Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

by Anne Case

Midlife adults are suffering unusual amounts of pain today, but it is nothing compared with what they will feel when they are old.

Pessimitic, much?

The existence of moneymaking corporations does not imply competitive free markets.

When people feel they must protect their economic position in a tougher world, they divert their time and their resources to the zero-sum game of distribution and away from the positive-sum game of innovation and growth. Rentseeking replaces creation, and we can get into a vicious circle that impoverishes everyone.

As Bertrand Russell once noted, among the strongest advocates that the poor should work more are the idle rich, who have never done any.15

This is funny, a little.

Church membership in the US has been declining in recent decades, especially among the less educated, who were less likely to go to church in the first place.

We believe that much more important for despair is the decline of family, community, and religion.

The problem is not globalization or innovation; the problem is policies for dealing with them.