There has been a lot of buzz about the recent report conducted by recent Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton and his co-author and wife, Anne Case. The study, published in late October, garnered interest from the entire spectrum of the journalistic community. It seems that everyone was commenting on the plight of middle-aged, White lower-income people.
While the report produced a plethora of information, some of the starker and more provocative findings were that:
· The mortality rate among Whites between 45 and 54 years old had increased at alarming rates.
· The rise in deaths rates among middle-aged White Americans means that more than half have died since 1998.
· The death toll among this segment of the population is comparable to the 650,000 Americans who lost their lives during the AIDS epidemic from 1981 to the present day, 2015.
· Death rates for Whites with a high school diploma or lesser education rose by 22 percent.
What is more ironic about such grim statistics is that, according to Deaton and Case, the mortality rates for middle-aged people of other ethnic groups during this time period, both here in the United States and abroad, actually declined or remained steady. This was particularly true in the case of African-Americans.
