Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

Product Description
A New York Times BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2020A New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceShortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the YearA New Statesman Book to ReadFrom economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working classDeaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism are rising dramatically in the United States, claiming hundreds of thousands of American lives. Anne Case and Angus Deaton explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class. As the college educated become healthier and wealthier, adults without a degree are literally dying from pain and despair. Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labor, the growing power of corporations, and a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. This critically important book paints a troubling portrait of the American dream in decline, and provides solutions that can rein in capitalism's excesses and make it work for everyone.
Review
Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year-- "Publishers Weekly"\nOne of the Financial Times' Summer Books of 2020: Economics-- "Joyce Carol Oates on Twitter"\nThis book is of the highest importance.
---Martin Wolf, Financial Times-- "New York Times Editors' Choice"\nA must-read for anyone attempting to objectively understand our collective American pain as well as those gaining from it.
---Rahul Gupta, Democracy-- "Publishers Weekly"\nImportant.
---Michael Tomasky, Democracy-- "New Scientist"\nSimply put, this is a terrific book. I suspect it will be on many people's top 10 book lists of 2020. Although written before COVID-19, the book's critique of the US approach to health care and inequality is remarkably prescient. In many ways, the opioid crisis Case and Deaton analyze is a microcosm of the anguish the world is experiencing today, and we would be remiss not to pay attention to their insights.
---Kenneth Rogoff, Finance & Development-- "Publishers Weekly"\nAlthough the authors completed this book before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic -- it was published four days after President Trump declared a national emergency -- their diagnosis is still painfully relevant.
---Carlos Lozada, Washington Post-- "Publishers Weekly"\nAnne Case and Angus Deaton are senior economists at Princeton with expertise in public health and poverty, respectively. The combination, plus clear writing and ample doses of caution and open-mindedness, makes
Deaths of Despair a compelling book.
---Edward Hadas, Reuters BreakingViews\nA New York Times Editors' Choice\nCase and Deaton explain how every detail of this crisis unfolded, examining recent historical events and rightly placing much of the blame on the United States' distinctive strain of capitalism, designed to protect and grow the assets of the wealthy few.
---Keri Leigh Merrit, Common Dreams-- "New York Times Editors' Choice"\nThis highly important book examines the pain and despair among white blue-collar workers and suggests that the hopelessness they are experiencing may eventually extend to the entire American work force.-- "New York Times Editors' Choice"\nElaborately explained and well-presented. . . . Case and Deaton's well-written and gloomy book was meant as a warning. Relentlessly fighting an infectious disease, the U.S. government seems to have treated it as a handbook.
---Joakim Book, American Institute for Economic Research-- "Joyce Carol Oates on Twitter"\nDeaths of Despair is designed to shine a light on a generational catastrophe that could--perhaps will--become a multigenerational disaster. It does this with chilling precision.
---Mike Jakeman, Strategy+Business\n[a] hard-h