30th book of 2020: American Carnage.
In deaths of despair, the authors discuss the rising trend of three types of fatalities: drugs, alcohol, and suicide. In most of the first part of the book, the authors break apart the trend, but all you really need to know is the graph above. (must be on computer to view) Since 2000, deaths in this category have nearly tripled across the country, and the trend is accelerating. For some in America, Trump’s vision of American carnage is real.
“When it comes to people whose lives aren’t going well, American culture is a harsh judge: if you can’t find enough work, if your wages are too low, if you can’t be counted on to support a family, if you don’t have a promising future, then there must be something wrong with you. When people discover that they can numb negative feelings with alcohol or drugs, only to find that addiction has made them even more powerless, it seems to confirm that they are to blame. We Americans are reluctant to acknowledge that our economy serves the educated classes and penalizes the rest.”
What the book criticizes is not American capitalism itself, but some of the perverse incentives and systems of upward redistribution (sheriff on nottingham redistribution) that help the affluent at the cost of those in need of the most help. The causes listed are not new, though I was surprised at the relative weight the author gives them:
- America’s healthcare system. (20% tax on GDP, costs have gone up, disproportionately hurt the poor)
- International wage competition and automation. (the usual boogeyman for this sort of book, not as much the focus as I expected)
- More oligopolies, less competition, and more economic surplus going to corporations. (Authors make a good argument for increasing the minimum wage here)
While the data and proposed causes are not novel, the authors package them in a way that I found convincing.