Are Mass Immigration and Mass Outsourcing Killing Less-Educated, Middle-Aged White Americans?

Death rates have been increasing for white, middle-aged Americans, according to a husband-and-wife team of economists at Princeton University. The New York Times recently reported on the couple’s study that was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results of this startling study contrast with decreasing mortality trends among every other ethnic and social group in the country, as well as with rates among white, middle-aged residents of other developed countries.

Analyzing health and mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources, Angus Deaton, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, and his wife Anne Case, found that rising annual death rates in this population cohort are being driven by a combination of increasing suicides, and drug and alcohol addiction. Substance abuse can result in disorders like chronic liver disease and cirrhosis from alcoholism, as well as overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids; each can ultimately have fatal consequences.

Mortality rates for 45-54 year olds, by country USW = U.S. white non-Hispanics USH = U.S. Hispanics FRA = France GER = Germany UK = United Kingdom CAN = Canada AUS = Australia SWE = Sweden

This alarming trend was particularly evident among less educated whites. The annual mortality rate for whites aged 45 to 54 years with a high school education or less increased by 22 percent, or by 134 deaths per 100,000 people, in the 14 years from 1999 to 2013. In contrast, mortality rates fell for those middle-aged whites with a college education.

At the same time, the death rate for middle-aged blacks and Hispanics continued a long-term declining trend during the study period, as did death rates for younger and older people of all races and ethnicities. While middle-aged blacks still have a higher annual mortality rate than middle-aged whites – 581 per 100,000 versus 415 per 100,000 for all whites – the gap is closing. The rate for middle-aged Hispanics, meanwhile, at 262 per 100,000, is far lower than for either whites or blacks.

If the white mortality rate in the 45 to 54 cohort had stayed at its 1998 value, 96,000 deaths would have been avoided from 1999 to 2013, including 7,000 deaths in 2013 alone. If the 45 to 54 white mortality rate had continued to decrease at its previous (1979 to 1998) rate, approximately half a million deaths would have been avoided during the 1999 to 2013 period. This is stunning. Indeed, researcher Angus Deaton told The Washington Post that, “half a million people are dead who should not be dead.”

Former heroin addict David Fitzgerald at a rehab clinic in Oregon.

I strongly suspect that if it had been any group other than lower-class, less educated, middle-aged whites – disparaged and derided “Bubbas,” “rednecks,” “white trash” and “hillbillies” – there would be a national outcry among the perpetually preening intelligentsia. Instead, on the part of many, judging from snide, snarky comments below online articles at liberal outlets like The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The New York Times, there was a decided lack of empathy, and even a touch of contempt. There were jokes about the methamphetamine epidemic gripping parts of rural America.

Not surprisingly, Deaton and Case found that there were simultaneous declines in self-reported physical health, mental health and ability to work. There were also increased reports of joint and back pain and deteriorating measures of liver function; all these point to increasing midlife distress.

Trends in causes of mortality among non-Hispanics whites, age 45-54.

Adding fuel to the fire, the least educated white, middle-aged Americans also suffered from the greatest financial distress. During the study period, inflation-adjusted income in households headed by a high school graduate actually declined by 19 percent.

Of course, the oblivious New York Times and other elite mainstream news media did not connect the dots or suggest root causes, but CAPS will. During the 1999 to 2013 study period, working-class white Americans faced staggering economic insecurity. They were subjected to massive amounts of job outsourcing and massive job competition from soaring rates of immigration, both legal and illegal. Studies by George Borjas at Harvard, Steven Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies and others have amply documented the ill effects of unremitting mass immigration on the employment and life prospects for the American working class.

The Atlantic Monthly did manage to hit the nail on the head with the title of its article reporting these bleak findings:

“Middle-Aged White Americans Are Dying of Despair”

Until the day that American elites on Wall Street and in Washington actually give more of a hoot about the well-being of their less privileged countrymen and women than they do about “conspicuous benevolence,” the situation for these hapless Americans will probably continue to deteriorate. I hate to say it, but I’m not holding my breath.