Case-Deaton just published a new paper looking more closely at the rise in mortality rates among middle-aged white Americans.
The short summary (and I haven't read the whole paper myself), is that middle-aged white Americans who don't have a college degree have been losing out economically. More importantly, they aren't doing as well for themselves now as their parents did. So there's a sense of failure that drives a feeling of hopelessness and despair.
The paper also suggests that there won't be any quick fixes. This has been building up for over 20 years so even if the government was inclined to aggressively attack this problem, it's a lot of trauma to undo.
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/6_casedeaton.pdf
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