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Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/d...-americans-lacking-college-degrees/ar-AAOoWKl
Deaths of Despair Worsen Among Americans Lacking College Degrees
Katia Dmitrieva 1 day ago
(Bloomberg) -- In the U.S., a four-year degree is increasingly a “talisman” against deaths related to suicide and economic hardship, according to a new research paper that offers a stark verdict on the current economy.
While the suicide rate almost doubled among White non-Hispanics without a bachelor’s degree in the 1992-2019 period to about 31 per 100,000 people, there was almost no increase among those with a degree, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton wrote in their September paper. Covid-19 likely exacerbated deaths of despair from opioid overdoses -- already increasing pre-pandemic -- as people grew more isolated and more fentanyl showed up in other drugs.
The broader issue, though, is that the U.S. economy and society “are no longer providing the basis for a good life” for the less-educated.
“Even if the opioid epidemic is brought under control,” the researchers wrote, “the underlying despair is likely to remain. The prospects for less-educated Americans remain bleak unless there are fundamental changes in the way that the American economy operates.” The two economic scholars -- a married couple -- last year had a New York Times bestseller in their book entitled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.”...
Deaths of Despair Worsen Among Americans Lacking College Degrees
Katia Dmitrieva 1 day ago
(Bloomberg) -- In the U.S., a four-year degree is increasingly a “talisman” against deaths related to suicide and economic hardship, according to a new research paper that offers a stark verdict on the current economy.
While the suicide rate almost doubled among White non-Hispanics without a bachelor’s degree in the 1992-2019 period to about 31 per 100,000 people, there was almost no increase among those with a degree, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton wrote in their September paper. Covid-19 likely exacerbated deaths of despair from opioid overdoses -- already increasing pre-pandemic -- as people grew more isolated and more fentanyl showed up in other drugs.
The broader issue, though, is that the U.S. economy and society “are no longer providing the basis for a good life” for the less-educated.
“Even if the opioid epidemic is brought under control,” the researchers wrote, “the underlying despair is likely to remain. The prospects for less-educated Americans remain bleak unless there are fundamental changes in the way that the American economy operates.” The two economic scholars -- a married couple -- last year had a New York Times bestseller in their book entitled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.”...
