This is excellent, and poignant. This series, ‘Political Awakenings’, is a treasure trove.
Kelsey Palmer
3 years ago
One of the most sensible and well-balanced articles I’ve seen in a long time
Andrew Baldwin
3 years ago
Great opinion piece by Ian, as usual. With regard to the 2017 paper by Case and Deaton, Ian doesn’t mention that it was, as the paper itself says, building on earlier research. A 2015 paper, “Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century” discussed mortality rates from 1999 to 2013, while the 2017 paper extended the analysis to 2015. The 2015 paper didn’t use the expression “deaths of despair”, a coinage to be found in the 2017 paper, but the idea was certainly there. When Professor Deaton and his wife were entertained by President Obama at the White House, it was soon after the publication of the 2015 paper, which Obama greatly admired. Deaton recalled: “He’d read our dead-white-people paper down to the footnotes.” I was somewhat disappointed in the book that followed these papers, perhaps because the big buildup, in which Ian participated, created expectations any book would have trouble living up to. Especially in the second half it goes madly off in all directions, quite unlike the tightly focused papers it originated from. Published after Trump became president, it can’t be accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but definitely has an anti-Trump vibe to it. Published in March 2020 before any data was available on the coronavirus recession, it doesn’t acknowledge the big pickup in American growth and the decline in the unemployment rate after Trump took office. I wrote to Anne Case, after she gave a virtual CEA lecture on deaths of despair in May 2020: “Do you think that Social Security payments should be escalated using the chained CPI (C-CPI-U) as is already the case with income tax brackets in the US following President Trump’s tax reform?” She never responded. It seems that she doesn’t like to give Trump credit for anything. Obama is, of course, notorious for reneging on a promise to escalate Social Security using the chained CPI.
David Barnett
3 years ago
There is nothing incompatible between libertarianism and community nurturing.
In theory, the state can mediate community nurturing, but in practice the huge bureaucratic machine has a way of breaking (via pre-emption) true community bonds and removing agency from the people who need it most.
chris sullivan
3 years ago
Amen, tragically we live in times where we have to be our own investigative journalists, risk assessors and epidemiologists – and most dont have the time and werewithall to acheive that and therefore have no choice but to follow the ‘reality’ portrayed by our wise political and medical leaders – who obviously dont have the ability to balance virus manangement with the health risk of global shutdown. My brother , a phd and sometime lecturer in epidemiology cant get his head around the risk management concept so what chance has poor old Joe lunchbox ? Buga
This is excellent, and poignant. This series, ‘Political Awakenings’, is a treasure trove.
One of the most sensible and well-balanced articles I’ve seen in a long time
Great opinion piece by Ian, as usual. With regard to the 2017 paper by Case and Deaton, Ian doesn’t mention that it was, as the paper itself says, building on earlier research. A 2015 paper, “Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century” discussed mortality rates from 1999 to 2013, while the 2017 paper extended the analysis to 2015. The 2015 paper didn’t use the expression “deaths of despair”, a coinage to be found in the 2017 paper, but the idea was certainly there. When Professor Deaton and his wife were entertained by President Obama at the White House, it was soon after the publication of the 2015 paper, which Obama greatly admired. Deaton recalled: “He’d read our dead-white-people paper down to the footnotes.” I was somewhat disappointed in the book that followed these papers, perhaps because the big buildup, in which Ian participated, created expectations any book would have trouble living up to. Especially in the second half it goes madly off in all directions, quite unlike the tightly focused papers it originated from. Published after Trump became president, it can’t be accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but definitely has an anti-Trump vibe to it. Published in March 2020 before any data was available on the coronavirus recession, it doesn’t acknowledge the big pickup in American growth and the decline in the unemployment rate after Trump took office. I wrote to Anne Case, after she gave a virtual CEA lecture on deaths of despair in May 2020: “Do you think that Social Security payments should be escalated using the chained CPI (C-CPI-U) as is already the case with income tax brackets in the US following President Trump’s tax reform?” She never responded. It seems that she doesn’t like to give Trump credit for anything. Obama is, of course, notorious for reneging on a promise to escalate Social Security using the chained CPI.
There is nothing incompatible between libertarianism and community nurturing.
In theory, the state can mediate community nurturing, but in practice the huge bureaucratic machine has a way of breaking (via pre-emption) true community bonds and removing agency from the people who need it most.
Amen, tragically we live in times where we have to be our own investigative journalists, risk assessors and epidemiologists – and most dont have the time and werewithall to acheive that and therefore have no choice but to follow the ‘reality’ portrayed by our wise political and medical leaders – who obviously dont have the ability to balance virus manangement with the health risk of global shutdown. My brother , a phd and sometime lecturer in epidemiology cant get his head around the risk management concept so what chance has poor old Joe lunchbox ? Buga