Very good writeup of Case/Deaton on deaths of despair. There's an awful lot of misery in America — far more than in other rich countries 1/ nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Three points I'd like to make. First, it's awesome that some conservatives are still treating this as a "values" issue (and that people like Trump still imagine that "American carnage is a nonwhite inner-city issue). This is what happens when good jobs disappear 2/
Second, economists who claim that if you measure things right the working class isn't being left behind are clearly doing it wrong. Economics is about people. If people feel worse off, they are 3/
Finally, the sad paradox of US politics: non-college whites are far better off in social democracies like Denmark, but non-college US whites vote overwhelmingly against the party that wants to make us more like Denmark 3/
