According to a recent study, America’s white working class is suffering from rising mortality rates, likely due to family struggles, social isolation, addiction, obesity and numerous other situations. These “cumulative disadvantages” often lead to personal problems that contribute to the high death rate.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Princeton University professors and the authors of the study, reported that the death rate of midlife non-Hispanic white Americans is on the rise, in contrast with death rates of other groups.
The rate has been increasing since 1999 and the researchers noted that education level seems to play a significant role with middle-aged people who have a college degree reporting better health and happiness than those with some college, and those with some college seem to be doing better than those who have no college experience.
Case and Deaton attribute the trend to the loss of job prospects for those with only a high school diploma and the ensuing struggles that often lead to drug overdoses, alcohol-related disease and suicide. The once thriving, white, high-school-educated working class is no longer as strong as it used to be.