Deaths of despair

[Leigha]

In their new book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Case and Deaton try to answer a simple but profound question: Why? Why are non-college-educated whites dying of drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, and suicide at unprecedented rates? And what does this have to do with the peculiar strain of modern American capitalism?

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/15/21214734/d...ans-deaths

I wasn't aware of the strong correlation between American mortality rates and education levels. Perhaps, capitalism in part contributes to inequality because as the modern market becomes more knowledge-driven, education is more important than ever. 

Do you agree with the points made?

[Syne]

Not an effect of capitalism. Perhaps an effect of poor whites being demonized as racist and being told they are victims of the rich, or just more jobs to fund drug and alcohol abuse. Notice how the Vox article doesn't mention capitalism beyond their own description, and the authors say increasing income inequality has been going on for the past 50 years, with only 2015, 16, & 17 showing increased "deaths of despair".

Overall, I'd say the major contributing factor is people being convinced that being poor is someone else's fault. A lesser sense of personal agency deprives people of feeling they can change their lot, which would make anyone despair. People who believe in their own agency generally make better choices.

[C C]

In their new book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Case and Deaton try to answer a simple but profound question: Why? Why are non-college-educated whites dying of drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, and suicide at unprecedented rates? And what does this have to do with the peculiar strain of modern American capitalism?

It's not surprising that social-science academics (especially those appearing in "The Daily Princetonian") would want to shift the opioid-epidemic narrative to "American capitalism" being a primary cause or THE blame recipient. They enter such research beforehand with their own motivated reasoning (its goals and hermeneutical filters). Thus, those preconceptions fit data to the background theories and conspiracy frameworks of their own political culture.

Opioid Addiction Drug Going Mostly To Whites, Even As Black Death Rate Rises
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shot...ose-in-bla

EXCERPT: "This epidemic over the last few years has been framed by many as largely a white epidemic, but we know now that's not true," Lagisetty says. [...] The fact that just 25% of the visits were paid for through Medicaid and Medicare "does highlight that many of these visits could be very costly for persons of low income," Lagisetty says.
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The Vox article seems to highlight that non-college Whites qualify in that low income category, too, despite this article focusing on non-Whites getting the short end of that stick with regard to the treatment drug. Can't afford the treatment, more likely to die from fentanyl abuse. It's roughly akin to the missing white woman syndrome. If "lots" of whites are supposedly dying, it attracts more media attention to the crusader cause of trying to change this or that system to a collectivist one. So that becomes a veiled agenda for the two economics scholars.
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How China flooded the U.S. with lethal fentanyl, fueling the opioid crisis (i.e., the role of socialist Chinese "capitalism")
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-ro...38423.html

EXCERPT: I [Ben Westhoff] went really deep and tried to learn everything I could about this problem, and that brought me to China,” he said. “I actually went undercover into a pair of Chinese drug operations, including, I went into a fentanyl lab outside Shanghai. And I was pretending to be a drug dealer.”

He continued: “What I learned was that these companies making fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are subsidized by the government. And so when they work in these suburban office parks, for example, the building, the costs for research and development, they have these development zones, they get export tax breaks.”

Shoddy regulations on China’s side has led to these drugs entering the U.S. The U.S.-China Business Council stated this is in large part because local governments were prioritizing economic growth and development objectives “above all else,” in addition to “the fragmented nature of China’s administrative system that oversees the production and export of chemical and pharmaceutical products.”

Lax postal service regulations have also contributed to the drug’s rise in the U.S. Initially, those who were shipping fentanyl from China to the U.S. would mislabel the packages and ship them through another country as an extra precaution.

[Leigha]

Not an effect of capitalism. Perhaps an effect of poor whites being demonized as racist and being told they are victims of the rich, or just more jobs to fund drug and alcohol abuse. Notice how the Vox article doesn't mention capitalism beyond their own description, and the authors say increasing income inequality has been going on for the past 50 years, with only 2015, 16, & 17 showing increased "deaths of despair".

Overall, I'd say the major contributing factor is people being convinced that being poor is someone else's fault. A lesser sense of personal agency deprives people of feeling they can change their lot, which would make anyone despair. People who believe in their own agency generally make better choices.

Good points, but does our culture place too much emphasis on a university degree, disrespecting those who for whatever their reasons, didn't obtain one? I have a degree, but it was something that was pushed in my family. Many uneducated employees didn't have anyone guiding them, much less pushing them, to explore college. We shouldn't go as far as to label them victims, but just saying ...sometimes through no fault of their own, people make choices based on the cards dealt to them early on in life. 

There is still a great need for skilled workers who didn't go to college, and if we don't find ways to nurture that part of the workforce, it will bite us all. This lack of respect towards these workers could be contributing to their depression. Nothing against capitalism as long as the ''capitalists'' don't abuse their power over the working class.

[Syne]

Good points, but does our culture place too much emphasis on a university degree, disrespecting those who for whatever their reasons, didn't obtain one? I have a degree, but it was something that was pushed in my family. Many uneducated employees didn't have anyone guiding them, much less pushing them, to explore college. We shouldn't go as far as to label them victims, but just saying ...sometimes through no fault of their own, people make choices based on the cards dealt to them early on in life. 

There is still a great need for skilled workers who didn't go to college, and if we don't find ways to nurture that part of the workforce, it will bite us all. This lack of respect towards these workers could be contributing to their depression. Nothing against capitalism as long as the ''capitalists'' don't abuse their power over the working class.

I don't think we should be labeling anyone a victim. And college isn't for everyone, especially considering the cost to brainwashing ratio. Elitism isn't a problem of capitalism. It's a problem of culture that can exist in any economic system.