'Deaths of Despair': White Americans Increasingly Affected, Experts Find

Middle-aged white Americans are increasingly afflicted with "deaths of despair," particularly those without a college education, who often find themselves without good job prospects and facing life alone.

Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton found that death rates for white Americans ages 45 to 54 have increased sharply since 1999, The Associated Press reported, particularly for "deaths of despair," which include suicides, drug overdoses, and alcohol-related deaths.

Case and Deaton argued in a paper that the lack of good middle-income jobs for high school graduates who didn’t attend college (and those who dropped out of high school) caused problems once people hit middle age, and added that those without a college degree were more likely to be unemployed, unmarried, or to have poor health, the AP reported.

Those experiencing family dysfunction, social isolation, addiction, obesity, and mental illness were the most vulnerable to early death, according to The Washington Post.

The death rates were rising faster for non-Hispanic whites than for other racial or ethnic groups, and both genders were affected, with the rates for women rising even faster than those for men.

Death rates for blacks did begin to rise after the 2010 economic downturn as well, the Post reported.

“Ultimately, we see our story as about the collapse of the white, high-school-educated working class after its heyday in the early 1970s, and the pathologies that accompany that decline,” Case and Deaton said, the Post reported.

The study will be reported to the Brookings Institution on Friday.

Twitter criticized Trump’s policies as unhelpful to the “despair” phenomenon and claimed non-whites also are being affected.

It is not just "whites without college degrees!" - The Forces Driving Middle-Aged White People's 'Deaths Of Despair' https://t.co/cF85e0O21h

— Rick Woten (@rickwoten) March 23, 2017

For whites across America, "deaths of despair" are rising https://t.co/d1MAvkJo0C Burden of taxes for "entitlements" PC culture, these hurt!

— Kim Guerino (@GuerinoKim) March 23, 2017

Dwindling economic options are fueling an alarming spike in “deaths of despair.” Selfish Trump policies won't help those in dire straits.

— danny (@Mardigroan) March 23, 2017

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