Saturday, August 06, 2016

The 'Condition of America' Question

The 'Condition of America' Question


The National Academy of Sciences released a stunning report in December 2015. Coauthored by Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, the paper revealed “a marked increase in the mortality rate of middle-aged non-Hispanic white Americans between 1999 and 2013--a departure from decades of progress in which the mortality of this demographic had improved. The increase, Case and Deaton said, could be attributed to suicide, liver disease and cirrhosis, drug and alcohol poisoning, and other related effects of drug and alcohol abuse.


Self-reported declines in health, mental health, and ability to conduct activities of daily living, they wrote, and increases in chronic pain and inability to work, as well as clinically measured deteriorations in liver function, all point to growing distress in this population. The trend was visible among all non-Hispanic whites but most pronounced in those with less schooling. No other U.S. ethnic group, and no other country, experienced such a dramatic reversal of fortune.

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