David Dayen at The Fiscal Times writes—America's Biggest Crisis Has Nothing to Do With Donald Trump:
Since the 2016 election, my social media feeds have been overtaken by Cassandras, darkly warning of the death of liberal democracy. But lately I’ve been thinking about a different collapse — not of the political system, but of a large swathe of our society. Over the past few weeks, a stream of data has revealed the desperation of an almost catatonic America, taking place outside of the dominant media corridors and conversations.
For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), deaths in 2015 from heroin abuse surpassed deaths from gun homicides, an unprecedented phenomenon for a country seen as more addicted to its firearms. Total opioid deaths, including overdoses of prescription drugs like OxyContin and synthetic opiates like fentanyl, hit 33,092 last year. [...]
Though opioid addiction has belatedly claimed headlines, painkillers aren’t the only medications Americans seek out. CDC numbers indicate that just as many died from alcohol-related causes in 2015 as from opioids; add drunk-driving deaths and the number more than doubles. Annual tobacco deaths still hover around half a million, dwarfing these other vices. Others abuse food. [...]
Add this all up and you get the incredible finding that life expectancy fell in 2015 for the first time since 1993 (the height of the AIDS crisis). In other words, we’re looking at something akin to a new plague. And it’s a localized plague, with deep impacts on middle-aged rural whites.
Ailments like cardiovascular disease and cancer are increasing significantly in Appalachia and the South, while dropping along the coasts. Suicides and alcohol and drug poisonings, the despair deaths, hit these communities hard. [...]
What is the source of this pain that has so many in small towns reaching for a needle or a bottle, dessert or a gun? One hypothesis is that poverty increases the stress load, which positively tracks with high blood pressure, obesity and other health problems. But beyond poverty, there’s the depression that accompanies a lower standard of living. If you were born in 1940, you had a 92 percent chance of making more money than your parents at an equivalent age, according to research from economist Raj Chetty. For someone born in 1980, that number is down to 50 percent.
The economic crisis in small towns, in other words, correlates with the public health crisis. [...]
Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/4XLXSj0y18s/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Dayen-America-s-biggest-crisis-has-nothing-to-do-with-Donald-Trump
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