future work force. The related phenomena of drug use and crime create a dangerous environment in urban America as well as a drain on our economy. The poor, and especially the elderly poor, are particularly vulnerable to these threats.

It is estimated that between 31 million and 37 million people lack any health insurance coverage and many others are underinsured. Most of these people are workers and their dependents. About half of our workers have jobs that do not provide private pensions, and such coverage of the work force has stopped growing. Meanwhile, unemployment insurance has become an increasingly threadbare component of the social safety net. Only about one-third of the unemployed receive such a benefit at any one point in time. As Americans live longer, they are more likely to need protection against the costs of long-term care for themselves and their family members; few are currently prepared for this eventuality.

Such problems signal a mounting social deficit that is as troubling as government budget deficits or the deteriorating physical infrastructure of roads and bridges. This report examines the shape and scope of that social deficit and offers a realistic, affordable program for addressing it in a comprehensive way. We should emphasize at the outset that we have found no quick or easy answers. The task of realigning the social welfare system with the needs of modern America will require efforts in the public and private sectors, a variety of methods, and many years. Most of all, it will require a realistic new consensus about our responsibilities to each other, now and in the future—a vision of where we are and where we want to go as a society.

There should be no illusions about the political difficulty of achieving such a consensus, especially in a time of budget deficits and general skepticism about public spending. Yet members of the project's executive panel agree that America has no choice but to try. As a result of years of neglecting our social infrastructure, the divisions in American society have increased in ways that threaten quality of life, peace of mind, and the economic future.