by Anne Case
First published 2020
Economist Anne Case and Nobel laureate Angus Deaton investigate a stark reversal in American health trends. For three consecutive years, life expectancy dropped in the United States, a pattern unseen since 1918 and unprecedented among wealthy nations today. The authors trace this decline to what they term deaths of despair: fatalities from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism that now kill hundreds of thousands annually. Case and Deaton argue that capitalism has stopped working for America's working class. While college graduates grow healthier and wealthier, adults without degrees face broken families and diminished prospects. The authors connect this crisis to labor's weakened position, corporate power's expansion, and a predatory healthcare system that transfers working class earnings to wealthy pockets. They contend that capitalism, which lifted millions from poverty over two centuries, now destroys blue collar lives. The book proposes solutions to restrain capitalism's harmful effects and restore its benefits for all Americans.
Genres: politics, economics, non-fiction, health, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-change
Setting: United States
Period: 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Princeton University Press
Content warnings: addiction, depression, mental-illness, suicide