Posted on 09/29/2023 5:40:04 PM PDT by FarCenter
...
When Deaton first came to America in 1983, he recalls being gobsmacked by how indifferent his fellow economists were to rising inequality, and how ideologically opposed they were to government intervention in the economy. Deaton, after all, had been educated at Cambridge, which was steeped in Keynesian economics (John Maynard Keynes had launched the Keyensian revolution, which provided an intellectual framework in favor of greater government intervention in the economy, while teaching there).
"I was appalled when one of my new colleagues (publicly) proclaimed that 'government is theft,'" Deaton writes. "I had grown up in a country where I, my parents, and our friends saw the government as benevolent, a friend in times of trouble, and I found it hard to believe that a distinguished academic could be so cynical and so libertarian. I still do not agree with his sentiment, but I have come to understand the extent to which state and federal government in the United States often work, not to protect ordinary people but to help rich predators make ordinary people poorer."
Rare for an economist, Deaton offers a lucid and unsparing critique of America's political system. From healthcare to taxation to poverty to regulations, Deaton sees a system that has increasingly served monopolistic corporations and the rich over ordinary citizens, allowing "a minority to prey on the majority."
"The United States has become a darker society since I arrived in 1983," Deaton writes. "The hopes of the immigrant have been tempered by reality, but even more by the corruption of the American economy and its politics, a corruption that threatens our democracy."
Deaton threads his book with eye-opening statistics to reinforce his argument that there is something terribly wrong with the current state of affairs in America. A sample:
-- "Less well-educated Americans have seen little or no improvement in their material circumstances for more than fifty years. For men without a four-year college degree, median real wages have trended downward since 1970."
-- "There are several million Americans — Black, white, and Hispanic — who live in households with per capita income of a few dollars a day and whose living standards are arguably as bad as or worse than those that the World Bank demarcates as destitute in India or Ethiopia."
-- "The top 10 percent of incomes in the United States account for nearly half of all income, compared with only 14 percent for the bottom half of incomes."
-- "Overall death rates in the United States have been rising, and, even before the pandemic, adult life expectancy has fallen for ten years for those without a four-year college degree."
Deaton (and Case) argue that the alarming rise in deaths of despair amongst non-college-educated Americans — which accounts for almost two-thirds of the adult population — is intimately related to their fading economic prospects. Deaton writes that "the decline of good jobs" is a crucial driver of despair. "This decline, in response to globalization and, more importantly, technical change (robots), is made much worse in the United States than elsewhere by the grotesquely exorbitant cost of healthcare," Deaton writes. "Beyond that, when bad things happen and people need help, the safety net in the United States is fragmentary compared with those in other rich countries."
In all this, Deaton sees economists as largely as complicit in the changes that have made life harder for millions of Americans. He argues that many (but not all) of the people in his profession have provided an intellectual legitimacy for a range of policies that have stripped away support for working-class Americans and forced them into an increasingly cutthroat labor market.
"They are apostles for the globalization and technical change that have enriched an elite and have redistributed income and wealth from labor to capital, all the while destroying millions of jobs, hollowing out communities, and worsening the lives of their occupants," Angus writes. "And when confronted with deaths of despair, they can blame the victims and those who try to help them."
“He argues that many (but not all) of the people in his profession have provided an intellectual legitimacy for a range of policies that have stripped away support for working-class Americans and forced them into an increasingly cutthroat labor market. “
I betcha he (Deaton) votes demoKKKrat every chance he gets yet is to ignorant to realize what his party has done
If he grew up where he and his parents thought the government was benevolent why did he immigrate?
This makes my day complete.NPR is educating me on inequality.
Sounds like a disingenuous lefty.
I look and see you posted from NPR.
If he won a Nobel “peace prize”, he must be a real piece of meat with two eyes.
“the decline of good jobs” is a crucial driver of despair
*************************
It happened in a vacuum?
“the decline of good jobs” was/is the result of economic and legislative forces.
The public education system has made people stupider than they would have been on their own. I am not talking about this Deaton schlub. But a person who has not been brainwashed can see how full of crap his claim is.
Who Broke American Democracy?
Oct 27, 2022 — ANGUS DEATON
Democracy is premised on equality, and all citizens are supposed to have an equal chance to influence political decisions. But for too long in the United States, the political and electoral systems have catered to the interests of elites and the well-off at the expense of those without a college degree.
NPR is a racist, communist rag.
Alas Deaton, America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.
This guy ain’t Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Milton Friedman. He sounds like a whiny self important lightweight in comparison.
Reduced life expectancy is from cheaper, easier access to calories or obesity.
It is the same in parts of Northern & Western Europe.
“Inequality” is a natural state, it can never be remedied. Where has any country ever made everyone “equal?” And what exactly does that mean? “Equal” in beauty, education, marriage, what does that mean? Pure nonsense. A jackass socialist speaks out of his retromingent ass.
Well, Deat, why not go back to whence you came? We do not want you here anyway because you are an unwanted emigre.
All me are created equal, but it pretty much ends there.
Much of what he says is debatable, especially some foreign comparisons.
However!
He is exactly right on some very important things, such as the absurd and artificial medical cost structure of the US vis a vis other advanced countries. I am convinced that this is the result of exactly what he says, a web of collusion between the government (Fed and States) and the medical industry, to inflate costs. And there are others as well.
The top 10 percent of incomes in the United States account for nearly half of all income, compared with only 14 percent for the bottom half of incomes.”
Where are the other 76%
He is objectively right on many things, such as medical costs. Others are arguable.
Maybe the investigation of these would lead to interesting conclusions, such as the effect of high rates of immigration driving down lower-end wages.
If you get bad news from your doctor, is your first instinct to have him deported?
“IF ALL PEOPLE RE CREATED EQUAL”-—THEN everyone should be able to take good care of themselves.
NO ONE should be able to get a job they are not able to do
NO ONE should have to live in tighter quarters than they wish
NO ONE should be hungry or cold, etc.
Like OREO cookies in a package-—we all should be exactly the same.
Most of us who have put in the EFFORT & TIME to learn more-—do more-—and find more ways to do better understand why that “Utopian” attitude doesn’t work.
Those of us who kept our noses in our school books, did the homework, took the tests & did well GAVE UP SOMETHING to have all of that.
We didn’t go water skiing when a big report was due... The lake was always there—but we didn’t get stupid about “NOT DOING THE REQUIRED REPORT”.
We did clean homework, did our best to understand the topics & to follow the instructions.
We were at school early-—NOT tardy,.
We were READY to listen & learn & to behave in class.
We DID NOT SHOW UP with a hangover & no attention span.
LIFE IS A MILLION LITTLE DETAILS——and we did our best to LEARN.
I am tired of paying a person who never thought they had to pay attention-—show up on time—and who did as they pleased instead of actually achieving something they might be proud of.
I also am beyond caring about people who cannot pay for raising their kids. IT is NOT my responsibility to provide them with paper-pencils-rulers-other school supplies. OUR parents did that-—not the schools-—not the teachers-—and I am NOT going to be guilted into their “donation schemes”.
Same for feeding them-—
OF YOU CANNOT FEED THEM-—DO NOT BREED THEM.
Welfare has turned everything ass-backwards.
There are plenty of “Kids”, but there seem to be NO DADDYS. BIOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
There are plenty of law officers, but the criminals of all stripes & ages go free....to continue their mayhem.
THE “LEADERS” are not listening to the populace & continue on their own path of wealth and destruction.
There is a LINE IN THE SAND-—and when that is breached-—THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
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