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Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Book

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

Anne Case and Angus Deaton
Princeton UP, 2020

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

In the fairy-tale version of America, life just keeps getting better. But prominent economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have been poking a hole in that story. In 2015, they reported that US life expectancies and mortality rates had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. Now Case and Deaton further delve into those initial findings, and they conclude that the financial setbacks wrought by globalization have metastasized into health woes and social problems. The authors describe a bleak divide in US society that should concern all Americans.

Take-Aways

  • White Americans, and white men in particular, are struggling.
  • Mortality rates and life expectancies have stopped improving for white people in the United States.
  • Suicide, drugs and alcohol are the three main causes of “deaths of despair.”

About the Authors

Anne Case is professor emeritus of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Angus Deaton is professor emeritus at Princeton and a professor at the University of Southern California. He was awarded the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

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