Life+&+Times21stG04

__**Life and Times**__

Overview
Although America is considered the melting pot because of its many diverse languages and ethnicity, one race is still dominant over the others, this race is Caucasian. The Caucasian race makes up a little bit more than 75 percent of the population, with Black/African American second at about 12 percent. While the "nuclear family" consisting of a married couple with their own children is often seen as the average American family, such households constitute less than a quarter of all households. Married couples without children are currently 28.7% of households, compared to 24.1% for nuclear families. Another 25.5% of households consisted of single persons residing alone. Recent trends have shown the numbers of nuclear families as well as childless married couples decrease. In 1970, 40.3% of US households consisted of nuclear families with childless couples making up 30.3% of households and 10.6% of households being arranged in "Other family types." By 2000 the percentage of nuclear families had decreased by 40%, while the number of other family types had increased by 51%. The percentage of single households has also steadily increased. In 1970, only 17% of households consisted of singles. In 2000 that figure had increased by 50% with singles constituting 25.5% of households. The most drastic increase was among the percentage of households made up of single males, which nearly doubled from 5.6% in 1970 to 10.7% in 2000. Today, one can no longer refer to the nuclear family as the average American household, neither can one identify the current plurality of married couples without children as "the average." Recent statistics indeed indicate that there is no average American family arrangement, but that American society is home to a wide and diverse variety of family arrangements. The one thing the data does indicate is that the average Joe most likely does not reside in a nuclear 4-person family.

Central Issue
Most Americans today are salary employees who work in varied environments, including comfortable offices, retail outlets, and hospitals. Roughly one quarter, 23.4%, of Americans were employed in fields that require hard physical labor with another 14% employed in the service industry. Overall those employed in office administrative and support, service and sales occupations constituted 38.6% of the labor force. Those employed in business and professional as well as professional support occupations made up 38.0% of the labor force. Educational attainment varied greatly depending on occupational field with 68% of those in the professional and professional support fields having a Bachelor's degree of higher, compared to only 31.6% of those employed in sales and 11.6% of those in the service sector. Considering the fact that the average American does not have a Bachelor's degree, he or she is most likely employed in the service, sales, and office support fields with many working in the professional support and business fields as well.

Conclusion
The US population seems almost equally divided between those who have and those have not attended college. While only a minority of Americans, 27.6%, have graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree or more, a slight majority, 53%, of Americans had "some college" education. As only 36.2% had an Associates degree or more, with only roughly 9% having a graduate degree. On the other end, 14.8% of persons did not graduate high school. The income of an individual with some college education was also similar to the overall mean personal income. The mean personal income for someone with some college education was $31,054, compared to $32,140 for the overall population, age 25 or older with earnings.