18 March 2019

Quartz: Out-of-work US men are unhappier than men almost anywhere else

Working-age men who have dropped out of the US workforce were found to be more stressed and sadder than their peers in both poor and rich countries, according to a new study released by the Brookings Institution. The unhappiness gap between out-of-work men and those with jobs is also much wider in the US. [...]

Rather than measuring the economy or employment, well-being measures focus on emotional and physical health and whether people find their lives meaningful. Some countries, including the UK and Bhutan, have started collecting well-being statistics. [...]

She and her colleagues mapped white men’s dissatisfaction. They found it concentrates in places with struggling industries, including coal and traditional manufacturing, and in areas that voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. It also overlaps with places with a high rate of drug overdoses and suicide deaths, which have driven down US life expectancy overall. [...]

Minorities, meanwhile, are used to the challenges of discrimination and other adversity not faced by many whites, which can make them more resilient. Any progress—which blacks and Hispanics have seen over the past few decades, in terms of education, life expectancy and other indicators—seems like winning, even if it still leaves them on an unequal footing with whites.

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