If the federal minimum wage in 1968 had risen to keep pace with inflation and increases in productivity, it would today be $22 per hour. Instead, it’s $7.25.
The U.S. economy today works extremely well for large segments of the population. Measures like wealth creation and stock market indices demonstrate this. If you have a college education and live in a blue state, the odds are high that you’re living comfortably. Your high earnings cover the ever-increasing costs of housing, education, day care, and health care. But if you live in a red state and didn’t go to college, it’s likely that this same economy is not delivering for you. Ours is a corrupt and uniquely cruel economy in which millions can no longer afford housing, education, and health care — the costs of which have sky-rocketed.
The counties that voted for Al Gore in 2000 over George W. Bush accounted for 50 percent of the nation’s economic output. In 2016, the counties that voted for Hillary Clinton accounted for 64 percent of our economic output — twice the share of the counties that voted for Donald Trump. In 1990, life expectancy in red states and blue states was almost the same. Since then, life expectancy in blue states has risen in line with that of other advanced countries. But it has remained the same in red states. Blue state residents now expect to live four years longer than their red state counterparts. There are several counties in red states where life expectancy is below that of Cambodia. Across the board, life expectancy in the United States — something we always took for granted would rise each year — has fallen in three of the last four years.
The wealthy live longer than the poor because they are for the most part better educated, and better educated people are less likely to be obese, have diabetes, or abuse drugs. Beyond that, the poor in blue states live longer than their counterparts in red states because blue states have, for the most part, expanded Medicaid while red states have not. It’s a form of red state voter suppression: Let poor voters die.
In many red states, well-paying jobs have disappeared due to technology, globalization, and the demise of unions. “The meaningfulness of the working-class life seems to have evaporated. The economy just seems to have stopped delivering for these people.” Lost jobs. Drug abuse. Broken families. Failed policy responses. “The American people in red states think the system is completely rigged, and they’re correct.”
The result is the rapid increase in this country of “deaths of despair”. Deaths from alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, reckless accidents, treatable health conditions like obesity and diabetes. Deaths of despair among Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 without a college degree have tripled since the early 1990’s.
Too many people can’t afford the education they need to break this cycle. They can’t afford decent housing in a neighborhood with a supportive infrastructure. And they can’t afford health care in this country where health care costs are higher — usually twice as high — as those in other countries.
As a country, we’re not taking care of ourselves. We’re killing ourselves.
