If non-college educated whites are the base of the Republican Party in the Trump-era, the GOP is in long-term trouble. Middle-aged whites with little or no college are dying younger and with less children than they have in decades. The trend toward longer, happier lives that began centuries ago and picked up steam in the last few generations seems to have peaked and dramatically reversed course, but the reasons for the sudden shift should come as no surprise to anyone:
These deaths of despair have been accompanied by reduced labor force participation, reduced marriage rates, increases in reports of poor health and poor mental health. So we are beginning to thread a story in that it's possible that [the trend is] consistent with the labor market collapsing for people with less than a college degree.
If baby boomers are successfully corralled into trading away the benefits they will sorely need for the rest of their lives so that zillionaires can get more tax cuts, you’ll be seeing a decided shift in the age of homeless populations, death by treatable disease or injury, and no-way-out suicides. If wealthy corporations are able to offshore US job and rotate temps through to pose as full-time employees, you’re going to see more and more of this in middle aged and younger people. Death by despair. Get used to it, America.
Note — the original headline in this post was auto corrected to read “Drop in Mortality,” we meant “Rise,” and we regret the error!