Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Richard Dixon,
 UNC-Wilmington

Chien Ju Huang,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

®
Volume 2, Number 1
Spring 2004
Outline of Articles

1. The Meritocracy Myth

 by Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K. Miller, Jr.
According to the ideology of the American Dream, America is a land of limitless opportunity in which individuals can go as far as their own merit takes them.  But there is a very large gap between how people think the system works and how the system actually does work.  Both income and wealth are highly skewed.  Poverty is not randomly distributed either.  The bottom of half of the population controls only 2.8% of net worth. 
2. Religious Choices and Preferences: North Carolina's Baskin Robbins Effect?

 by Robert  A. Wortham
The marketing of religion has become a big business.  Wortham examines the current religious scene and shows that Americans want religious plurality, rather than religious homogamy.  Just like shopping for ice cream, Americans want 57 choices when shopping for religion. 
3. Feeding the Hog Industry in North Carolina:  Agri-Industrial Restructuring in Hog Farming and Its Implications for the US Periphery

 by Donnie Charleston
Hog farms bring with them employment to remote areas but they also bring environmental problems. What determines the location of the large-scale factory farm? It is race? Is it capital availability? The answer seems to be capital availablity . 
4. Population Growth, Density and the Costs of Providing Public Services: A Review Article 

  by George H. Conklin
The article Population Growth, Density and the Costs of Providing Public Services by Helen Ladd is reviewed as part of Sociation Today's effort to bring to light important articles which should receive further reading. It seems that the social effects of density are non-linear. At very low levels of population density, a small increase in density lowers the costs of providing services. But at anything more than minimal levels of density, more density means more cost to provide services. The J-curve shows that density is non-linear in its social effects.