Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

Translation from English by Andrey F. Vasiliev. – Moscow: Gaidar Institute Press, 2025. – 464 p.

ISBN 978-5-93255-682-5

In recent decades, the United States has seen a decline in life expectancy at birth, the largest since 1918, driven by a sharp rise in deaths from suicide, drugs, and alcoholism. Anne Case and Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, analyze this phenomenon, revealing the socioeconomic causes of the crisis, especially for the working class. The authors show how capitalism has stopped working for those who used to succeed in America. They paint a picture of the decline of the American dream, with the white working class facing family breakdown and limited prospects. While the educated become healthier and richer, the less educated literally die of pain and despair.

Case and Deaton attribute the crisis to the weakening of labor, the rise of corporate power, and a predatory health care sector. They argue that capitalism, which once lifted millions out of poverty, is now destroying the lives of American blue-collar workers.

The authors not only analyze the problem, but also offer concrete solutions that can limit the extreme manifestations of capitalism and make it work in the interests of all society.