Harold Meyerson
The Washington Post
Posted Yesterday

The news this week that the death rate of middle-aged American whites — more particularly, working-class middle-aged American whites — is rising, and that of all other Americans continues to fall, is appalling. But it should come as no surprise.

A study released Monday by Princeton economists Angus Deaton (the 2015 Nobel laureate in economics) and Anne Case documented that the number of deaths by suicide, alcohol use and drug use among working-class whites ages 45 to 54 has risen precipitously since 1999 — so precipitously that the overall death rate for this group increased by 22 percent. Death rate increases in the modern world are so rare, economists and public health scholars have been groping for equivalent instances.

"Only HIV/AIDS in contemporary times has done anything like this," Deaton told the New York Times. A closer parallel might be the increased death rates of Russians, particularly by alcohol, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its economy — not only because the instrument of death was the same for both the Russians and our white working class, but also because the real cause in each instance was the end of a world that had sustained them.

There was a time when the white working class was the subject of happier tales. Similar to the yeoman farmer in the 19th century, the white worker of the mid-20th century was the protagonist of the American saga. Members of the white working class were the linchpin of the New Deal coalition,the guys who fought and won World War II (well, if you ignored those Americans shunted to the all-black units), the Riveting Rosies who built those guys' armaments, the postwar factory workers who made the goods we sold to the world at the height of U.S. economic power and, in consequence of their high levels of unionization, the world's most affluent and economically secure working class from the 1950s through the 1970s.

In recent decades, however, the stories of the white working class have grown relentlessly grimmer. The offshoring of U.S. manufacturing and the increasing substitution of machines for humans in the production process took a huge toll. As Andrew J. Cherlin points out in "Labor's Love Lost," his study of the disintegration of the working-class white family, the share of blue-collar jobs in the U.S. economy declined from 28 percent in 1970 to 17 percent in 2010. Work in the service or retail sectors was no bargain, either: As research by Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Institute demonstrates, the real median hourly wage for white men with no more than a high school diploma declined from $19.76 in 1979 to $17.50 in 2014.

The white working class's loss of jobs and incomes was spurred by its loss of power: The nearly complete deunionization of the private sector left those workers with no way to bargain for better pensions or pay. The doctrine of maximizing shareholder value, which corporations began to adopt in the '80s, most commonly meant minimizing worker pay and benefits, hiring from temp agencies and eliminating programs to increase employee skills.

With the demise of stable, remunerative employment came the decline of stable, two-parent families. Between 1980 and 2010, the percentage of white mothers who were single rose from 18 to 30 percent for those with no college degree, but only from 6 to 9 percent for college graduates.

The decline of the white working class has been demographic as well. In 1940, as Ruy Teixeira and Alan Abramowitz have documented, 82 percent of Americans 25 and older were whites with no more than a high school education; by 2007, that figure had dwindled to 29 percent. Beginning in the 1960s, the Democrats put greater emphasis on mitigating the very real injuries of race and gender than they did on the very real injuries of class, which would have upset corporate America far more. This helped fuel a racial and nativist backlash that has driven much of the white working class (particularly in the South) into Republican ranks.

The rising rate of death is just one of two stories about a major share of the white working class that are making news these days. The other is the unexpected success of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Trump draws his support chiefly from working-class Republicans, who are attracted to his opposition to trade deals, his support for Social Security and Medicare, and his vilification of immigrants — a program similar to that of other nations' right-wing racist-populist parties with working-class support, such as France's National Front.

The rising death rates and the support for Trump are two very different stories about the white working class, but — without in any way equating them — they share some common roots: a sense of abandonment, betrayal and misdirected rage.

http://m.daily-journal.com/opinion/columnists/national/why-working-class-whites-are-dying/article_9c0cdc92-7383-5533-a65f-477a90b80e47.html?mode=jqjqm/

Thanks Obama!

Well.. Not too sure about all this.
Especially.. the cause of death... drowning their sorrows?, suicide?
Looking for stats.

One thing is for sure, if this group is dying out... Who is going to pay for the 700,000 - 850,000 + refugee/migrants, per year. (that number does NOT include from Hispanic countries). And the 13 + million illegals.

Well... If you are in this group.
You & your tax dollars will surely be missed. Hook up the IV.

Well...

The third and fourth generation of deadbeat foodstamp recipients, will just have to start sharing their "largess" with the incoming waves of new and improved deadbeat foodstamp recipients.

Pie and Slices are getting smaller!

Ferguson Missouri, has 5 generations, so do some other cities. So they may be looking at 'crouton' size.

Can't we blame this on Bush or Cheney?

lol
and I thought for once I would read people actually discussing whats wrong with 'white' folks,, but I guess that personal responsibility thing doesnt work here and its back to discussion of how everyone else is inferior once again,,,

lol
and I thought for once I would read people actually discussing whats wrong with 'white' folks,, but I guess that personal responsibility thing doesnt work here and its back to discussion of how everyone else is inferior once again,,,

Empower yourself .. make a thread. And watch the spin .. Could be something like Macho men vs Metro men.
You & I could have fun with that! ... Ugh..so never mind, it could ruin our reputations if we agree to often. And people may think the planets are out of alignment again.

thanks for the offer

but such a thread from me will be dismissed as an 'agenda' and go right back to the black bashing that I get so tired of,,,


I dont mind stirring up reputations but this is not quite the topic for it,

I will take a raincheck for knocking those planets out of alignment,,

Workin' hard to support deadbeats, really stresses "white folks" out, wondering why deadbeats won't support themselves.



I didn't know, foodstamps is a "racial" thang. I mean, "deadbeat foodstamp recipients", pretty much consists of *some* people from ALL demographics.

foodstamps isnt a racial thing, nor did I state it was

what I stated was that instead of a discussion of whats wrong with 'white' folks,, it turned quickly into some other group and their inferiority ,

That 'tard', woulda had his @ss stomped daily, at the high schools I went to.

Well....you could always quote the ones you think turned into a discussion of some other group instead of wrapping all other posters into that box....or, as SassyEuro stated, make your own thread discussing whats wrong with white folks

Oops...is that emote indictaive of whats killing us? My bad

ID be quoting the whole thread

in order

1 Obamas fault
2 yeah, but how about those migrants?
3. and what about those welfare recipients?
4. yeah! and the generations of them living in Ferguson?

lol


so which post WASNT about another groups failings from the crowd of 'personal responsbiility' in a thread about white people?


?

The Obama one for sure wasnt about a "group"....it was about the president...and it was a joke...note the emote. Turn your 'humor' meter on occasionally. The rest...well, those posters can speak for those. I wont attempt to put words in their mouths.

lovely

still waiting to read the thread that talks honestly about whats 'wrong' with whites though,,,,

The decline of the ''working class'' correlates directly with the decline of union membership.