Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

A New York Times Bestseller
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year
A New Statesman Book to Read

From economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working class

Deaths 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.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface to the Paperback(p. ix)
• Preface(p. xv)
• Introduction Death in the Afternoon(p. 1)
• Part I Past As Prologue(p. 17)
• 1 The Calm before the Storm(p. 19)
• 2 Things Come Apart(p. 28)
• 3 Deaths of Despair(p. 37)
• Part II The Anatomy Of The Battlefield(p. 47)
• 4 The Lives and Deaths of the More (and Less) Educated(p. 49)
• 5 Black and White Deaths(p. 62)
• 6 The Health of the Living(p. 71)
• 7 The Misery and Mystery of Pain(p. 83)
• 8 Suicide, Drugs, and Alcohol(p. 94)
• 9 Opioids(p. 109)
• Part III What's The Economy Got To Do With It?(p. 131)
• 10 False Trails: Poverty, Income, and the Great Recession(p. 133)
• 11 Growing Apart at Work(p. 148)
• 12 Widening Gaps at Home(p. 167)
• Part IV Why Is Capitalism Failing So Many?(p. 185)
• 13 How American Healthcare Is Undermining Lives(p. 191)
• 14 Capitalism, Immigrants, Robots, and China(p. 212)
• 15 Firms, Consumers, and Workers(p. 226)
• 16 What to Do?(p. 245)
• Acknowledgments(p. 263)
• Notes(p. 265)
• Index(p. 293)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Husband and wife economists Case and Deaton (The Great Escape) analyze the factors contributing to rising death rates among white, working-class Americans in this grim yet galvanizing account. Attributing much of the overall increase to suicides, drug overdoses, and alcoholic liver disease, Case and Deaton show that 158,000 people succumbed to such "deaths of despair" in 2017 ("the equivalent of three full 737s falling out of the sky every day, with no survivors"). They also note that the mortality rate among white men aged 45--54 without a bachelor's degree has increased 25% since the early 1990s, while decreasing 40% for those with a college diploma. Looking behind the numbers, Case and Deaton examine how solid, blue-collar jobs that could support a stable family life have been replaced by low-paying service industry jobs, contributing to wage stagnation; the role of the pharmaceutical industry in the opioid epidemic; and deficiencies in American health care ("a disgrace"). In a brisk final chapter, they outline possible reforms, including universal health care, wage subsidies, the loosening of patent protections to buoy business innovation and competition, and German-style apprenticeship programs as a college alternative. Complementing their candid prose with enlightening charts and graphs, Case and Deaton make the scale and immediacy of the problem crystal clear. This is an essential portrait of America in crisis. (Mar.)

CHOICE Review

To better understand one of the important problems of the current era, namely the declining life expectancies of middle-aged American males, this book offers multifold illuminating insights. Case (Princeton Univ.) and Deaton (emer., Princeton Univ.) link rising suicide rates, surging drug overdose deaths, and alcoholism-related mortalities, calling these fatalities "deaths of despair." They see this pattern over-represented among middle-aged white males, many of whom hold dead-end, low-paying, service-work jobs--if they are lucky enough to find jobs. Low educational attainments further reduce these workers' economic futures, along with their declining union memberships and attenuated religious affiliations, leading many to seek comfort from drugs to escape the pain of everyday life. The authors see this problem residing in the US exclusively, where most people are excluded from health and social services, which are primarily available to higher-status job holders. Only by drastically reforming the health care system into a single-payer system with more government regulations, comparable to health care systems in European countries, will the US be able to address these problems. With very convincing statistical analyses and excellent graphics, these authors have adroitly linked two important problem areas. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. --William Feigelman, emeritus, Nassau Community College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Anne Case is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University. Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University and Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California.