DR. BRIAN BEIRL
SUGGESTED READING
babm.com/suggestedreading
40 | APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2012
Dr. Brian Beirl enjoys an active general dentistry practice and is also an author, educator, presenter, business consultant and speech coach. He is author of the popular, The Bookbinder, a business fable regarding the personal challenges of running a business. The series continues with The Bookbinder, Janis’ Story. For more information go to
mybookbinder.com,
BrianBeirlDDS@BBeirl.com,
coachingtheprofessions.com
Coming Apart Stirring the melting pot
By Charles Murray
If you have been reading the editorial pages, watching the Sunday morning Washington beltway political discussions, or the presidential debates, you have been hearing about this book. I read Coming Apart a few months ago and, similar to when one adds a new word to his vocabulary, you begin to see it everywhere.
Charles Murray, the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has presented us with another book (see The Bell Curve) that again stirs the melting pot. We live in contentious times and there are excellent points to be made that our country has been divided since revolutionary times. However, the separation between our economic and social classes is widening faster than at any other time in our history. And according to Murphy, there is presently nothing to stop it.
Murray does not mince words; whatever business you are in or your perceived social class, you need to beware of the rapidly changing demographic statistics around you. He carefully analyzes federal census statistics from the 1960 to the last 2010 census. He makes an excellent case for the importance of the family unit and strong ethical legacy that built our country.
Murray is evenhanded in his analysis of all ethnic and social groups. He cites the precipitous drop marriage in working class whites from 84% in 1960 to 48% in the early 2000s, and children living in households with both biological parents falling from 96% to 37%.
The other side of the gap is populated by the socially and educationally elite. According to the author and the statistics, this demographic is becoming more and more entrenched and out of touch, as their children are admitted to the best schools and universities where they tend meet their future spouses and so on.
I would encourage you to read this book and join the critical discussion regarding the direction of our country. It is not the time to simply mind your own business.
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