Young White America Is Haunted by a Crisis of Despair

The way that title is worded makes me think that the author thinks that "Young White America" believes they should despair more!

> The fates of the less-educated and those who graduate from universities diverge in dire ways. Middle-aged white Americans without four-year degrees are at increasing risk of dying, a well-documented trend driven not only by drug use but also by alcoholism, suicide, and slowing progress against heart disease and cancer.

While that's pretty damn horrible, the fate of people with newly-minted bachelor's degrees isn't much to write home about either, unless you happened to major in the few areas of study where gainful employment is possible. Crushing student debt, high cost of living cities, an unreachably inflated housing market, low (but non-zero for now) job prospects, the looming threat of automation and robotics, underemployment--and if they get a professional job--a workplace full of only entry-level opportunities, with senior and management opportunities sucked up by boomers who refuse to, or can't, retire.

Sure, it's not at the level of dying of a heroin addiction, but there's plenty of anxiety and lack of opportunity to go around.

I worry about this for my oldest son. He has dyspraxia and apraxia. In practice that means he has difficulty with memory (at 15 he still doesn't know his multiplication tables) and putting things in order (such as speaking - you have to put phonemes, words, sentences together in order to speak). But, he doesn't look like he has a disability and he doesn't speak much so people don't readily realize he doesn't talk like other people. There are people who know him for years without realizing there is anything "wrong" with him. Unfortunately there is no way he will be able to go to college. He is basically flunking middle school despite putting forth his best effort because he simply can't remember anything and can't put things in order to respond to questions or write things down. However they will basically pass him since they have documentation that he has a disability. He will get a high school diploma because if you have a documented disability and attend public school they will basically just give you a diploma if you at least show up. College, obviously, doesn't work the same way. I'm not really sure what will become of him. I'm not sure he could hack a trade. He could do manual labor, but that doesn't really pay well enough to live on your own, at least where we live. I'm afraid he will end up with the problems outlined in this article.

Maybe learning a craft could work for him? Woodworking, metalworking, glass-blowing, programming?

An apprenticeship might just be right up his alley, but I'm not sure how available that is in the US.

Its the power of capital over labor, whereby capital is extremely stratified in the hands of very few people, and they have shifted political power so as to avoid investment in the laborers (aka everyone below themselves) and ensure they do not become a threat.

Additionally, they will usually influence monetary policy to ensure their status is never challenged, which is why rapidly rising housing prices aren't a major political issue at the state and federal level, despite our tax code & loan incentives encouraging ballooning housing prices.

Also, this is a decent piece: https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...