Public Comment

Two scholars, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, reported in their book, Death By Despair, the substantial increase in the death rate of white workers who were 45 to 54 and without college degrees from 1999 to 2017. Had the death rate not increased, about 600,000 would still be alive. The deaths occurred as a result of drugs, alcohol, and suicide. These workers had been experiencing serious problems in their lives both on and off their jobs, which as the authors mention, can suck the joys out of life as well precipitate considerable stress. This is why the book is entitled “Death By Despair”.  

Although many readers are likely to blame capitalism for the problems discussed, the authors instead believe that the problems could be readily corrected. Whether a serious problem can be successfully tackled is always an important issue. Unfortunately, the enormous clout of the wealthy suggests that the barriers are generally immense. But the authors do not think so. Let’s consider several important issues that the authors claim that they are hopeful about. 

Obviously, a very important issue is providing working people with wages that exceed the poverty wage. Unfortunately, the authors make a very modest proposal. They propose a “gradual” increase in the federal minimum wage from its present $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. That would certainly be in the right direction. But even many decades of trying, only seven states and one federal district have done so.  

Moreover, a wage of $15 an hour is still too low to escape poverty for an average size family. A $15 full time wage yields only about $31,200 annually, which realistically speaking, is a poverty wage even for a small family. Since the authors express considerable concern about the problem of poverty, Is this really the best they can propose to escape poverty? 

But the main path to achieving a high standard of living is by union organizing. During the 1950s 35 percent of workers were unionized. But the campaign against labor organizing, both legal and illegal, reduced union membership to about 6.2 percent, 

The business community is still hammering away. In fact, employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5 percent of all union elections. However, not a word about this outrageous conduct is mentioned in the book, At the very least they should have advocated for a major campaign to persuade business and public officials to obey the law. However, the reason for their silence is because they have no interest in proposing a more radical program. There is nothing in their book to suggest otherwise. 

About the important issue of taxes, progressives favor higher taxes on the rich to finance various programs that benefit the public. But the authors don’t agree, they explain, because they “do not see inequality as the fundamental problem. Rather, the problem is unfairness. That the authors believe inequality is fine as long as it is fair ignores how contradictory these two values can be in a capitalist society. 

Generally speaking, readers will certainly benefit from the book’s scholarly research. But also, they will be reminded that even written words do not  

necessarily mean what the authors claim they mean. In fact, they can mean the very opposite,