Deaths of despair and the future of capitali

Is Capitalism Destroying the Lives of America’s White Working Class?

For the first time since World War I, American life expectancy has fallen for three years in a row. This has not happened recently in any other rich country. In the last two decades, deaths of despair—due to drug overdoses, suicides, or alcohol-related illnesses—have risen dramatically among white working-class Americans and now account for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in the United States.

Why has this happened in the richest, most powerful country in the world? What economic and social forces have led white working-class Americans to be shut out of good jobs and prosperity, turning to opioids to dull the pain and desperation? Why is it that increasingly, to be without a college degree is to be condemned to a life unfulfilled?

In this searing book, Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton and Anne Case document the decline of the American Dream for many white working-class Americans who see their families break apart and their hopes dashed. While the college-educated and professional elites prosper and achieve unprecedented levels of wealth, a significant portion of the population is witnessing how capitalism leaves them behind and their lives become shorter and shorter.