We, the People, call on Anne Case and Pulitzer Prize winner Angus Deaton to discuss “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism”
Case & Deaton: “..the healthcare system is a parasite on the economy.”
Case & Deaton: After analyzing all factors for post-1970 distress and despair, “..our candidate for the leading villain is..the American healthcare system..the enormous cost. The vast sums .being spent on healthcare are an unsustainable drag on the economy, pushing down wages, reducing the number of good jobs, and undermining financing for education, infrastructure, and the provision of public goods and services that are ..[or might be] provided..”
“The cost of healthcare is like a tribute..Americans have to pay to a foreign power..Warren Buffett likened the effect of healthcare costs on American business to those of a tapeworm; we think of them as a cancer that has metastasized throughout the economy, strangling its ability to deliver what Americans need.”
“Healthcare is not the only {cause}..[how] modern capitalism works..against less-educated labor..[corporate] market power..used against both workers and consumers..,” unenforcement of anti-trust laws, union declines, corporate consolidation [business less competitive] are all major factors.
Case & Deaton: “Our argument is..deaths of despair among whites would not have happened, or would not have been so severe, without the destruction of the white working class, which in turn, would not have happened without..failure of the healthcare system and other problems of..capitalism we have today – particularly persistent upward redistribution through manipulation of markets.”
Case & Deaton: “Robin Hood was said to have robbed the rich to benefit the poor. What is happening today in America is ..reverse of Robin Hood, from poor to rich..Political protection is being used for personal enrichment..a process known..as rent-seeking..Adam smith..noted that while tax laws could be cruel, they were “mild and gentle” in .comparison with..laws that..pressure of “our merchants and manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies.”..Rent-seeking is a major cause of wage stagnation among working-class Americans and has much to do with deaths of despair.”
Case & Deaton: “The healthcare lobby is the most powerful in Washington, and it is almost certainly impossible to have reform without paying them off at the time of reform. The alternative is to keep paying them off forever..[but].. a well-designed reform, with cost control, will slowly reduce the tribute we have to pay them..”
Case & Deaton: “The four-year college degree is increasingly dividing America..the widening gap between those with and without..not only in death but also quality of life..” those without see more pain, ill-health and serious mental distress and declines in..ability to work and socialize..gap also widening in earnings..family stability, and in community..”
Case & Deaton: “Many of the jobs..with..lower wages d o not bring the sense of pride..with being a part of a succesful enterprise, even in a low-ranking position, clerks, janitors, drivers, and customer service representatives “belonged” when they were directly employed..They do not “belong” when the large company outsources to a business-service firm that offers low wages and little prospect of promotion..”
Case & Deaton: “Men without prospects do not make good marriage partners..poorer prospects make it harder for people to build the life their parents had, to own a home, or to save to send kids to college. The lack of well-paying jobs threatens communities and the services they provide, such as schools, parks, and libraries.”
“JObs are not just the source of money; they are the basis for the rituals, customs, and routines of working class life. Destroy work and, in the end, working-class life cannot survive. It is the loss of meaning, of dignity, of pride, and of self-respect that comes with the loss of marriage and community that brings on despair, not just or even primarily the loss of money.”
Case and Deaton: “Other rich countries..face globalization and technological change but have not seen long-term stagnation of wages, nor an epidemic of deaths of despair. There is something going on in America that is different, and that is particularly toxic for the working class.”
Cade & Deaton: “..the American healthcare system is a leading example of an institution..under political protection, redistributes income upward to hospitals, physicians, device makers, and pharmaceutical companies while delivering the worst health outcomes of any rich country.”
“Many of those who..followed the opioid scandal see littler difference between the behavior of..legalized drug dealers and..illegal suppliers of heroin and cocaine..”
Case & Deaton: “We argue..[the healthcare] industry is a cancer at the heart of the economy..wildly metastasized, bringing down wages, destroying good jobs,..making it harder and harder for state and federal governments to afford what their constituents need.”
Caser & Deaton: “..the surge in deaths in America..people are doing this to themselves..drinking..poisoning..shooting..hanging themselves..All these deaths show great unhappiness with life.”
Case & Deaton: “Long ago, Emile Durkheim argued..to understand suicide – and the same could be said for other deaths of despair – we must look beyond the individual to society, particularly to breakdown and turmoil in a society that can no longer provide its members an environment in which they can live a meaningful life.”
Case & Deaton: “The opioid epidemic did not happen in other countries both because they had not destroyed their working class and because their pharmaceutical companies are better controlled and their governments..less easily influenced by corporations..The opioid story shows the power of money to prevent politics from protecting ordinary citizens, even against death.”
Case & Deaton: “One of ..[our]..themes is how the American economy has shifter away from serving ordinary people and toward serving businesses, their managers, and their owners…The American healthcare industry is the prime example..[of]..the use of market power to bring upward distribution, from a large number of people with little, to a smaller number with a great deal, is symptomatic..of American capitalism more generally…this process, run out over a half century, has slowly eaten away at the foundations of working-class life, high wages, and good jobs, and has been central in causing deaths of despair.”
Case & Deaton: “If a fairy godmother were somehow to reduce the share of..healthcare in American GDP..only to thr second highest, Switzerland, 5.6% of GDP would be available for other things..more than a trillion dollars…more than $3000 a year for each man, woman, and child in the U.S.”
Case & Deaton: “The political system, strangled by lobbying and..legislators’ need for deep-pocketed backers, has increasingly become a battlefield for competing commercial and professional interest. Congress..in a better-functioning democracy would have protected the interests of the majority, has mostly ignored them. The law, which ought to have protected the weak against rent-seeking by the strong, has increasingly moved to support the shakedown..”
[note: the above comes from Case & Deaton’s book, “Deaths of Despair.” Read it for much more detail on how the Rich and Corporations are very much a Threat to Democracy.]
With Justice For All 