America is despairing to death
Late stage capitalism is hitting the US harder than the rest of industrialized world. There are many reasons for this (disinformation, unwalkable built environment, educational & consumer debt, wages kept low through government intervention, insurance attached to employment, union-busting, skyrocketing rents, etc) but a big one is the greedy oldsters keeping all the socialized medicine for themselves.
People in what is by far the poorest, most deprived, and most drug-plagued area of England (Blackpool) now have the same life expectancy as the average American, and vastly better health than people in West Virginia
…The most startling aspect of all this is the extent to which these astonishing gaps are not COVID-driven, but rather a product of an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, gun violence, suicide, and alcohol-abuse related maladies, i.e., what Anne Case and Angus Deaton identified as “deaths of despair” a decade ago.
…These are the symptoms of very serious social breakdown. And it’s hardly a coincidence that the one American age cohort subjected to the horrors of socialized medicine — the elderly — is the only cohort that has health outcomes that are as good as those found in countries that don’t have Freedom ™.
Alas! I have failed the test for greedy oldster and want, at the very least, Medicare for all. But I agree, late stage capitalism is the scourge of the average American. And as ever I see the saintly Ronald Reagan as the source. But the real problem remains an ignorant and rather stupid and stubborn electorate (Think western Sussex) that cannot separate the total BS from the truth. That and they tend to ignore the eleventh commandment of “Don’t put your lips on it!”.
Even as they continue to elect Republicans who hate them, those western Suxco and dummies across the country clamor for socialism and love “Democratic” policies. It is a fucking shit show.
The oldest (white) Americans have been showered with government and corporate money all their lives, and were part of the great post-war expansion of the American middle class. Many are now collecting the last of the fat corporate pensions. But, being born in the Great Depression, they assumed they had achieved prosperity all on their own merits, and are now angrily voting to pull up the ladder behind them.
For the rest of us, there is an affordability crisis, even in the middle class. Before you even get to health care, the cost of housing and a car consumes most of the median income, with little left for college, savings, or vacations, which are the hallmarks of the middle class.
If you move to a walkable city with public transportation where you don’t need a car, with better-paying jobs, then your housing cost increases to make up the difference.
It is a mystery MAGAs can afford $60K pickup trucks with pristine beds used mostly for single-occupant driving.