‘The Collapse of the White Working Class’
A new study explains why economic distress has led to mortality-rate spike for white, middle-age Americans without a college degree.
One of the defining issues of the 2016 election was the loss of jobs and economic opportunity among white, working-class Americans. As the middle class , so too has the labor market for those with only a high-school diploma. There’s now reason to believe that this lack of education is taking a physical toll as well: A released Thursday by the Brookings Institution finds that mortality rates are rising for those without a college degree.
