We're currently hosting our discussions at Café Walnut, near the corner of 7th & Walnut in Olde City, just across the street from Washington Square Park. The cafe's entrance is below street level down some stairs, which can be confusing if it's your first time. Our group meets in the large room upstairs.
Since we're using the cafe's space, they ask that each person attending the meetup at least purchase a drink or snack. Please don't bring any food or drinks from outside.
The cafe is fairly easy to get to if you're using public transit. With SEPTA, take the Market-Frankford Line & get off at the 5th Street Station (corner of 5th & Market), and walk 2 blocks south on 5th and then turn right on Walnut Street and walk 2 blocks west. With PATCO, just get off at the 9th-10th & Locust stop and walk 3 blocks east & 1 block north. For those who are driving, parking in the neighborhood can be tough to find. If you can't find a spot on the street, I'd suggest parking in the Washington Square parking deck at 249 S 6th Street which is just a half block away.
"DISEASES OF DESPAIR": EXPLAINING THE RISE IN MORTALITY AMONG WORKING CLASS AMERICANS
INTRODUCTION:
In our last meetup, we explored allegations that there's a "depression epidemic" in America and potential causes for it, including declining social capital & rising loneliness, economic problems & work stress, and sedentary lifestyle & poor diet. For those of you who didn't attend, it may be useful to briefly review the discussion outline: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/wpjnnqyzdbwb/
In this meetup, we'll look at the effects of this depression epidemic, namely the rise in suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse & obesity and their negative effects on the mortality rate & life expectancy in America, particularly among the white working class & underclass.
Most people already knew that poorer Americans typically have a variety of social problems that shorten their life expectancy, but most assumed that conditions must be worse for blacks & Hispanics. Thus, it came as a surprise to many when the Princeton economists Anne Case & Angus Deaton reported in 2015 that mortality rates have been steadily declining for black & Hispanic Americans but have been rising over the past 2 decades for non-college educated white Americans. Non-college educated white Americans now have the highest mortality rate of any demographic during middle age (45-54 years old). In another paper in 2017, Case & Deaton proposed that this rising mortality is caused by a decline in social support & rising unemployment among working class whites, and they allege that the stress from this has caused a striking rise in what they call the "diseases of despair" - i.e. suicide, drug addiction & alcoholism.
The "diseases of despair" concept is useful because it gives us a way to think of the connections that link the various causes of rising mortality among working class white Americans, but as we'll see in our discussion, not all experts agree with Case & Deaton's analysis. Some experts say the rise in mortality only applies to working class white women, and others have pointed out that blacks still have higher fatality rates than whites overall. Some experts have pointed out that suicide & alcoholism don't contribute nearly as much to the mortality rise among whites as opioids & obesity, and they've argued that drug abuse & obesity are better conceptualized as "lifestyle diseases" not necessarily linked to despair.
Opinions are also split on the policy implications of these worrisome trends. Progressives tend to argue that the government must use a public health approach & essentially save people from themselves, while many libertarians & conservatives see this as too paternalistic and favor an approach that puts more emphasis on personal responsibility.
There's also a debate about the effects these social problems have had on the electoral process. Case & Deaton's study is often seen in the context of the 2016 election and Trump's surprising victory. Many pundits have alleged that Trump won in part because he was able to harness the despair of the white working class & turn it into populist anger. Some pundits among the "Never Trump" conservatives & Clinton Democrats poured scorn on "hillbillies" for supporting Trump, but
RELEVANT MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:
Aside from our previous discussion on the "depression epidemic", there's a few more past discussions that may be relevant to our current topic...
Back in January of 2018, we had a meetup entitled "The Economics of Happiness" that is relevant to this discussion. In particular, Part 5 of the outline dealt with the "happiness-suicide paradox" - the tendency of happier societies to also have higher rates of suicides - and this relates to Part 1 of this discussion: https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/gqxkvnyxcbcc/
In a meetup in July of 2017 entitled, "Sex, Demographics & Declinism" we talked about the declining marriage rate especially among blue collar workers, and how this is tied to the decline of blue collar wages in factory jobs. https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/241373059/
Back in June of 2017, we had a meetup entitled "Wage Stagnation, Poverty & Cost Disease". It looks like wages have not stagnated over the last 30-40 years as many pundits have alleged, but more of our income goes to pay for healthcare, higher education & housing costs all of which have risen, so it feels like wages have stagnated. The data we looked at shows that anti-poverty programs have helped two-parent families where one or both spouses work, but those trapped below the poverty level are typically one-parent households where the parent is either unemployed or works only part-time. https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/238805096/
In October of 2017, we had a meetup entitled "Deep Culture & The American Dream" where looked at various claims about a "culture of poverty" is trapping both lower-class urban blacks & lower-class rural whites in poverty, as well as counter-arguments that this amounts to blaming the victims of our “rigged economy": https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/zgmddnywnbcb/
Note that this meetup will be immediately preceded a Skeptics discussion on "drug panics" - i.e. moral panics about drug use - and conspiracy theories about the drug trade. These relate to Part 2 of this discussion, where we'll discuss the effects of the opioid epidemic. https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/ffkqkqyzfbwb/
