Life in 21st Century America: White Mortality Rates Increase as Education Goes Down

A disturbing trend in white-non-Hispanic mortality rates among those with a high-school diploma or less -- as uneducated whites die of drug and alcohol abuse and suicide at an alarming rate -- looks connected to growing income inequality since 1980 and the ascent of Reagan and conservatism.

Here's the Brookings Institute that backs up the data above. Read it and weep, or not. A pertinent question might be: Why are poorly-educated American non-Hispanics dying at nearly twice the rate as Swedes, while African-American and Hispanic mortality rates continue to track downward?

Answer: Poorly-educated American whites are killing themselves with bad behavior, while blacks and Hispanics, along with all other OECD citizens, are not. Hmm.