Makes charges about how politicians, the clergy, and families are failing to protect those in their care, presenting strong statements about personal responsibility and self-reliance in today's uncertain world.

"For the majority of young adults today, the transition to independence is a time of excitement and possibility. But 4.5 million young people--or a stunning 11.5 percent of youth aged sixteen to twenty-four--experience entry into adulthood as abrupt abandonment, a time of disconnection from school, work, and family. For this growing population of Americans, which includes kids aging out of foster care and those entangled with the justice system, life...

Nicholas Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon, an area that prospered for much of the twentieth century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About one-quarter of the children on Kristof's old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. And while these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write...