I don't doubt that Americans work longer hours than peer nations, or that they are far more prone to deaths of despair than peer nations.
It's a non sequitur, however, to directly attribute the latter to the former. You haven't demonstrated that the Americans dying deaths of despair are the same Americans working extremely long hours for meagre pay.
I'm not saying that deaths of despair can't be attributed to (American) capitalism, only that you haven't demonstrated that deaths of despair are directly caused by long working hours and poor working conditions.
I disagree. Case and Deaton's study (cited above) is very sound, pointing to deaths of despair coming from economic hardship. The New York Times study into post-COVID life expectancy explicitly calls out that the hardest hit groups (Indigenous folk) were most impacted due to their disproportionate poverty, determined by their high COVID precaution as measured by vaccine rates.
Using these sources, as well as the above data into working hours vs. life expectancy, I find it well with in the bounds of logic to determine America's aggressive work environment and lack of social safety net to be at fault. It's like finding wolf scat and tracks next to a devoured deer. We may not see the wolf, but we can logically conclude one killed the deer.
Having read the Case and Deaton article, I cannot find any suggestion therein that the authors believe that long working hours are a contributing factor to deaths of despair among white Americans. However, the researchers themselves collected data on whether survey respondents were able to work, and suggest that a decline in the ability of white Americans to work (owing to chronic pain or mental illness) may be a contributing factor to the epidemic of deaths of despair. This rather seems to bolster my hypothesis more than it does yours - the "deaths of despair" phenomenon is primarily driven by people who are chronically unemployed and/or unable to work for health reasons, rather than gainfully employed people driven to overdose or suicide by their long working hours, as your article explicitly argues.
The NYT article is paywalled so I can't read it. I have no reason to believe that Indigenous people weren't the hardest hit by Covid. That doesn't necessarily imply that they were hardest hit because they work really long hours. In fact, I don't even know that Indigenous people DO work longer hours than the American average - do they?
>I find it well with in the bounds of logic to determine America's aggressive work environment and lack of social safety net to be at fault.
I never argued that the USA's poor social safety net may be a contributing factor to the deaths of despair phenomenon. It may well be. I was pointing out that you haven't done enough to demonstrate that the long hours that Americans work is directly causally linked to deaths of despair. Even after responding to me, I still don't believe you've done enough.
Does capitalism get credit for the technological innovations it produced that drastically improved life expectancy? Or just alleged cases where life expectancy falls from fairly extreme highs?
>They found the fastest rising causes of death for Americans were related to economic misery, such as overdoses, suicides, drunk driving accidents, and liver failure.
It's a reach to say these things are necessarily caused by economic misery, because they aren't.
>Outside of national governance, a revitalized labor movement would drastically improve our lives. Stronger, prevalent unions would bolster worker rights, ensuring:
What annoys me most about socialists is how wildly confident they are. They never say that they estimate a certain thing provides the best probability for achieving some outcome. It's always a grand proclamation that the thing they support will simply work.
Of course, unions cannot work the way they may have in the past, because labor today has so little leverage. Globalization and mass immigration mean that corporations have options now they they did not used to. It's funny,
because socialists always end up zealously advocating for the same kinds of immigration policies that corporations and billionaires exactly want.
>Higher wages so workers have more money for fun, like travel and video games.
Travel is a major contributor to climate change. And video games? Aside from the fact that most people can afford video games, is this really your grand vision for a happier future? People spending more time playing video games?
People already spend too much time engaging in capitalist electronic entertainment. A lack of video games is not the source of society's woes.
I don't doubt that Americans work longer hours than peer nations, or that they are far more prone to deaths of despair than peer nations.
It's a non sequitur, however, to directly attribute the latter to the former. You haven't demonstrated that the Americans dying deaths of despair are the same Americans working extremely long hours for meagre pay.
This article (https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-crisis-of-despair-a-federal-task-force-for-economic-recovery-and-societal-well-being/), for instance, notes that American deaths of despair are concentrated among non-college-educated whites out of the labour force i.e. the chronically unemployed. This fits with the existing picture in my head of Rust Belt cities in the Midwest which were never able to economically recover from the destruction or migration of the large manufacturing industries therein.
I'm not saying that deaths of despair can't be attributed to (American) capitalism, only that you haven't demonstrated that deaths of despair are directly caused by long working hours and poor working conditions.
I disagree. Case and Deaton's study (cited above) is very sound, pointing to deaths of despair coming from economic hardship. The New York Times study into post-COVID life expectancy explicitly calls out that the hardest hit groups (Indigenous folk) were most impacted due to their disproportionate poverty, determined by their high COVID precaution as measured by vaccine rates.
Using these sources, as well as the above data into working hours vs. life expectancy, I find it well with in the bounds of logic to determine America's aggressive work environment and lack of social safety net to be at fault. It's like finding wolf scat and tracks next to a devoured deer. We may not see the wolf, but we can logically conclude one killed the deer.
Having read the Case and Deaton article, I cannot find any suggestion therein that the authors believe that long working hours are a contributing factor to deaths of despair among white Americans. However, the researchers themselves collected data on whether survey respondents were able to work, and suggest that a decline in the ability of white Americans to work (owing to chronic pain or mental illness) may be a contributing factor to the epidemic of deaths of despair. This rather seems to bolster my hypothesis more than it does yours - the "deaths of despair" phenomenon is primarily driven by people who are chronically unemployed and/or unable to work for health reasons, rather than gainfully employed people driven to overdose or suicide by their long working hours, as your article explicitly argues.
The NYT article is paywalled so I can't read it. I have no reason to believe that Indigenous people weren't the hardest hit by Covid. That doesn't necessarily imply that they were hardest hit because they work really long hours. In fact, I don't even know that Indigenous people DO work longer hours than the American average - do they?
>I find it well with in the bounds of logic to determine America's aggressive work environment and lack of social safety net to be at fault.
I never argued that the USA's poor social safety net may be a contributing factor to the deaths of despair phenomenon. It may well be. I was pointing out that you haven't done enough to demonstrate that the long hours that Americans work is directly causally linked to deaths of despair. Even after responding to me, I still don't believe you've done enough.
Okay! You're entitled to your opinion. Personally I think the logic is sound and well reasoned, but doesn't sound like we'll agree.
Does capitalism get credit for the technological innovations it produced that drastically improved life expectancy? Or just alleged cases where life expectancy falls from fairly extreme highs?
>They found the fastest rising causes of death for Americans were related to economic misery, such as overdoses, suicides, drunk driving accidents, and liver failure.
It's a reach to say these things are necessarily caused by economic misery, because they aren't.
>Outside of national governance, a revitalized labor movement would drastically improve our lives. Stronger, prevalent unions would bolster worker rights, ensuring:
What annoys me most about socialists is how wildly confident they are. They never say that they estimate a certain thing provides the best probability for achieving some outcome. It's always a grand proclamation that the thing they support will simply work.
Of course, unions cannot work the way they may have in the past, because labor today has so little leverage. Globalization and mass immigration mean that corporations have options now they they did not used to. It's funny,
because socialists always end up zealously advocating for the same kinds of immigration policies that corporations and billionaires exactly want.
>Higher wages so workers have more money for fun, like travel and video games.
Travel is a major contributor to climate change. And video games? Aside from the fact that most people can afford video games, is this really your grand vision for a happier future? People spending more time playing video games?
People already spend too much time engaging in capitalist electronic entertainment. A lack of video games is not the source of society's woes.
Here's my plan to reduce travel's impact on climate change : ) https://joewrote.substack.com/p/the-case-for-the-united-states-airline