Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

What Hacker News says

1. orsenthilAug 2026
   I see a lot of comments in this thread in support this stance, as if that is something good for Americans, and say it is not a political statement.

   One thing that changed my viewpoint was this book. Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case, and Angus Deaton.

   In it, they make a point that, almost all US economists agree that immigration, both legal and Illegal Immigration, is not the cause for American working middle class failure. It is lack of education, and capitalistic system wherein rich steal the money from the poor, which is like a reverse robinhood.

   Hacker news crowd can easily verify this by spot-checking. But still we fail for the false narrative and divisive exploits of immigration topic, which is certainly not aimed to solve the problem of American well-being at hand. Truth to be hold, politicians know this too.

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2. jeanlucneptuneDec 2022
   Who do you think ODs on drugs? Just random people making bad choices? Obviously not. It's people who are losing hope, losing community, and losing themselves. Read "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism" from respected economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/de...
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3. orsenthilAug 2026
   Artifact ?

   What do you mean? I stated where I found this claim.

   > Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case, and Angus Deaton.

   And all the references it has.

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4. gqgsMay 2026
   >He sees the problem. He is building the thing that causes it. His company has not endorsed a single piece of legislation to address it.

   Is it truly fair to place the blame entirely on Dario? He has stated his support for sound new policies designed to mitigate the issues that will arise.

   The article itself notes that no one with the power to shape this transition has seriously considered the impact on people alive today, so it is unclear what the author expects Anthropic to have endorsed at this stage.

   >This is ahistorical bullshit.

   It's ironic to criticize optimists for grounding their expectations in historical precedents while simultaneously dismissing proposed solutions to mass AI displacement due to historical precedents.

   Furthermore, "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism" does not provide a strong foundation for the author's argument, as the case study involves numerous confounding factors contributing to rising suicide rates, drug overdoses, and alcoholic liver disease that cannot be attributed solely to a perceived loss of economic purpose.

   In reality, people still had economic purpose, even if it was not the specific purpose they desired. The remaining available work often proved inferior: lower in status, less secure, less meaningful, inadequate for supporting a family, and disconnected from respected social roles. Perhaps some of these factors contributed a bit more to the aforementioned negative outcomes than a simple feeling like you're not contributing sufficiently to the economy.

   >People don’t want a check. They want work. They want purpose.

   While that may well be true, we should first ensure that everyone can meet their basic necessities each month before addressing secondary concerns.

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5. orsenthilDec 2025
   - Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

   - My Gita, Devdutt Pattanaik

   - The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, Atul Gawande

   - Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible, Albert Bourla

   - Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Anne Case

   - The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic, Joe Miller

   - Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, John Green

   - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne and Gary Gianni (Illustrator)

   - El Deafo, Cece Bell

   - Acts of God, Kanan Gill

   - Marvels of Modern Science, Paul Severing

   - Empire of AI, Karen Hao

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6. specialistSep 2021
   FYI Looks like this OC is about one facet of the book "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism" [2020]

   "From economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working class"

   https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/de...

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51801314-deaths-of-despa...

   Looks important.

   I binged on this and adjacent topics in 2020. Mostly David Graeber and MMT. I wish I had noticed this title then. Alas, I don't think I have the heart to keep picking this scab.

   I have an entire bookcase of these books, going back ~20 years, starting with my transmutation from apolitical to political. Kevin Phillips, Barbara Ehrenreich, Paul Krugman, Jane Jacobs, Amy Goodman, etc. I even tried to at least skim read some of the seminal texts, like Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, etc. Looking back, I wish I had just started with Smith and Marx and Keynes. Oh well.

   Any way. These are stories which need to be told. But at some point each of us can choose to start looking forward, fumble towards something better, starting with our own mental, physical, financial health.

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