Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism PDF
Preview Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
deaths of despair and the future of capitalism Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism anne case angus deaton prince ton university press princet on & oxford Copyright © 2020 by Prince ton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions@press . princeton . edu Published by Prince ton University Press 41 William Street, Prince ton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press . princeton . edu All Rights Reserved Epigraph on page 83 from “In a Time” from Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie: Poems by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1971 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Little, Brown Book Group Limited and Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Case, Anne, 1958– author. | Deaton, Angus, author. Title: Deaths of despair and the future of capitalism / Anne Case, Angus Deaton. Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019040360 (print) | LCCN 2019040361 (ebook) | ISBN 9780691190785 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780691199955 (ebook) Subjects: MESH: Suicide—economics | Socioeconomic Factors | Drug Overdose— economics | Capitalism | Educational Status | Politics | United States Classification: LCC HV6548.U6 (print) | LCC HV6548.U6 (ebook) | NLM HV 6548.U6 | DDC 362.28—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040360 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040361 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available Editorial: Joe Jackson, Jacqueline Delaney Production Editorial: Terri O’Prey Jacket/Cover Design: Karl Spurzem Production: Erin Suydam Publicity: James Schneider, Caroline Priday This book has been composed in Arno Pro Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of Amer i ca 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Julian, Celestine, Lark, Andrew, Ryan, James, John, Marie, and Will May they enjoy a world with more fairness and less despair. contents Preface ix Introduction: Death in the After noon 1 part i. past as prologue 17 1 The Calm before the Storm 19 2 Things Come Apart 28 3 Deaths of Despair 37 part ii. the anatomy of the battlefield 47 4 The Lives and Deaths of the More (and Less) Educated 49 5 Black and White Deaths 62 6 The Health of the Living 71 7 The Misery and Mystery of Pain 83 8 Suicide, Drugs, and Alcohol 94 9 Opioids 109 part iii. what’s the economy got to do with it? 131 10 False Trails: Poverty, Income, and the Great Recession 133 11 Growing Apart at Work 148 12 Widening Gaps at Home 167 part iv. why is capitalism failing so many? 185 13 How American Healthcare Is Undermining Lives 191 14 Capitalism, Immigrants, Robots, and China 212 15 Firms, Consumers, and Workers 226 16 What to Do? 245 Acknowl edgments 263 Notes 265 Index 293 vii preface In The Great Escape, published in 2013, one of us told a positive story about human progress over the last two hundred and fifty years. The story there was one of previously unimaginable material progress, a de- cline in poverty and deprivation, and extensions in the length of human life. The generation and application of useful knowledge made this progress possible. A star of the show was capitalism, which freed mil- lions from dire poverty, supported by the positive forces of globaliza- tion. Democracy spread around the planet, allowing more and more people to participate in shaping their communities and societies. This book is much less upbeat. It documents despair and death, it critiques aspects of capitalism, and it questions how globalization and technical change are working in America today. Yet we remain optimis- tic. We believe in capitalism, and we continue to believe that globaliza- tion and technical change can be managed to the general benefit. Capi- talism does not have to work as it does in America today. It does not need to be abolished, but it should be redirected to work in the public interest. Free market competition can do many things, but there are also many areas where it cannot work well, including in the provision of healthcare, the exorbitant cost of which is doing immense harm to the health and wellbeing of America. If governments are unwilling to exercise compulsion over health insurance and to take the power to control costs—as other rich countries have done—tragedies are inevi- table. Deaths of despair have much to do with the failure—the unique failure— of America to learn this lesson. There have been previous periods when capitalism failed most peo- ple, as the Industrial Revolution got under way at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and again after the Great Depression. But the beast ix
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