I just read a (german) article thats pretty dark about the problems the US are facing. Its based on a book by 2 economists.
Here’s a google translation of some of the text from the article:
The starting point is the observation that the steady increase in life expectancy - actually a stable trend in all industrialized countries for a century - has practically come to a standstill in the United States in recent years. The USA falls far behind countries like Canada or Sweden.
This general life expectancy is an average across all population groups. The higher mortality can be almost completely attributed to three causes:
the rapidly growing number of suicides, Alcoholism and its complications as well as drug overdoses.A population group is most affected, Case and Deaton call it white working class: white workers without a degree.
While mortality in this population group between the ages of 45 and 54 has declined in practically all other industrialized countries, it has even increased in the United States since the late 1990s. Compared to Sweden, middle-aged white Americans are more than twice as likely to die. Since 1999, these additional and avoidable fatalities have totaled 600,000 Americans, most middle-aged.
The increase in death rates coincides with the outbreak of the opioid crisis in the United States, but according to the authors, this cannot be explained alone. “Without the undermining of the white middle class, the drug crisis would not be so great,” argues Deaton. “Desperation is smoldering in society. This has opened up sales opportunities for a pharmaceutical industry that is not adequately regulated.”
- Deaths per 100 000 aged between 45-54 (white & not hispanic)
- France, Sweden, UK, USA
- The dotted line is an estimate of the USA created in 1998 that assumes a declining death rate of 2% per year.
I’m guessing most of you are aware of this, but I thought it might be relevant in this election year to be aware of the underlying problems facing the US & that Trump is just a symptom.