Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism By: Angus Deaton, Anne Case

Author: Anne Case, Angus Deaton
Narrated by: Kate Harper

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

Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row – a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year – and they’re still rising. Anne Case and Angus Deaton, known for first sounding the alarm about deaths of despair, 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. They demonstrate why, for those who used to prosper in America, capitalism is no longer delivering. 

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism paints a troubling portrait of the American dream in decline. For the white working class, today’s America has become a land of broken families and few prospects. As the college educated become healthier and wealthier, adults without a degree are literally dying from pain and despair. In this critically important book, Case and Deaton tie the crisis to the weakening position of labor, the growing power of corporations, and, above all, to a rapacious health-care sector that redistributes working-class wages into the pockets of the wealthy. Capitalism, which over two centuries lifted countless people out of poverty, is now destroying the lives of blue-collar America. 

This book charts a way forward, providing solutions that can rein in capitalism’s excesses and make it work for everyone. 

One of New Statesman‘s Books to Read in 2020

2.6M	01 - Preface.mp3
20M	02 - Introduction.mp3
12M	03 - Part 1 - Chapter 1.mp3
9.0M	04 - Part 1 - Chapter 2.mp3
12M	05 - Part 1 - Chapter 3.mp3
14M	06 - Part 2 - Chapter 4.mp3
8.4M	07 - Part 2 - Chapter 5.mp3
14M	08 - Part 2 - Chapter 6.mp3
12M	09 - Part 2 - Chapter 7.mp3
20M	10 - Part 2 - Chapter 8.mp3
32M	11 - Part 2 - Chapter 9.mp3
19M	12 - Part 3 - Chapter 10.mp3
24M	13 - Part 3 - Chapter 11.mp3
20M	14 - Part 3 - Chapter 12.mp3
36M	15 - Part 4 - Chapter 13.mp3
20M	16 - Part 4 - Chapter 14.mp3
26M	17 - Part 4 - Chapter 15.mp3
25M	18 - Part 4 - Chapter 16.mp3
2.4M	19 - Acknowledgements.mp3
44K	cover.jpg
320M	total