His statistics on the membership crisis faced by traditional civic and professional organizations is staggering, especially when the reader sees this information graphed, organization by organization, in one of the book's appendices. Putnam looks in vain at everything that might disprove his thesis. Instead, he finds that fewer people vote in elections than in the past. Fewer run for public office. Fewer register with either major political party.
Church attendance is down.
Community projects and organizations attract fewer volunteers. There is a slump in charitable giving. Polls reveal that people trust each other less now than they did 40 years ago. Once, community participation rose with educational level, but no longer. The lion's share of volunteering and community service done today is being performed by the aging World War II generation, not by the baby boomers.