The great divide: education, despair, and death

There is a growing gap across many measures between the one-third of the U.S. that has a B.A. degree or higher and the other two-thirds. This is most starkly evident in declining life expectancy for adults in the latter group, driven in part by deaths of despair. Deaths of despair—from overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease—have spread from non-Hispanic whites to racial minorities. Preliminary evidence suggests that the gaps have widened in the pandemic, with the more educated having much lower mortality rates and experiencing sharp increases in the value of their wealth. Reversing these trends would likely require the re-emergence of good jobs for the less educated, but with the Democratic party becoming dominated by the better-educated and the decline of unions, it is difficult to see how beneficial policies will get adopted.