in certain respects, they are considerably higher than in most nations. The last time people in various nations were asked about "life as a whole," in a 1977 Gallup survey, the level of satisfaction expressed by Americans was considerably higher than that expressed in any European nation." Americans also feel quite satisfied in general with another factor that has an immediate bearing on well-being, their health. Most people would agree that physical health is one of the chief measures of a nation's well-being. That we have not exploited all the potential of modern medical science is illustrated by the fact that persons with low incomes or limited access to the health care system are still far more likely to have health problems, and that at least a dozen nations have a longer life expectancy at birth than we do. Still, there have been improvements in this country over the past few decades. Between 1950 and 1977, average life expectancy at birth increased by 3.7 years among males (to 69.3) and by 6 years among females (to 77.0).' Infant mortality rates in 1977 were less than half as high as they had been in 1950. The rate of deaths from heart disease decreased by 20 percent between 1970 and 1978; over that same period, the rate of deaths caused by strokes decreased by one-third." There is reason, then, for the optimism that the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Julius B. Richmond, expressed recently in a report describing trends in the nation's health. In his words, "There is no question but that the indicators are telling us health is indeed remarkably better." Improvements in public health have also contributed to feelings of well-being. Only a small proportion of Americans, about 1 in 10, express dissatisfaction with their health, while the vast majority perceive themselves to be in "good" or "excellent" health." The houses and apartments in which people live have an obvious and immediate impact on their sense of well-being. To inquire about the availability of convenient, attractive, and affordable housing is, therefore, to ask about a factor that affects quality of life in various ways. With regard to the supply of adequate housing at prices most Americans can afford, the record of the past few decades is quite good. However, there is reason for serious concern about the nation's housing over the next 10 years. Health Housing 25 In comparison to other countries, Americans are generally well housed. The number of Americans who live in physically inadequate housing has declined substantially in recent decades: The proportion of households living in structures deemed to be physically inadequate declined from about 20 percent in 1960 to about 8 percent in 1976. And though about one family in four says it would like to move from its present dwelling, satisfaction with housing is fairly high; in recent surveys, only 1 family in 10 expressed dissatisfaction with its current housing. 10 Nonetheless, inadequate housing continues to be a serious problem for certain groups. In 1976, more than 21 percent of black families lived in physically deficient units-that is, units that lack some plumbing, kitchen facilities, or central heating-as did 20 percent of Hispanic families and 12 percent of female-headed households.11 We anticipate that a shortage of adequate and affordable housing will be one of the major factors that detracts from a sense of well-being for millions of Americans in the 1980s. Because an unusually large number of young adults will reach their home-seeking age in the 1980s, there will be a high demand for new housing units. However, in recent years, the number of housing starts has been declining. At the same time, the number of rental units has been shrinking at a rate estimated by some housing experts to be about 2 percent a year. Both factors point to a shortfall of more than a million units a year below demand over the next few years. The problem is further complicated by housing costs that are increasing at a faster rate than median family income. In 1970, half of all American families could afford a new house, the average cost of which was then $24,000. Today, far fewer families can afford the typical new house, which costs $70,000.12 Thus, families with incomes below $20,000-the largest group of homeowners in recent years are rapidly losing ground in the housing market. The inability of many Americans to afford housing equivalent to that in which they grew up is likely to be a galling reminder of "rising expectations" that cannot be met in the 1980s. It is no exaggeration to say, as California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. did recently, that "there is social dynamite implicit in pricing 60 or 70 percent of the people out of the housing market." Finding adequate and affordable housing will be particularly difficult for families with children. In some parts of the country, many landlords impose restrictions that exclude children: In Los Angeles, for example, such restrictions apply to about 70 percent of the rental units, creating special stresses for families with children who are looking for rental housing. 13 13 26 As a society, we have moved toward greater acceptance of public responsibility for such functions as health and education, while simultaneously moving away from public responsibility for housing. This Panel believes that the nation's housing problem is sufficiently grave to justify a major review of the various public and private sector initiatives that might be taken to ensure that all citizens have decent and affordable housing. Yet another factor is an important ingredient of wellbeing-feelings of personal safety. There are, of course, many hazards that pose a threat to one's safety, such as fires, automobile accidents, or natural disasters. But the threat to personal safety that causes the greatest anxiety is crime. The threat of attack, the fear of being victimized by crime is one of the nation's grave problems and something that detracts in a very real way from a sense of well-being. The crime rates of the past 20 years contain both good news and bad. Not surprisingly, the bad news has received the most attention and appears to have had the greatest impact on public perceptions. The bad news is that, in the period since 1960, there have been significant increases in the reported rates of violent crime and crimes against property. Overall, the chance of being victimized by such crimes was about three times higher in 1978 than it had been in 1960. This highly publicized trend has led to greater feelings of apprehensiveness about personal safety. Between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, for example, the percentage of women who reported that they were afraid to walk alone at night near their homes increased by almost 20 percent.1 The good news about crime in recent years is not likely to dissuade many people from their fears, but it is nonetheless a significant trend. It appears that increases in the crime rates were far more rapid in the 1960s than in the early or mid-1970s. For many types of offenses, the rate of reported crime appears to be leveling off; for some-such as murder and robbery-rates have actually declined in recent years.13 15 In other areas, significant progress has been made toward quality-of-life goals. Chief among them is the amount of leisure time people have. There has been a dramatic decline over the past century in the number of hours the average American works each week—from about 60 hours a week in 1870 to about 39 hours today. However, there are substantial problems in assessing how much free time most people have. There are government figures on the reported length of the workweek, but not all occupations are covered, and overtime and "moonlighting" often go unreported. Nor would it be accurate to label as leisure time all of the hours when one is not engaged in paid work, for much of that time is filled with family duties, household chores, or personal errands. Nonetheless, "time diary" studies conducted over the past two decades indicate roughly how much free time Americans have and what they do with that time. Those studies found several patterns. The most significant is that between 1965 and 1975, American adults gained a substantial amount of free time. Over that decade, there was an increase of nearly 4 hours a week in free time, from 34.8 to 38.5 hours. This increase is attributable chiefly to a decrease in the number of hours spent at work and the number of hours occupied with housework and family care. The drop in the number of hours devoted to housework appears due not only to the increased proportion of employed women or to the fact that family size is smaller than it was a generation ago, but also to improved household technology and the availability of "ready to serve" foods.16 What do people do with their free time? Contrary to the popular notion that ours is a nation that increasingly devotes itself to "active leisure" such as jogging or other fitness activities, the time diary studies find that this is not the case. As sociologist John Robinson comments, "Americans come home each night and reach not for the sweat suit but for man's most constant companion, the television set.' "17 Between 1965 and 1975, there were greater increases in television viewing than in any other single activity. In fact, 40 percent of all free time (excluding sleeping) was spent viewing television in 1975, as compared to about 30 percent in 1965. Those whose viewing time has increased include young and old, the married and the unmarried, couples with children and couples without, and individuals from the entire range of socioeconomic circumstances. Time-diary studies conducted in nations such as France, Great Britain, and Japan show that Americans are not alone in their penchant for TV viewing; in each of those nations people are, on the average, enjoying more leisure and devoting more of it to television.18 A shorter average work week appears to have ushered in not an era of active and creative leisure but rather an era in which many Americans spend more time in the least demanding of free-time activities, such as TV viewing and listening to popular music. It appears that there has even been an increase in the number of hours that the average American spends sleeping." Whether one regards this as a benign trend or an indication of the inability of most people to use leisure creatively (T. S. Eliot epitomized this view when he characterized 28 |