Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

The flaws in capitalism that are fatal for America's working class

In America today, deaths of despair—from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism—are on the rise among working-class whites. Life expectancy in the United States as a whole has now fallen for three years in a row, a drastic trend unique among wealthy nations and not seen since the great flu pandemic of 1918. Anne Case and Angus Deaton, known for first sounding the alarm about deaths of despair, shed light on the social and economic forces that make life harder for those without a college degree. They explain why, for those with less education, who used to prosper in America, capitalism is no longer delivering.

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism paints a troubling portrait of the American dream in decline. For those without a college degree, today's America has become a land of broken families and few prospects. As the college educated become healthier and wealthier, adults without a college degree are literally dying from pain and despair. In this critically important book, Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labor, the growing power of corporations, and, above all, to a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. Capitalism, which over two centuries lifted countless people out of poverty, is now destroying the lives of America's workers.

This book charts a way forward, providing policy solutions that can rein in capitalism's excesses and make it work for everyone.