So wilful ignorance may lead to lower life expancy.
42
God's will?
18
Republicans keep their flock stupid and unhealthy and the people keep voting for them. Gotta keep 'em happy with slogan's. Blaming Dem's works every time.
Who needs Medicaid expanded?, when i can hate other's more than i care for my own and family needs. I'm tough. I'm dumb. I die young but i showed y'all what a real Uhmerican is like.
42
Last Century's swastika is this Century's MAGA hat.
Being enraged has to be unhealthy.
43
I feel like the only solution is airdropping (yes, the old fashioned way) packages of NYT and CNN to these folks. Like, they’re physically never gonna touch facts otherwise.
23
Can you add in rates of those who watch Fox News to this calculation?
36
It's a self-correcting problem. Red staters, making bad choices, will die off faster.
18
Krugman needs to visit Seattle or San Francisco if he thinks the drug epidemic has bypassed blue states.
6
"Let's go to the video tape"
No offense republicans, but you don't need to be Warner Wolf to observe the obesity prevalent among those attending at trumpTown rallies.
I blame the red hats.
16
This is something the red staters will understand. God has been angry at them for some time now and is now smiting them into the afterlife.
19
The only way to real change is for lower and middle class white people to realize they have more in common with all lower/middle class people than with wealthy white people
34
But the conservative diagnosis of that problem is wrong — dead wrong.
Or, as John Stuart Mill said way back in 1866: "I never said the Conservatives are stupid; I said most stupid people are Conservative. It is a fact so obvious, no gentleman may demur."
Some. Things. Never. Change.
39
Fox News Flash:
Study Shows Red State Residents Have Quicker Path to Heaven!
28
Most smokers are Trump followers.
14
Anger and rage kill. It’s that simple. They aren’t intelligent enough to think for themselves so they just let CharmBoy tell his lies. Even though I feel that I am close to a heart attack brought on by left wing stress, I’m very proud of myself for being able to understand what the word decency means. What the word compassion means. And more than anything, being so happy to welcome immigrants into this country. Go ahead and wear your MAGA hats. The world is laughing at you.
20
For all of you who know it's weakness of character rather than getting kicked in the stomach that explains the Red State health collapse:
And like some angel's haloed brow
You reek of purity
3
Evolution is real. It's not just a "culture war" talking point every time some yokel wants to teach creationism in schools.
The bottom line is people in "red states" aren't as well educated and, often, vote against their own self-interests. They get swept into a fervor by some moron spouting cliches, expressing hatred towards the "other" and promising to deliver for them.
I suspect these people know, deep down, that they are on the losing side of evolution. They are doomed by their lack of education, poor choices or just misfortune. Either way, they are the walking dead as are their children and their children.
We should stop pretending evolution isn't happening in front of our faces. Further, Democrats should stop trying to bend over backwards to win over these people. Focus on those who are on the "good" side of evolution and build a coalition that will, literally, outlive the opposition.
22
Lol smooth ending.
Nice attempt by Krugman to dumb down readers in an effort to demean Republicans. Krugman always acts like red and blue states are 100% Republican or Democrat. Obviously, the truth is that states are a mix and in some states the numbers in each party are pretty close.
Mr. Krugman, how about breaking out mortality numbers, obesity numbers, substance abuse numbers and education levels by ethnic groups and not political party? Unfortunately, those states with the highest proportions of African-Americans will be those with lower average life spans. Poor nutrition, obesity, substance use, and criminal behavior are still shortening the lives of African-Americans relative to whites. It's improving but slowly. The same life shortening issues can be found in Latino communities but to a lesser extent.
I hate sounding mean but these are the facts. It goes without saying that voters of color vote Democrat so spare me your dishonest effort to make the case that decreasing longevity is somehow caused by Republicans.
6
Heck, this is simple. It's all about Abortion, Gays, Mexican border crossings, and Political Correctness! And the solution is more austerity, tax reduction for big business and the wealthy wall-streeters.
Of course America is in decline. So it has been since the Ronald, and now the Donald. There was a time when Republicans were patriots, but that time is long past.
27
The red state death trip is leftover from the Confederate States of America (CSA). Yes. It goes back that far and it affects the same states and the same poorly educated white men who died by the tens of thousands for the rich white men who ran the plantations.
The economic geography of poverty, despair and death by opioids is a family legacy descendent from southerners who destroyed Reconstruction after the Civil War. CSA states are dying again.
If you saw the first two episodes is a recent PBS series on Country Music you saw the poverty in the South in the WW-I and Great Depression eras. It was a kick in the gut to see those pictures which show what happened when Reconstruction was killed by southern states.
The red state death trip won't end until we end the racism used to keep rural voters afraid of 'those people' so they'll vote GOP.
It's long past time for red-hatted MAGA men to leave the racist plantation that enslaves them to mindless hate.
31
'Traditional values'? You mean, the subjugation of women, institutionalized racism, voter suppression, and heteronormative bigotry. You mean, let's go back to the days when everyone was white, straight, Christian, and (if in a position of leadership) male.
Ahh, the good old days.
28
The symptoms are anger, ignorance, stubbornness and pride.
The cause; fox news and other right wing sources of hate.
These people are brainwashed 24/7/365 by the drumbeat of hate that fox news deals in exclusively until their viewers own lives are put at stake.
You cannot hate for year after year after year without their being a cost.
26
Don't forget that Southern cooking...mmmmmm: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, butter, gravy, fried green tomatoes, fried fish, fried taters, fried oyster poor boy, bacon, lard/bacon squeezings in the beans, deep fried turkey, fried ice cream, grits and butter, side of ribs, sweet tea, shortening bread, corn bread with butter and jam, boiled goobers, pecan pie, and add a bit of collared greens.
18
How ironic! Barr's collapse of moral values bunkum is exactly what conservatives used to explain the problems in black neighborhoods for decades. Anyone besides me remember Patrick Moynihan? Now the right is using that same canard to explain the economic and social disintegration of red state America. And what's even more bleakly hilarious is the fact that the children of red state working class whites who originally bought that argument are buying it again!
There's an old saying: fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me! What is one to feel for those who are fooled for the 5,797 time and counting? Should one even care?
19
California is the ultimate blue state and the world's fifth largest economy which was reduced to third world status this year with weeks of rolling black outs across the state—so much for science, tolerance and ever so smart technology.
4
The GOP has been the party of death since 1980. They've been trying to kill us all off for decades and they've gotten better and more efficient at it. Give them 10 more years of control of the Senate, presidency and Supreme Court and we will all be goners. By the way, the wall has nothing to do with keeping refugees and migrants out. The GOP wants to keep us from fleeing the ship they are sinking. The administration just proposed regulations to track American citizens leaving the country - there's a 60 day comment period. Have at it. They are going to turn us all into sick and starving peasants, just like the GOP's victims in Appalachia, which I'm intimately familiar with.
24
I know quite a few conservatives and there are some things they seem to have in common. They do not lead healthy lifestyles: smoking, drinking, eating too much red meat, processed foods, fast food, rich desserts and lack of regular exercise.
Instead of respecting their bodies, their attitude is "it's my body and no tree-hugging liberal is going to tell me how to live." Or die.
31
I think it important to pinpoint the overall percentage of voters for each state. For those states that went Trump, the delta between those who voted and everyone else is probably pretty high. But it'd be nice to see the data. Even nicer to energize the nonvoters in those states to vote this time around as if their lives depended on it - because they do.
3
Not long after the 2016 election, Nate Silver pointed out that Hillary Clinton eclipsed President Obama’s 2012 vote totals “in 48 of the country’s 50 most-well-educated counties.” That was offset, however, by her performance in 47 of the 50 least-educated counties, where she was routinely taken to the woodshed. Even in high-education counties with average per capita incomes on par with those in the country’s 50 least-educated counties, Clinton surpassed Obama’s vote totals in all but four instances. From this Silver concludes that education and not income predicted who voted for Clinton and who for Trump.
22
I am a social worker in rural Trump country, and I can't even tell you the number of people - almost all white - who have told me: "Yes, my kids receive medicaid and WIC, and I plan on voting for Donald J. Trump for president in 2020 because we need to secure the border." So long as they are blinded by fear of brown immigrants in the US, they will continue to vote against the government services that are so desperately needed, such as medicaid expansion.
3239
@Tyler Paul
Ask them to look into this. We are being replaced by corporations. Corporations are being given the Constitutional rights of human citizens. There are more corporations than citizens and immigrants combined. Borders are already open for global corporations. Corporations that are not based in the USA are already lobbying our government to get special favors.
Most humans agree that Corporations are not People, but those that own controlling shares in the corporations are making them into "people" to dilute our power and increase their power.
And it is the corporation that fires you, not the immigrant that they hire to replace you.
If corporations are people, than owning them is slavery. Slavery is illegal. Therefore corporations are not people, or they cannot be owned by anyone.
191
@Tyler Paul My grievance with your statement is this ongoing critique of so many of these folks voting against their own interests. Brown immigrants, they will say, 'steal' from the hard working people of the nation by driving up taxes that makes it all the harder to succeed. Medicaid, WIC for hard working Americans? Fine, they will say. Better is to create jobs rather than offer 'handouts'. But in either case, layering these expenses on to the shoulders of the American Taxpayer is their major beef. Not 'blind fear' nor 'voting against government services that are so desperately needed' would ring true.
14
@David Greenspan But the jobs Trump voters can get are not the kind that offer excellent benefits...or livable wages. People have been waiting for forty years for the money from Republican tax cuts for the rich to trickle down and 'raise all boats.' Data proves this has not happened. Trump voters don't care. The fear of brown people getting a dime of tax dollars is enough justification for them to 'cut off their own noses to spite their faces' and vote for a party whose economic policies favor the rich at the expense of everyone else. Fear and prejudice 'trumps' self interest in this case.
326
We will always know the two things Krugman hates:
1) Republicans
2) Tax Cuts
6
It's interesting to compare the top Times Pick (Lynn Taylor) with the top Readers' pick (Tyler Paul).
I think we don't spend enough time explaining that immigration, per se, is good for everybody, is not overwhelming our resources, and can be managed to everybody's benefit.
Anybody remember Zuckerberg's meeting with Trump?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/08/warren-attacks-facebook-ceo-zuckerberg-after-his-trump-meeting.html
Do you think they discussed immigration and Facebooks use of special visas which facilitate its "competitive" position ? Maybe they didn't have to, as long as Zuckerburg follows the rules on political advertising and such. No doubt, Trump left not long after his meeting to a give another rousing anti-immigration speech while Zuckerberg was on the phone to overseas employment agencies looking for more talent. The Art of the Deal, indeed.
3
People that don’t have health insurance have more health problems to deal with as well as they die at a younger age. How hard can that be to understand by the rupubliCON powers that be?
It must be so hard they just don’t get it. Or are they happy to sacrifice poor people for more wealth? I really think that’s the ticket to the party as a whole.
6
How about the people living forgotten by the federal government in the red states? How about the effects of international trade and labor saving technological change in the former industrial heart of the country. How about the author knowing very well about this fact confessing his mistakes in predicting the changes of inequality just two months https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-10/inequality-globalization-and-the-missteps-of-1990s-economics?utm_source=url_link and in a scholarly work as well, see in the Bloomberg opinion peace, as well. Hatred against the Republicans seem to be stronger than the desire for right interpretation of facts and just changing the way of causation. The horses in this blurp of journalism are just behind the cart.
2
"Why does falling life expectancy track political orientation?" That's easy. Trump's voters are more men than women, by a 12 point margin.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/
University of Pennsylvania Well-Being study using big data personality analysis shows that men overwhelmingly use hostile language on Facebook much more than women.
To summarize, Red State voters who voted for Trump are primarily men and men are more hostile than people on average and hostile people have more heart disease than non-hostile people and heart disease kills you.
The saying "have a heart," as it turns out, is true at biological level. Anger consumes you, and according to the UPenn study, being hostile and angry as a personality is equivalent in decreasing life expectancy to smoking two packages of cigarettes a day.
5
They tell us to leave them alone, so we do.
Then we are accused of "flying over" them.
They call us socialists even though they need our blue state tax revenues to pay their red state bills.
They claim to hate ObamaCare but they don't drop it when the penalty for not carrying it falls to zero.
They attack Evolution and science at every turn yet when they get sick do they go to their local house of worship?
Nope they go to those Evolution based houses of science called hospitals.
I am done feeling compassion for people who so obviously hate me and my country.
33
One would think the GOP "brain trust," if there was one would spend a few dollars in Medicaid to keep their red state voters from dying sooner instead of spending their time, like Barr, inveighing against secularism or gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters.
They also, monomaniacally, pass laws that enrich the super rich who tend to live in blue states or if they do live in red states are well insulated from the vagaries of life. Instead they could spend time figuring out how to make the poorer people a bit more richer and educate them?
6
The sad thing about this is that white Republican voters in red states are probably not suffering to nearly the extent of black and brown voters who are victimized by their regressive policies.
8
Thank you Mr. Krugman for bring up this NOT Great USA issue.
And Andrew Yang is the only democratic candidate talking about this grave aspect of USA. Thanks to both persons!
3
Paul Krugman is the sane thinking persons Garner Ted Armstrong on one point. He speaks the plain truth in a clear manner. In all other aspects they are the polar opposites to Kriugman's credit.
3
There are also more veterans in red states. More PTSD.
6
Within the red states you examined is the higher early mortality equally shared across ethnic groups, or do minorities bear more of this terrible burden? A second question is do these states have weaker/different safety nets for citizens?
Thanks for your columns. They always make me think!
4
oddly enough two of the Democratic Party candidates for President have articulated policies that will take on and take out the structural components of our economy and political process that continue to block corrective change to that described by Dr. Krugman and the many comments of this thread.
the dismissal of the two candidates by both Third Way Clintonian faux Democrats and Republicans as—politically unworkable by the former and as socialism by the latter.
the window on our ability to correct our course for oblivion is closing rapidly and as for incrementalism, as they say in Maine, well you just can't get there from here.
1
Let's slow down on the victory lap Mr. Krugman. Your version of "the conservative diagnosis" is like Steve Doocy's version of the Liberal one: a caricature.
Despite Mr Barr's comments, the policies that Trump Conservatives have impacted most have to do with China, Immigration, Trade Deals, Taxes & Regulation - i.e. JOB issues, not moral decay. Intelligent people should see the connection between jobs, despair and death. Reasonable people can and should debate whether Liberal or Conservative economic policy is in the best interest of jobs, especially in 'Trump Land.'
More eye rolling is not the answer for 2020.
2
Corporate Socialism is great, according to the GOP, which also maintains that the people must stand on their own two feet. This is hard in any case, but much harder when the system is rigged to push all the profits upstream. When will the GOP base figure this out!
10
This red state/blue state dichotomy is somewhat misleading, as many states are actually purple states. For example, in 2016 Trump lost several "blue" states by tiny margins: 1% in MN, 2% in NV and 3% in ME. Votes were virtually tied in NH, WI, PA and MI. He won "red" states of FL by only 2% and AZ by 3%.
Here in "blue" OR, cities along the I-5 corridor (Portland to Eugene) are thriving due to high tech, education and healthcare but the vast rest of the state is economically depressed since the timber industry up and left for China. Statewide we have very low performing public schools, rampant child sexual abuse and methamphetamine addiction, and an exploding homeless population. Being "blue" ain't always all it's cracked up to be.
8
I wouldn’t be so smug about the longevity disparities. Correlation is not causation. Perhaps the circumstances that the red states find themselves in are not necessarily due to political or cultural differences, but born out of the collective negligence of both parties on the federal level to address the economic concerns?
Both parties have made lots of unfulfilled promises to this region. If I faced the realities that many of these folks face, I might say WTH and vote for a populist to shake things up.
Has anyone tracked education attainment with mortality, or teacher salaries relative to cost of living?
50
@historyRepeated Well, the voters in the Red States sure 'shook things up' when they voted for the 'populist Trump' didn't they? Do the Red States accept Federal programs that might improve their conditions? Or, do they dismiss 'government involvement' in their lives? Or do more religious groups accept God's will-looking toward better times-when they are dead. Trump is fine with them-we are all sinners-maybe if you have a really 'bad sinner' the end will come sooner? How much tax money goes to Red States versus taxes paid from them?
53
@historyRepeated
I think Prof. Krugman understands modelling and inferential statistics about as well as anyone on the planet and the difference between correlation and causation. But rather than explicating the regression results and significance indicators, he went straight to the results. Ironically, almost all the red states receive more in Federal benefits than they contribute, while most of the blue states contribute more than they receive back, so are subsidizing the red states.
However income levels and health have LONG correlated, both within nations and internationally.
I would hypothesize that infant mortality would follow similar trends, higher the poorer people are. Internationally, our rank is dismal for a rich nation, and our infant mortality rate is about the same as...Cuba!
Lots of factors contribute to overall life expectancy: Quality, accessibility, and regularity of health care; diet; exercise; exposure to, vs protection from pollutants; opioids (see NYT recent art on opioids in small Ohio town). I'm sure I've missed other important factors. And almost all of these factors parallel income and type of employment.
50
@historyRepeated True: just as with the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, it no doubt is due to a multiplicity of factors. Each would take some study to winkle out. Relevant questions include:
* Does the relative scarcity of reproductive-health clinics in red states lead to more deaths of women from pregnancy complications?
* Is it harder for college graduates with large student loan debt to repay in red states, leading to more depression and higher suicide rates?
* What about the relative frequency of problems due to people skipping medical treatment where health insurance is less available?
* Which states have more violent crime?
* Where are workplace safety rules more strictly enforced?
35
Barr would be much happier if he lived in the 15th century.
He misses the absolute power of Kings and Popes.
12
Most Democracies in the world are representative republic societies - meaning, once you elect your representative, local civic, mayoral ... all the way up to the President, you lose control of your "direction"!
"Red" states declining ACA that gaurenteed health coverage of per-existing conditions no matter the cost - not the people's choice. It is how the elected were bought-off (read "bribed") by lobbyists into the larger "narrow-minded" agenda of the party they chose.!
It is not really a Blue/Red issue - it's about how corrupt your elected peon is!
4
1969, a population of just over 200 million made it work on a median household income of $9,430 in a country with a GDP of $1.017T. The poverty rate was declining and had been for the previous ten years.
2018, a population of just over 330 million cannot make it work with a median household income of $62,700 in a nation's whose GDP had expanded to $20.5T. The poverty rate has only rollercoastered up and down between 11-15% for the last 50 years. We do not need much more proof of how uneven the fruits of the 'American Dream' have been distributed. Working folks have been systematically excised from the growth in our economy.
The GOP bromide of 'A rising tide raises all boats' cannot explain why some boats have risen so much more than others. It's all a crock, intended to lead the mass of Americans to future immiseration.
14
To summarize: Red state voters get to heaven first. Bless them.
11
Democrats, please hire expert marketing and PR people. Messages do not deliver themselves.
8
Please don't confuse me with the facts Mr. Krugman my mind is made up !!! Right on target sir! Should be required readings,oops who does that anymore??
5
I would expect Krugman's next article to delve into the fact that homelessness, poverty, murder rates, welfare dependency, high living costs, single parent families all seem to be in cities run by liberals/progressives for the past fifty years.
5
@Jim
Everything you stated about cities run by liberals and progressives has some measure of truth which will vary from city to city.
Now lets talk about small town and rural America that's dominated by Republican mayors, sheriffs and state legislators:
Opiod addiction
Meth addiction
Low paying jobs
Poor Educational Quality
Poor Health Care Facilities
All these are the prevalent in many rural American communities run by Republican mayors and sheriffs with Republican state representatives.
What Mr, Krugman is trying to tell you is that many small towns and rural areas are in economic and social crisis.
Too bad you are too filled with hatred to listen, and too addicted to the mantra of low taxes and small government to do anything about it.
13
Medical care like everything else in this country has become a business ; they are not in it for your health but more for your money . When medical insurance demands higher premiums , co-pays , and procedures become expensive , where your family's healthcare shoots your premiums even higher , more and more families go without coverage for their children because they simply cannot afford it . When generic medicine becomes more expensive people either cut their dosages in half or go without . I agree with Mr. Krugman ; that red states have poorer healthcare . People do not have access to health programs offered in blue states ;they have bought into the idea promulgated by the Republicans that programs such as medicaid are handouts , entitlements that should be done away with . Add big pharma into the equation , highly addictive opioids that they knowingly distributed among the vulnerable and desperate and you have the Republican prescription for early death . This is capitalism on steroids .
10
The obesity thing is directly correlated to low income, poor health and shorter life span. Diseases related to obesity such as diabetes, cardiovascular ills and low self esteem, account for a great share of Medicare spending.
The expression that you can never be too thin or too rich applies, especially when you look at the profiles of city folk compared to country heifers in red MAGA hats.
Vote Trump and die.
4
Even before there was a growing gap between the life expectancy rates of red and blue states, there were higher rates of obesity in states with higher percentages of religious belief. Religious parents are more likely than others punish their children than irreligious parents. Why are children likely to be punished? A frequent reason is not finishing the food on their plates. Children in religious homes are are taught to eat what is in front of them even if they are not hungry. Their parents don't understand that eating food you neither need nor want is wasting it. Consequently, obesity is more common in red states.
All of this can be traced back to the #GOP's evil brilliance of the Southern Strategy.
They figured out how to never help those in need, including the middle class, but still gain their solid votes by feeding their racist prejudices. Inseparable from those prejudices is the belief that they are victims whose lives have been hurt by the "others".
The Southern Strategy is 180 degrees from "good all American resourcefulness." The #GOP counts on their voters feeling oppressed and victimized. By keeping them in that box, feeding them red meat like rats, the #GOP can continue to plunder our economy for their own selfish needs.
It's one of the finest magic tricks the GOP has been performing for almost six decades.
8
The book, "Dying of Whiteness" explains this very thing. https://www.amazon.com/Dying-Whiteness-Politics-Resentment-Heartland-ebook/dp/B07F669F71/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1575405192&sr=8-1
1
.
RED OR ELSE
It's is nearly impossible to get through to most Trump supporters on this (so many of them being fundamentalist religion adherents) because their leadership has them convinced it's not their own fault — it's the *rest* of society refusing to toe the same line they do on religious matters that's causing all of the country's ills.
The answer, therefore, is to force their religious medicine onto everyone else, separation of church and state be damned, lest they themselves perish as God smites them with various plagues and pestilence.
In other words, Democrats believe, for example, in the freedom for all individuals to marry and in women's reproductive rights...... otherwise known in the fundamentalist lexicon as "abomination" and "baby murder!"
In reprisal, therefore, God reaches down from on high and strikes Republicans and Democrats alike — usually by "removing His protective hand," as they tell it, and permitting deadly tragedies. Therefore, you must force everyone else to convert (or if not convert, at least to obey), and save yourselves.
"Vote Republican or die," in other words.
Now someone kindly tell me how you can reason with that.
.
4
Barr can only tell the truth by accident. Citing the opinions of off the charts sociopaths is only citing the propaganda. There is no there there. The assault on " traditional values" is coming from the radical libertarian infested right. "Greed is good" did not originate with progressives! It was a product of libertarian ideology that infiltrated the formerly conservative right. But greed is not a true conservative value either. I don't imagine Midwestern and Southern voters view greed as a Christian value. The vile so called "prosperity gospel" notwithstanding.
Similarly if family can only be understood in one way, the right continuously assaults families in their sex policies. But to the extent that financial security helps families, the right also assaults families by continually trying to beat down middle and lower class income. And of course, the right wants healthcare to be inaccessible to the poors; screw their families.
Proggressives are the only ones hewing to recognizable christian values. They are the only ones defending the Constitution. Because they are the only ones who have made ending the corruption the founders feared, which has become our reality, an essential policy plank.
Authoritarianism is the only aspect of traditional conservatism remaining. That, in spades.
1
It's hard to follow politics (vote, demand a decent education, read the paper, run for office.etc.) when you are ill or worrying about your healthcare. Throw working non-stop to make ends meet on top of that and it seems to me this is the goal of many of these crappy Republican policies.
4
Ridiculous how the NYTimes could print this, although it's an opinion piece. Could it not be interpreted that we live in an economy that continually relies more and more on the service sector? These industries tend to be anchored in metropolitan areas which have a pre-disposition to more liberal leaning political views. With a growing Urban-Rural divide and urbanization drawing more people into largely populated areas, those who live in rural climates have less and less access to things like higher education and better job opportunities. It's not a causation of political beliefs resulting in a decline in life expectancy. Beware of what you read.
3
@Charles Eickhof
These places can change but they won't; they are too closed minded for new ideas, and often too hateful or bigoted to accept new people.
When you combine that will the belief that increased taxation is inherently bad you have no investment in education and infrastructure. Thus little opportunity for economic growth.
2
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance” - an old saying that about sums up PK’s article.
5
Perhaps the Republicans god just prefers democrats. Life, according to Barrs' ideas is very odd.
1
Imagine if there weren't programs that forced immigrant Doctor's to work and live in these red states as a condition of their coming to America. The problem would be even worse.
4
So the leftocrits show their true stripes. Because most Americans do not want to live like animals in the big cities, and vote republican, they deserve the rural small town issues the face.
It is people like Krugman and the leftocrits commenting here to be the first to go.
1
@John Gilday: Perhaps you didn't realize that Krugman is reporting on research findings, not on what he thinks people "deserve" based on their political party preference.
34
Yes, people are generally responsible for the results of who they voted for.
I fail to see how there is anything hypocritical about that.
Also I'm not sure what you're getting at with your "animals" comment. Plenty of animals live out in rural and wild areas too.
3
@John Gilday
Strange. What species of animal builds cities?
4
The 2016 election shows that people in red States knew, at least subconsciously, that something was very wrong. The problem with their vote is that they voted against their own best interests. Not just where life expectancy is concerned but also where economics and opportunity are concerned. Donald Trump conned them and their life will be shorter and poorer for it.
3
Meth. Fentanyl. Diabetes. 'Right to Work' laws. These are killing my neighbors in my red state. Labor by healthy low-skill low-education individuals simply offers no promising quality of life, so you get high. You get high. The blockheads who call for 'education' can't read a bell curve, can they? We need to put public funding to work supporting a community labor corp that pays a solid living wage to teach basic work skills, reward progress in skill mastery with money and maintain fully-supported transitions into private economy workforces. Our population is a valuable resource, human capital. We treat it like refuse. As if we left our stock portfolios out in the rain all month long.
4
@William Fritz
Granting permanent normal trade relations with China and supporting China's entry into the WTO destroyed the textile industry in your area as surely as it (along with NAFTA) destroyed manufacturing in my neck of the woods. As you wrote, a decent job is incredibly important for both mental and physical health, especially for men.
2
Best news I have heard since that dark day in Nov 2016.
1
So the early deaths of millions is okay with you because they don’t share your political affiliation?
They are dying of whiteness and accessibility to guns which equate gun ownership with manliness. Now it takes 54 hours for an individual with 2 severe losses to kill themselves with a gun. Trump gave more value to the artificial and socially manufactured asset called whiteness. Many people only have that and nothing more.
4
I often look at the FOX news web site to understand why some Americans become self radicalised with right wing religious extremism. It is clear to me that many of these poor uneducated people can be easily brainwashed by emotional wedge issues like abortion, gay marriage, saluting the flag, that appeal to their fears, but have no impact on their quality of life. They are not much different from the Taliban or ISIS who are easily manipulated by their leaders who are in it for the power and money.
10
Cause or effect? Correlation or causation?
1
“The conservative diagnosis is dead wrong.” And it will continue to be.
Facts, evidence-based policy and honesty are anathema to the GOP and their clownish leader, Donald J. Trump.
Everything is adapted to fit their narrative: guns, god and tax cuts.
8
The JAMA article (2018) referenced in this opinion piece shows an increase in life expectancy for all 50 states between 1990 and 2018 (Table 3). That's good news. Mr. Krugman is reporting a life expectancy disparity between red states and blue states; while it is true that the gains in life expectancy are smaller for some red states, several of these states (WV, AL, LA, for example) were ranked low in life expectancy in 1990 (before Trump) and in 2016. Voting for Trump didn't cause these disparities. His election is a symptom of a larger, more insidious problem of systemic income inequality in the US.
One final note: we are never, ever, ever, going to reign in healthcare costs in the United States without improving nutrition. Did y'all see the BMI and fasting plasma glucose data presented in the JAMA article? We all need to eat a salad for dinner tonight.
4
If you're 50th in just about every measure, your outcomes will reflect that.
6
I agree that the time for the United States to become multiple countries has arisen. Let Red states fend for themselves, not drag the entire population down.
5
One little thing Mr. Krugman didn't mention -- those red states love their 2nd amendment. Suicide is a lot easier when you have access to a gun. Roughly half the deaths from gun violence are suicides. Two plus two equals four.
7
Medicine and medical care has become expensive. So states that are less wealthy or have not expanded Medicaid and embraced Obamacare are less healthy, and their people die sooner.
3
Conservative diagnoses are ALWAYS wrong. Just think, if Trump carries almost every state, our average life expectancy will decrease. Another advantage to voting Republican.
2
Good summary of what in effect is two nations in one.
The root of nearly all human problems since time began are ignorance and selfishness.
If people don't want to learn anything factual or in some depth, it's self evident no can make them put forth the effort. And if they only care about their well being, not yours, what can you do.
So we get the divide we have today. The red side is largely ignorant and selfish beyond comprehension. The blue side has ignorance and selfishness within it of course, but to a lesser degree.
So all we can do is vote and hope for a measure of sanity and caring. I doubt anything will save the red states until several generations have passed.
Each state and the nation gets the gov that reflects the collective consciousness of the state or the whole as applicable. Sad that half the country lowers it so greatly.
Hope someday true knowledge, caring and a measure of fairness wins out, we'll all live longer and be happier. We can dream.
3
Lack of education leads to people voting against their interests so they are susceptible to Republican policies such as cutting funding for education which leads to worse education and so on. They also become more susceptible to Republican lies about Medicare for All such as it will cost more. This leads to the access to healthcare being more expensive and that leads to bad health and death. Republicans also teach them that guns are a necessity in their lives and that leads to them shooting each other. Republican positions on education, healthcare and guns and climate to name are clearly a greater threat to people than ISIS.
3
When I travel back to my economic "shitehole" (to quote our empathetic president -- but, of course, he was talking about places populated by dark-skinned people) of a hometown, which strong strongly supported, and still supports, Trump, I am struck by the overwhelming prevalence of obesity, horrible food choices, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, and, most jarring of all, cigarette smoking. In my new home, which is less then 3 hours away, I would be hard pressed to identify a smoker among my circle of friends and acquaintances. Up in Trump country, it's nearly impossible to go anywhere without smelling the reek of stale smoke on clothing.
3
When I travel back to my economic "shitehole" (to quote our empathetic president -- but, of course, he was talking about places populated by dark-skinned people) of a hometown, which strong strongly supported, and still supports, Trump, I am struck by the overwhelming prevalence of obesity, horrible food choices, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, and, most jarring of all, cigarette smoking. In my new home, which is less then 3 hours away, I would be hard pressed to identify a smoker among my circle of friends and acquaintances. Up in Trump country, it's nearly impossible to go anywhere without smelling the reek of stale smoke on clothing.
1
Funny how this column mentions Barr - but it could just as easily be aimed at Douthat today.
One thing for sure; it’s hard to think of any problem we’re facing today that Republicans are not making worse.
2
I have often wondered if the misery experienced by people in these states is intentionally caused by their leadership. As long as the people living there can be induced to blame factors outside of that leadership, and to believe that the leadership is the solution, they will continue to live with their current worsening condition.
2
I wonder what will be the anti-vaccination campaign's effects on life expectancy.
1
@ManWithTheKey,
As the old saying goes "politics makes for strange bedfellows."
Here in Colorado, the place with the lowest vaccine rate is Boulder County which skews highly educated and highly affluent--Boulder is not a cheap place to live--and also highly liberal.
There also conservatives who are anti-vaccine, perhaps for different reasons than their liberal counterparts but the bottom line is that the anti-vaccine movement is not limited to a specific political ideology.
2
Let see now: The Red State blue collar workers are against Unions, Workers Compensation, Social Security, Medicare, AFDC, and Work Safety regulations (I'm sure that I've missed a couple of pro-worker programs). Of course their life expectancy and death rates are higher than in the progressive states.
3
I will add a point I have not seen. Red states always talk about how angry they are and yet they control alot of politics. What exactly are they angry about and how much self-reflection has been prescribed to alleviate the issues. It simply isn't good enough to say "protect my way of life because" at the same time supporting opposing politics and values that work for your "neighbor." Start by looking in the mirror just like conservatives like to say to anyone that does not think like them.
3
I just finished watching "The Irishman" movie about 1950s union activity, and it is clear that something has gone terribly wrong in the last half-century. Labor unions did a yeoman's job of raising wages on the lower socioeconomic subset of citizens, and it cut across geographic lines. Now, that influence has almost disappeared, so if you don't have a college education you are much more likely to fall between the cracks in the economy. Too bad.
4
@Charles E
In 1981-2 Reagan broke the unions.
2
The question is, do the red state folks in the midst of their sickness, depression, and addiction even begin to understand this connection? Do they get that the way they are voting has any connection to their problems?
Are they aware of how much better the blue states tend to be in terms of health, education and economic measures? Do they have any awareness of the fact that their voting habits have a direct relation to the problems they are experiencing?
Or perhaps they don't care? Perhaps they would rather wallow in their pain and blame the liberals? It's hard to help someone who doesn't want help, or won't face up to their own responsibility in improving their situation.
Getting them to realize that there is a correlation here, helping them to understand that there is a better, more helpful and productive way - this should be part of the over- arching goal and message of every Democratic candidate running for any office.
15
As people become more and more powerless, they seem to gravitate to Trump as someone who can say and do all they can't. Republican policies for years have favored the mighty and the few and often have been cloaked in the bombast of the Christian Right. Perhaps it is now more true that 'Republicanism is the sigh of the oppressed creature ... it is the opium of the people' (with apologies to Marx).
5
What about the relation to a healthy lifestyle and education level? Does it coincide with the decline of life expectancy in Trump country?
I would be curious to see how the number of "dollar" stores per square mile correlates with mortality and disability rates. So called "food deserts" are a real problem, especially in rural areas where traditional grocery stores are disappearing at a rapid rate due to their inability to compete.
7
We subsidize junk, processed food with the farm bill, too.
3
"Why does falling life expectancy track political orientation?"
You answered your own question Dr. Krugman with this essay. The horrid thing about all of this is how the Republican leadership has so consistently lied to its base, and the base continues to vote against the programs, the political solutions that would really benefit them. Dems might peal off a few of the Trump voters who finally get it, but the base is so believing, so enthralled (man, does that word resonate, yikes!) to their own mythology, that I wouldn't count on any of them to see the light.
15
I often wonder if the GOP Senators and Representatives who bemoan every step forward by progressives ever visit their states and see the reality of the quality of lives playing out in their fantasy utopia. You would think they would look to states that thrive and emulate successes.
With changes in climate the disparages will widen and their denial of reality will cause untold hardships. Hating the Libs will only get them so far.
As an aside, remember when Mrs. Obama tried to introduce healthy food into schools and Palin, Bachman and other geniuses cried foul. It boggles the mind.
14
"Democratic-leaning areas used to look similar to Republican-leaning areas in terms of productivity, income and education. But they have been rapidly diverging, with blue areas getting more productive, richer and better educated."
This means we're doing it right, no? I hadn't thought about this in a long while with the chaos of the past few years but this used to be Exhibit #1 in my "Why Republicans Are Wrong" philosophy. If by every objective measure Team Blue is prospering with respect to Team Red then why aren't they switching teams?!
10
Isn’t the reason because the red team believe that they are winning? This is the power of propaganda, ie Fox News. People are fed alternative facts, which they believe, and which lead them to false conclusions while stoking their emotions. Orwell wrote about it in another generation. Propaganda works.
You guys cure the homelessness problem yet? How are things in Califraudnia? Why are the residents fleeing? You make it sound like everything among you blueberries is positively utopian.
The mines, manufacturers, oilfields, farms, forests, and oceans are a much harsher environment than an office loft or cubicle.
Those that procure the necessities have always been in more danger than those that simply use the necessities.
5
Agreed, but reducing worker safety regulations - a Trump/ GOP favorite target - makes it more so.
5
An interesting article. Thank you. It would be nice to know about one’s life expectancy if one worked in a Blue state till 65 and then retired in a Red state.
5
moving to a red state in retirement around all those guns, anger, and bigotry sounds like a death sentence.
1
Reducing access to health care shortens lives, to a measurable extent? Who could have foreseen that?
16
It's all about faith really. Faith in the red states that the Almighty will take care of those in need. Ok, and if that doesn't work, faith in the loud, charlatan huckster from Queens by way of reality TV will bring back the jobs that started dying out after WW2.
Heaven forbid we have a government that reflects a society that believes it has a responsibility to take care of its people. That's socialism. Cain't have that!
31
There are no Republican policies. Only hate, bitterness, and selfishness. Hard to see much good coming out of that, including longer lifespans.
22
Smoking, including vaping and inhaling pot, opioids, poor healthcare, including little to no preventive care, horrible diet, working year round without a real vacation and time for family while being under constant financial stress, will bump you off.
14
Read - ‘Dreamland’ - the opiod crisis - and all will be clearer. From the pill mills to the less expensive ‘black tar’ heroin and targeting the geographic areas corresponding with the article’s thesis.
5
Seems like opioids are the free market version of crack. Crack went to black people in the cities, and opioids went to whites in rural areas (and rush Limbaugh).
Sometimes, Prof. Krugman strays into intellectual territory that is quite far from his field, and this is one of those times. The subject is one that the NYT might wish to consider covering with a thoughtful series relying on experts in public health, demography and related subjects. Facts, not intellectual musings, are needed to explore this important topic.
6
I don’t understand your comment— in my reading Dr. Krugman presented many interesting and relevant facts.
2
@Chuck Psimer
I grew up in a very red area where I now live for family reasons. Between stints in my home area, I lived almost exclusively in blue areas on one of the coasts. From my perspective, the differences between red and blue states are as complicated as the problems within each state, and would require an exhuastive multidisciplinary study. Instead, what Prof. Krugman serves up are a handful of unrelated studies drowning in heavy political sauce which delights NYT readers but would barely pass muster as an undergraduate poly sci term paper.
Well this is totally troubling. Living 4 years less is a huge deal. Good luck America...I hope teachers in all schools will talk to students about this. Talk about this specific article. Heck...each American school should spend a week of curriculum delving into this article and analysing all the facts. I'm being 100% serious here... Education is a big way out of this trap of foolishness.
7
These are people who've chosen to be horrid and feel sorry for themselves because of it.
8
If only the people who would benefit from this information would get to read/hear it!!!! the whole country would benefit .
How can that happen???
6
@scoops The people who would benefit the most from reading this won't, because they consider it to be "fake news".
Get Trump to tweet it?
Add to equation more 2nd Ammendment easy access to firearm related suicide. Through in alcohol and drugs to make impulsive chooses, be it crime, violence.
Home schooling of youth, stunted deal with society.
Iraq war (Linch), so many poor citizen join US military as away to access post secondary education.
3
I can answer that without reading the article. You need to be educated and believe in science to function in the current world. Waiting for the rapture and doing everything you can to bring about the end of the world is not life affirming
15
@M Vitelli
But it is Israel affirming..
Great news! Trump voters are dying more than Democrats. Can’t happen soon enough for me.
11
So sadistic cruelty is a Progressive trait? Wishing death on those who disagree with you is humane?
The photo of the young man in the MAGA hat makes me sad, which I am pretty sure would just infuriate him.
A few years ago my wife and I (we do okay but we’re by no means “elite”) visited LA and were having lunch at a nice-but-not-too-expensive restaurant on the Sunset Strip (e.g., $50 dollars for lunch for two). An open-topped van full of tourists pulled up to the curb and the tour guide encouraged the group to take photos and “wave at the rich people.” I wanted to call back to them “Hey, for what you spent to be sitting in that van, you could be sitting here with us!”
My point is that I think Trump’s base is their own biggest obstacle. It doesn’t have to be “us” and “them,” and it’s sad that so many of our compariots believe that some things (a college degree, a professional career... lunch on a Hollywood patio) aren’t for them, and so, instead of even trying, they double down on resentment and grievance because at least that provides them with some semblance of “identity” and “purpose.”
What could that young man in the MAGA hat achieve (but likely won’t)?
Sad.
15
Mortality/life expectancy and changes over time are mapped by US county at http://ihmeuw.org/4zla (or see their interactive site at https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa ). Compare to map of 2016 Presidential results by county at http://carto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MinimalGallery/index.html?appid=b3d1fe0e8814480993ff5ad8d0c62c32 .
3
Regarding Bill Barr and his blame of secularists for societies ills. Wonder who is doing better, conservative Christians or Atheists and Nones?
6
Can you imagine AG Barr linking lowered life expectancy and poor health outcomes to obesity? That would be the pot calling the kettle black for sure. As for diet: we’ll have pie in the sky by and by.
1
Wait for Blue "deaths of despair" to skyrocket if Trump is re-elected
1
This "militant secularist" believes in a complete and total separation of church and state. I would think of that as an "originalist's" view of our governments founding documents.
What religion one believes in or not is nobodies business, Mr. Barr. Your religions have given us wars, pedophilia and a President most of us would not want as a next door neighbor. I certainly wouldn't let my teen daughter baby sit for him...or even walk his dog. Ooops. No dog.
Of course there are very fine, kind and generous people within every belief system. I would include most of my atheist/agnostic/"spiritual" friends.
Nobody has died in the name of humanism. Pastafarians don't make war. So on the contrary, Mr. Barr your religions have actually been the SOURCE of war, butchery and millions of unspeakable acts - all in the name of somebody's invented version of a magic man in the sky.
Actually, think about this: VP Pence and Sec Pompeo believe in the "rapture"....an event that is to follow war in the Middle East. Is this 2019 or 919?
The world would be infinitely improved if the very concept of religion were to vanish - to be "left behind" with the concepts of witches and other foolish and dangerous superstitions.
7
I’m worried that the red state population is in despair and oriented toward suicide which is why they love Trump. They want to take the blue states down with them in a giant murder-suicide act of despair. A kind of “if we’re going down, we’ll take you down with us rather than change.”
10
Please put a copy in Ross douthat’s mailbox. I have been wanting to say this to him for weeks. It’s not secularism that’s killing the American family. It’s American capitalism.
9
Republicans need to focus less on the "death tax" and more on the death gap.
5
Happy people live longer.
9
The GOP wants Americans to be:
1.ignorant
2.scared
3. poor
4. angry
5. sick.
The really amazing thing is that people fall for it. See #1, I suppose.
17
In your letter today, you wrote, "...But it also ended up being in part about the remarkable fact that conservatives are still placing blame for all our social ills on the decline of religiosity and its supposed destruction of traditional family values, despite decades of evidence that this whole line of argument was and is totally wrong."
It seems to me their line of thinking is indicative of their policy-think, too. The #GOP as a whole does not look as much, if at all, to the future; they spend their time comparing what they see as our present to their incomplete, whitewashed (pun intended) view of our past. So, instead of progressive (oh, that is such a *bad* word...) policies that benefit the most, they have no policy views and that only hurts almost all of us.
They live in the present, but their eyes are firmly fixed in the past. They continue to place blame for all our ills on something that does not even exist anymore.
3
Perhaps that’s why the can focus so intently on preventing women from getting an abortion if they need one... then have no concept of what carrying a baby to term and raising a kid might bring in the future. “God will provide and then we’ll be Raptured if we’re gullible enough” is not much of a public policy.
"But the conservative diagnosis is wrong - dead wrong" That would be true for almost every problem this country has. Their solutions always seem to be more Christianity. One thing we don't need is more Sky Daddy and Sky Daddy Jr. to solve the myriad problems America faces today and in the future.
3
The Republicans need this trend in red states to get worse. Otherwise, voters across the country will eventually reject their mean-spiritedness.
Red states are run by people who could not care less about the health of their fellow Americans. Vermont is run by people who believe that poor people deserve health care. This, in general, is true of blue states.
3
Well, then endorse Bernie Sanders and unequivocal national government health insurance.
2
@Edwin No thanks. Bernie will be a sure loser if he's nominated, and many people don't want to be forced into a government-run program.
Influence of religion and quality of public education influenced by religion has a huge role to play in this equation.
Issues that evoke raw human emotion, like race and religion, are overtly used to hide these naked truth in such Red states/neighborhood who voted for Trump.
Promotion of private/charter schools and home schooling, which are mostly religious in nature, is part of GOP game plan. That strategy not only enrich for-profit universities, schools (that our present Education sectary, Betsy DeVos practices) and strengthen grip on power for the rich "elite" Americans who have a lot of money to buy degrees for their children (before inheriting power and wealth) but also promote pro-business (read, pro-businessmen) policies that make much bigger gain for them while making basically imbecile voters who would be showing more primitive tribal mindset with least respect for (and ability to understand) truth and fact.
1
This is what happens when people consistently vote against their own best interests. Is an early death what it takes to learn this lesson?
2
The answer to the question in Krugman's subhead is simple: Because Red States are so crippled by their own fiscal and social policies that they have forced a mass exodus by their citizens to Blue States so they can work without living hand to mouth.
For example: Oklahoma *outlawed* raising the minimum wage from $7.25 - which no one can live on, even in dirt poor Oklahoma. Meanwhile, home prices, rents and the cost of living in those states continue to soar. I've met and spoken with a lot of Southerners who now live places like in Colorado, Washington State and Oregon because they can't make a living, even with a full-time job, in the Red states.
Also, from an education standpoint, people who went to the trouble and expense to get an education are hobbled in these states because the wages are not commensurate with what they can earn in Blue States - so they leave. It's like 1930 all over again.
Finally, From a public health standpoint, these are places where anti-vaccination propaganda and other dangerous ideologies have taken hold. They threw a fit, for example, when the Obama administration tried to enact healthier school lunch policies, meanwhile, the obesity rates continue to skyrocket. And these people don't care, as long as they have their guns, their pills and their tater tots.
They complain about "socialist" programs, and yet, they are the biggest recipients of public largesse. Truly, we're living in two different countries.
8
I've seen drugs and alcohol mentioned many times recently as a cause of declines in life expectancy in certain groups, but no mention of tobacco. How do the smoking rates compare between red and blue states? Smoking has a profound effect on life expectancy in a population, and longevity improved rapidly in the United States as the adult smoking rate declined from nearly 50% to about 20%.
2
Obesity is public enemy #1. There are many factors contributing to the flatlining of lengthening life expectancy but obesity is the enemy in plain site. It increases medical costs and detracts from quality of life. We must do more to educate people about the dangers of obesity and how to avoid it.
A friend of mine told me his son, a twenty something trying to make it, was offered a job as a salesman at a car dealership, but they said he had to pay $600 for training out of his own pocket. What? Apparently, that is how it is now. I was like, no wonder people are wearing red hats and looking for a messiah. Now, it is clearly Republican big-business-can-do-no-wrong and corporations-are-people kind of thinking that has lead to this, but you have to blame the 1990's centrist Democrats for taking away hope.
1
@James Smith
Yet at the same time these voters would decry any program that would potentially provide the funds for that training, or any rules on employers to provide it. Your comment makes no sense. Their thinking makes no sense. What happened in the 90s is irrelevant. Look at the parties and the offers on the table today and vote accordingly. Act like adults and stop looking for a Santa Claus.
2
I sure don't know, Paul, but it's definitely worth a PhD dissertation or two, isn't it. It is fascinating. (and I'm from north-central Arkansas originally, so,...yeah)
3
"drug overdoses, suicides and alcohol."
Is Paul Krugman implying that alcohol is not a drug? There's a lot of that going on around, part of the alcohol users' free pass game.
1
There were 4,483,810 people in California that voted for Trump in 2016. Are all those people uneducated and fat? Or are they educated and healthy because the state overall is blue?
3
Anyone, anywhere, who supports Trump is either willfully ignorant,or brainwashed by right wing media, regardless of educational level. The trumpoons here in the Sierra foothills share that with their Midwestern coreligionists. They may be thinner, physically, but the brains are similarly miswired.
This is really important. It needs to be more widely discussed.
Many of these deaths are directly related to the opioid epidemic. The NYTs just the other day ran a cover story about it. Bill Clinton had a hand in creating the crisis during the late '90s and Donald Trump is doing much to fix it. During the campaign Trump brought more attention to this issue than any other politician, republican or democrat.
2
This past summer, I drove through 18 states from California to North Carolina and back. All but five of these states are red. Aside from a few metropolitan areas, what I experienced was distressing and sad. I was incredibly relieved when I returned home to California and our “socialist” state. At a family gathering in Alabama on the Fourth of July, several members of my family mocked California and referred to it as a foreign country. I decided to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help but chuckle inside.
While most in my family have been insulated from many of these social ills, they are surrounded by despair and perpetual drama. There is no need to recount where Alabama rates on most quality of life indicators. It’s incredibly sad to see my family in the south embracing the politics of fear, hatred, greed, and the maintenance of privilege for those who have it. They don’t want to share, and they despise liberals such as myself. There was a time when I would have considered moving back home. Now I must say that I can’t imagine doing that at all. The happiness factor of blue state living is a blessing. I just wish that those living in red states were not so easily duped and brainwashed by the GOP. Hopefully, they don’t pull us down to their level. 
6
It's pretty simple: Red States fail to take care of their own citizens' most basic needs. When everyone is forced to fend for themselves all the time, there are a lot of unnecessary casualties along the way. The cruel heartlessness of Republican ideology is literally killing them.
3
So why do they still keep voting for Republicans? what happened to the premise that people a t in their own interests?
This is yet more proof of something which I have feared since Paddy Chayefsky first raised the issue in his screenplay for the film "Network" decades ago. It is now evident that a vast sector of our population is no longer "capable of self-preservation." Their votes have become expressions of fear, nihilism, and general ignorance about the issues essential to their survival. They are only perpetuating the conditions of their extinction. The rest of us need to take this into account in decisions we make about the future of our democratic republic. I cannot say precisely how this compels us to act, if we care about their welfare and our own, but I think we must always bear this in mind whenever we vote and weigh in on public policy. If we let them decide for us it will lead to despair and destruction. If we can help them it will be in spite of themselves. They may balk at such condescension, but if they knew how to take care of themselves they would.
3
RED state voters need a "come to Jesus" meeting of their collective minds to figure out who "should" control their lives and their futures as opposed to who "does". Red state citizens can easily examine the available data explaining why their red states are deficient in so many key quality of life issues. Once they identify the causes of these deficiencies of life issues, only they can then decide on courses of action to ameliorate those issues.
Could Republican red state voter suppression and Gerrymandering be a contributing factor? Have Republican legislators brainwashed them for the past 40 years to believe that social and religious WEDGE issues are much more important to them than their everyday quality of life issues?
Perhaps the answers will explain why Republican red state and federal elected officials consistently vote against increased spending on education, healthcare, social security, immigration, freedom from religion, America's infrastructure, the environment, etc., etc.
If red state voters want to exit the quality of life hole they dug, they should stop helping the Republicans dig. Examine how they got in so deep. Figure out how best to begin the long climb out to a better future for them, their kids and grand-kids.
Only a Democratic House, Senate, and President will help them begin to accomplish that "red state miracle". The Republicans have have spent the past 40 years silently shouting they have no interest in doing that or practically anything else..
4
I recently spent some time watching You Tube videos of Trump supporters and I have decided it is time to split this country into 3 or 4 parts. I am tired of my tax dollars (blue state) going to help support people who think I am a libtard or human scum. I guess I am a communist because I pay money to the federal government that is used to support people like that. I have had enough.
9
But the pertinent question remains: how are their guns doing?
10
Red states are run by people who could not care less about the health of their fellow Americans. Vermont is run by people who believe that poor people deserve health care. This, in general, is true of blue states.
6
I live in Indiana and was not at all surprised that this is one of the four states that had the most dramatic drops.....and it is as red as it gets, in terms of local and state politics. Remember that Pence used to be the Governor here.....his fixation on abortion and "religious freedom" blinded him to any other quality of life metrics; likewise, Mitch Daniels only cared about killing unions, punishing teachers, and giving big tax breaks to business. Our legislature has a super-majority of Republicans that are all but immovable due to their gerrymandering of districts - and, guess who is the only entity that can change it? This place is the textbook definition of "voting against one's own interests!"
16
@Leslie
Pence has been bought and paid for by the Kochs for a long time. As long as they were footing his bills he was free to entertain whatever religious fixation he liked.
Sometimes I remember when he was "Period Pence," and shudder to think he is now the VP.
1
Political power brokers for the wealthy have long used control mechanisms to keep the average working class American under their boot.
This is done in a persistant and insidious manner, and has been going on for many decades now in the US. It is a form of abuse of others.. and is done to keep the rank and file under perpetual levels of stress, and hence more easily manipulated and controlled.
Debt - keep them in debt.
Nutrition - keep them hungry and feed them low cost highly processed foods... for maxium profit and control
Housing - keep them poor enough that they cannot buy their own homes... and instead have to rent from wealthy slumlord barons of real estate.
Distract - with mindless entertainment that feeds the reptile brain and discourages any form of critical thinking. Give them a place to "escape" the stress plied upon them.. and make them even more stressed when they step back into the real world.
Etc.
Etc.
8
I'm a boomer who grew up in rural America and graduated from a public university. While I studied and scrimped, I watched as my many of my cohorts went for instant gratification. They worked part time and partied in high school, got full time jobs right out of high school, drove the cool car, enjoyed a cool lifestyle on the weekends, and were envied by me. In their 30's and 40's, they continued to buy the cool stuff and played hard on weekends but now on credit. I thought, wow, they have this figured out! I'm still pinching pennies to avoid debt. I thought, maybe debt isn't a big deal after all. Then we hit our 50's. I had a robust savings account, a secure annual income, my kids college paid for, and a declining mortgage. They had no savings, were using their house like a piggy bank, and expected their kids to take out college loans. Now in our 60's, their health is shot and they can't afford to retire.
Make America Great Again! is just another way of saying make me young and fun again! Ironically, the cohort that needs socialism the most are Trump supporters!
16
Ain't nothing ever, even the "Magical 'Wayback Machine", going to make me "young and fun" again.
One significant factor not mentioned is that blue states tend to have greater facilities for education and research.
8
Starkly stated, Republicans in red states can expect to die about four years sooner than Democrats in blue states? A shocking result that might be completely explained by education level and access to health care.
2
So, is the nation's problem self-correcting if we wait long enough?
5
@wbj
It would be if not for the electoral college.
It's hard to feel any way except "this is what they want, so let them have it."
8
Well, God works in mysterious ways. Thoughts and prayers, red states.
13
@AJ Blessed irony!
2
My daughter (brag brag) worked for some time in research concerning type 2 diabetes and its treatment outcomes. She reported the incidence of the disease (typically brought on by obesity) and poor treatment outcomes overlay on low income and red states showed high correlation. Mississippi, for example, is our most obese state, has a high incidence of diabetes, and poor treatment outcomes compared to other places. It’s a generally poor place and politically has voted red. This is clearly not good for you. Expatiate.
3
Americans must "fend for themselves" more than in countries where individuals are more cared for with social policies that act as supports for those who get sick or lose jobs or industries. We still have a pioneer-based, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps". and are still subscribing to the ethics of early 20th century authors, who praised self-motivation and success.
Unfortunately. if you were raised poor, lived in a recessed state, or happened to be a person of color, those bootstraps do not "have a pull on them". How does chronic worrry about finances and health insurance impact individuals? Stress, which is a leading cause of major diseases, eating away at American's health; basically if your health or work fails in this country, you die.
Those who are wealthy are protected from this failure, even though businesses and organizations fail, these individuals are still supported by their family's money.
9
What's next, people who live in blue states have more and better sex?
It shouldn't be a surprise that people who live in the economically left-behind areas of the country face greater health risks and are subject to higher death rates, i.e., shorter lives.
To be clear, both Democrats and Republicans have pursued economic policies that have been ruinous to the middle and working classes. The difference is Democrats support expanded Medicaid and social programs to address the devastation caused by those policies.
This may be hard for Mr. Krugman to get his head around, but we don't want expanded government programs to help us. What would help us is non-dehumanizing jobs that provide hope and a measure of opportunity for the future. So our kids can enjoy the good lives our parents knew and enjoyed but has now only a memory.
As someone who lives in a left-behind area, where the best job going is at Walmart or a Dollar General, Mr. Krugman's analysis is condescending and insulting -- exactly why areas of the Upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states put Trump over the top in the Electoral College: the Democrats, for much of the 20th century the champion of ordinary folks, became the handmaiden of the elites.
Trump will probably be re-elected because none of the Democrats are seeing us. They are talking to each other and posting on social media about what they think we want, as opposed to talking with us about what we need.
3
@Philoscribe
The thing is, you are not entitled to remain in your Dollar General area, with limited education and the jobs of yesteryear and expect a life experience on par with those who have deigned to adapt and go where the opportunities are.
We are not going to hold up the whole economy for you. You are free to adapt and join us, or live with the consequences of your decisions.
I saw some analysis once that many Trump voters are from communities and household that are saddened to see their children move away. Well, that happens. Why not flip the script to be happy they are out exploring the world and pursuing opportunities rather than feeling sorry for yourselves?
Nobody is entitled to have things remain the way they've always been.
2
@Philoscribe What's so condescending and insulting in Krugman's piece--the facts?
If people in red states want non-dehumanizing jobs, they need to support politicians who will legislate accordingly. That means: stronger worker protections, including the right to unionize, worker safety protection, and more funding for higher education. Of course, that won't reverse globalization--all those jobs just aren't coming back, no matter what Trump says.
As for "none of the Democrats are seeing us", really? It's more the case that Republican voters in red states are not seeing the Democrats and what they have to offer because they've opted to follow Trump blindly over the cliff.
1
You just said what you want, un-dehumanizing jobs. Where are such jobs found? Certainly not in huge corporations!
Get a job in retail, government, maintenance, farming, or any number of low-skilled jobs in your own area.
Take what you can get and work you way up.
1
Thanks for the courage to publish this.You hit the nail on the head.
Those of us who have relatives across the country can see huge differences between health habits and access to public services.
Ok, you get lower taxes --but you also get less services, poorer healthcare, mediocre education, and so on.
Yes the nation has an opioid crisis, and so on....BUT if people continue to vote against their own best interests by putting in Governors and local politicians who cut funding for education and healthcare, what can the federal government do????
13
@AG People vote with their pocket books everywhere in the world: it is that simple. Foe as long as the liberals keep believing increasing taxes will solve all the ills of the society, they'll keep losing elections.
1
They can do as Pence and Barr suggest would be the most effective thing: pray to Jesus. Plus, it is cheap and requires 0 taxpayer dollars (if you don’t count the loss in exempting religious income and property from the taxes everyone else has to pay). Try this thought experiment: map religion over stressed areas, and over red districts. In America, we don’t care what you believe (within reason as established during the reformation) and protect your right to believe it, AND we also starve the commonweal by subsidizing superstitions whether or not we believe in them. This encourages the value of ambiguous “faith” - intense and unshakable belief in what appears to be impossible and is in any case unprovable. This works well for those who want you to take an outrageous proposition seriously, such as “Only I can make America great again, believe me.” Why do we believe Trump? We take it on faith, as we have been taught to do, and we don’t know how to spot his scam, because we have not been educated to think for ourselves which endangers faith. Other than all that, red is a lovely color.
I once had a boss who came from a large dysfunctional family. My boss didn't care if s/he was happy, only that all staff members were more unhappy than s/he. While our current President milks the economy for himself, his family, and his wealthy cronies (think emoluments, tax cuts, and the end to regulations), he doesn't try to make red states more healthy. He merely tries to make blue states more unhappy -- and that seems to satisfy his supporters.
17
Face it. Trump's voters are mostly uneducated smokers who dine on fried food coupled with their other unhealthy habits. In the past, the GOP represented itself as the party of the rich, but not anymore. Most of their followers live in impoverished areas even when they live in otherwise blue states. They are waiting for government handouts. Opium epidemics are more common in red areas.
Red states were likely not to expand Medicaid to prove that the ACA was a failure. Trump's clever followers were over-joyed to hear about his plan to rid them of that terrible Obamacare. That was until they found out they would lose their health insurance.
Unfortunately, even though they have lower life expectancy because of their behaviors, they have an out-sized say in our senate and electoral collage. The red states are dragging the US into being a third world country.
28
@S.L. @S.L. "Trump's voters are mostly uneducated smokers who dine on fried food coupled with their other unhealthy habits." For real? And the Times has found THIS fit to print?! Keep thinking that way, and keep losing elections, dear.
2
Maybe Krugman has it backwards—maybe the parts of the country that have prospered over the last 20 years are in favor of the socially liberal-economically conservative establishment (Bill Clinton, Bush, and even to some extent Obama) while those areas left behind favor insurgents of any political stripe (Bernie, Trump, and even to some extent Rand Paul). And the latter see their economic struggles as an effect of the moral failings and apathy of the latter.
4
I'm starting to believe that unacknowledged depression, despair, and denial are causing vast numbers of people to vote against their own interest.
The pattern becomes clearer every day.
7
I've often wondered if America is so dysfunctional politically why is it so successful economically?
One reason must be the way it attracts talent from around the world especially in the area of research.
Another reason is the gigantic market which makes it a magnet for enterprise. We see the same effect regarding China where companies will bend over backwards to get into the Chinese market.
4
I think the economics are only great for some people. Our economy is good if you’re watching the market, but the number of people who benefit from that part of the economy is small compared with those that don’t. Trickle down has never worked. I think the gaps referenced in this article will continue to widen without (to quote E Warren) big structural change.
7
@Ian We are resting on our laurels. I do believe we can't keep up the charade too much longer.
1
Because of education and opportunity. The South has embraced Trump --phony promises to keep coal and manufacturing thriving, rollbacks that remove water, air and land protections that add to environmental peril. The South would rather wear MAGA hats and have no health care than vote Democrat and actually HAVE health care, lower prescription drugs, more safety regulations, etc. They've almost personalized New Hampshire's Live Free or Die thinking to Live Free and Die! What can you do about willful ignorance? Education, education, education, I guess -- although that takes money. If you've ever gone grocery shopping in the South, where everything is supersized -- shopping carts, bags of chips -- you'll get the obesity. When I travel to the South, I know any fast food craving is minutes away from being satisfied -- in literally any direction. Bad food is cheap and plentiful. In an area where a lot goes wrong for the majority, these little things seem like things that are going right for them. But how healthy can any $1 meal be?
14
@Andy You summed it up with, "What can you do about willful ignorance.?" Emphasis on "willful," as in Barr willfulness.
We really need to start exploring increasing states rights as a prelude to autonomy and perhaps ultimately a break-up. California and Alabama, for example, seem to have little reason to be under one flag. Let’s acknowledge that across regions we have different values and different ideals about society. It’s not good or bad, right or wrong, it’s just what it is.
10
@Jim T Interesting. California would be better off without Alabama. What does Alabama contribute to California or our nation for our mutual benefit? For Alabama, without California, where would they get the money that they so readily usurp from the Blue States?
4
What about the refugee crisis when the bottom fell out in AL, MS, etc and people had to migrate en masse to the other states? What about the centuries-long effects of AL, MS, etc having no environmental protection and leaving useless wastelands behind in these migrations?
2
Wait a minute, Paul. Can we say that Republicans in California, N.Y. or Massachusetts are more likely to have a lower life expectancy? I really doubt it. The health problems, including higher rates of opioid use & addiction are very much linked to environmental & economic causes. Environmental causes can include regional diet and exposure to a variety of sources of pollution. Economically the so called "Red States" have been stuck with resource extraction economies that have become much less viable. (i.e. coal) Much help is needed to reverse these trends.
1
The claim is that policies in red states drive the decreasing life expectancy. Inequality is higher in blue states, yet policies on education and healthcare is better than in red states with less inequality.
3
@Bob: One probably does not see a 4 year differential between rural and urban NY, CA, and MA because those three states expanded Medicaid, providing rural hospitals more revenue than if they had to provide so much care as charitable care.
3
@Bob - With all due respect. Duh. Read the article. The impact comes about when enough voters elect people who put policies in place that are damaging to the state as a whole.
3
Enough identifying all the manifold reasons for the state of red states.
Think about why the increasing wealth of the installed productivity of these states, that is there, seem not to be shared with the population.
People who haven't benefitted from local wealth creation are the non-union, unemployed miners of the latest closed mining company and the missing family farms' contribution, etc. to local wealth.
What you have is corporate ownership of production profits in those states and its distribution that does nothing more that allow outsiders greater tax avoiding income and the growth in the value of stock markets. Corporations and huge businesses do not help the inhabitants of those states.
There is a worthwhile style of life present in red states but the needs to keep body and soul together is the priority and workers there do the best they can. They do what they can given what they gain from the support they are left after most of the wealth is taken elsewhere.
2
I'm always a little skeptical of the claim that Europe is far more secularist than the USA is. More Americans live religiously, on average, than Europeans do, but we also have a different history, and a different expectation of what religion is. There was no divine monarchy in the US, no crusades, no wars between the Protestants and Catholics, no gas chambers. Our civil war wasn't fought over religion, even if slavers and abolitionists both tried to use biblical text to support their stances, and many of our most unifying leaders were people such as MLK Jr., a minister. Religious art and iconography is also much less prevalent here. So while I realize this probably is not a popular take, I don't really think religion is as much of a problem in this country as many secularists have claimed it to be.
On the other hand, consider how Utah typically ranks high in health and quality of life rankings. The Mormon population is as religious as they come, but they are also a faith that places high value on community. From what I've seen, the deeply-embedded value we place on individualism is what's now leading to more isolation in the modern era, and therefore more "deaths of despair."
5
The 4 year differential in life expectancy between blue and red states could simply indicate that wealthier blue state populations, on average, can spend more money on life-prolonging therapies that don't necessarily provide life-enhancing (symptom management or curative) outcomes. In other words, is a 4 year difference in life expectancy an accurate measure of disparities in quality of life standards or just a measure of increased utilization of healthcare with no true gains in quality of life and happiness?
5
@Pg Maryland - Look at the statistics, the rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc. Overall quality of health and life is better in blue states.
6
@Pg Maryland that is precisely it. The coastal elites use their technology jobs money to extend their lives, and then snob at the blue color workers for not being able to afford the same. Hypocrisy galore.
1
The despair that shortens people's lives is the same despair that got Trump elected. He's the despair president and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
22
It again boils down to people voting against their best interests. I currently live in a "red" state, who in all likelihood will vote for Trump. I find it baffling, at best. I also blame the Democrats for this, as they cannot articulate what people want to hear and need: that being affordable health care, affordable housing, and a job that pays a real wage-the things that we once had in this country. Instead they let the Republicans run amok on social issues-God, guns, Gays and free speech. I just don't understand how something so simple can be ignored by so many.
17
@Al,
It's not just a failure Democratic candidates to articulate these thing , though they probably could do better.
Affordable housing is a blind spot for some Democrats--many cities in Blue States, especially the larger ones, have serious affordability problems: e.g. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, to name a few.
The core problem is that there are too many jobs and not enough housing units. Addressing this either means building more housing or coming up with a way to relocate jobs throughout the country.
Failing to do at least one of those two things will result in major cities and job markets devolving into de facto gated communities.
Are Democrats willing to take this issue head on?
2
They are in cahoots directed by corporations.
It’s the left-wing purity tests that are weighing down the Democrats.
Unfortunately, it would take too long for us to just wait it out...
3
No one likes a good example.
Hence, Trump's popularity.
4
An overwhelming reason for this is the disparity of access to healthcare.
I live in the most conservative county (El Paso) in Colorado and I see and deal with these waxheads every day. Not that I want too, but dealing with them it kind of reminds of accounts of all those people climbing Mt. Everest saying one has to 'sack up' and step over and around all the dying on the trail - just ignore them. That's sort of how I navigate my way into Colorado Springs to get to my college gig teaching 20 year old students from around the world who are bewildered, scared and wondering what country they actually are in. My Chinese students are so well educated, creative and funny (they love Popeye and Homer Simpson) that I have no doubt that it will be the Chinese century - our time has passed. I take no pleasure in writing this.
19
I take pleasure. The world needs to be directed by China. Our time is over. We are the source of chaos.
3
@DL I too teach at a university. My chinese students are studious, polite, and silent. never a question, never an eye contact. They ve been raised by the Communist party. I highly doubt people like that can lead the XX! century.
4
@Yuri Pelham wrote: "The world needs to be directed by China."
I'll take human rights and environmental protection over authoritarianism any day.
2
If I were a conservative, I’d say that the red states’ problems are do to a lack of initiative and poor family values.
7
When Conservatives point out that FBI Uniform Crime Reports show that violent crime, sexual assaults, gun deaths, and other social maladies are concentrated in America's largest cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore and others that are all in Blue States, liberals accuse them of racism, and other assorted ugly intentions.
But Paul Krugman apparently is free to make all sorts of half-baked and outright spurious claims about people in the South and Midwest, and that's considered trenchant commentary.
Seems like hypocrisy.
4
Sadly, none of this research and education reaches those who need it most. They are blinded by the constant lies and the false enemies the GOP loves to hand to them on a platter of blame.
9
To put this on Trump is absurd. The states you are referring to contain large numbers of black people who are not Trump supporters, and many who have preventable health problems like diabetes and high blood pressure that come from the unhealthy southern diet.
2
And no Medicaid.
They are not all in the South.
Oh sure, Dr. Krugman reliance on the blue state educated ruling class and its veracity has really proven to be a disaster for red states whose sons and daughters have been a reliable source of manpower to do the fighting and dying in all the useless wars the US has been fighting over the last 60 years. Only to come home to joblessness as result of trade agreements which have only benefited the financial class. Please spare me the patronizing paternalistic preaching.
@Fred C Dobbs - Which party got us into those wars?
2
It's not just that red states haven't expanded Medicaid, they just don't have access to any kind of care like blue states do. How are rural areas going to support a medical system, doctors, nurses, specialists and facilities if their economy is already weak? When their entire state's policies are centered around low taxes?
The trump voters want to have it both ways. They want to live out in the middle of nowhere and pay no taxes for their rural property. And then they expect services when they get sick or old.
It's ironic how much people disparage my town, Baltimore. I know people who have made a remark about my town, only to wind up here for some advanced care they can't get anywhere else.
14
Let's drop the Red an Blue label and come closer to what drives the difference in one region or another. Americans in every state carry views that sometimes are described in these colors.
Unfortunately this offers no path to life improvement in the good old USA. The country's ideals were set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble. Both documents envision a government that works and is well managed. To reach these ideals a belief in representative government is necessary.
This is what divides American citizens. A portion believes the government is out to destroy your life(put your favorite quote from Reagan here) and others believe those elected have a role to better lots(put your favorite quote by FDR here).
People have migrated or stay put in areas that support one side or the other. It is not a political division but a debate over "bootstrap" economics versus societal economics.
A party label may shed some light, but nothing will be resolved until most everyone agrees what policies ensure human survival.
3
We have faith in different mythologies. I was raised in the North East and it was widely believed that education and endeaver were the necessary ingredients for upward mobility. Even with- in the tight circles of the 'already haves' it was expected that the next generations would be educated.
It wasn't until I started moving south that I learned that conservative communities strive to undermine the education of their own children while pushing a reliance on religious beliefs.
Each community seems to achieve exactly what they reach for.
23
When I was a librarian in a rural area, I realized that too many parents apparently didn’t want their children better educated than themselves. They accepted a library, grudgingly, but seldom came in for anything we had to offer.
6
It is interesting to me how opinion columnists put all eggs (blue) and (red) into respective baskets. This is a "right after the election" column by any other name, wherein all "experts" were totally befuddled by Trump's victory, and they have been trying to figure it out ever since, to no avail.
While I don't question the statistics in Krugman's article, I can't figure out why he (and "they") assume that all people within a category superimposed on them by said experts behave in a certain way. I have enjoyed reading post-election analyses for the past three years, and been especially amused by pieces on Clinton's unsurprising loss. How could so-called experts not see this coming? The least editorial writers could do would be to include a comment or two about aberrations in their declarations and stop being so certain about everything. This is hubris of the highest order.
2
Or does political orientation lead to a shorter life because one continuously votes for leaders whose efforts harm the voter?
8
Many red states not only have different economies, they have different health care. Overwhelmingly, red states like mine (SC) have not expanded Medicaid, so more poor people fall between the gap between Medicaid and ACA eligibility. Poor health also affects the ability to get and keep a job, furthering the difference in the economies of blue and red states. I suspect that if one looks at people in red states by income, most of the increased mortality would be in the "gap," people who can't afford health insurance and don't qualify for Medicaid. BTW, in SC, this includes any adult without children, even if that person is unable to work and waiting for Social Security disability determination.
6
What would be interesting, is to see comparisons among states by income level. Did the life expectancy of low income New Yorkers outperform low income Texans?
5
The last paragraph quotes William Barr referring to “militant secularists” causing increased drug use and soaring suicide rates, implying that those of us who do not belong to the religious right seek to impose our values on others, resulting in drug use and despair. Are you kidding, me?
Republicans have sought to control women’s bodies and healthcare choices for years. Currently, Trump’s wall is taking away private property and the right to decide what to do with that property without due process.
Mitch McConnell has controlled the ability of our government to legislate solutions to problems by not allowing debate nor discussion of legislation. That is the ultimate show of rigidity. He is not allowing the legislative process to move forward because he doesn’t want to deal with the results if they don’t align with his views or worse yet, undercut his power.
Trump has been declaring Executive Orders since he arrived in office without any input through the legislative process from duly elected representatives. Many of his orders specifically play to his religious right leaning base.
Mr Barr might consider reviewing the portion of the Constitution that refers to separation of church and state if he is concerned about the origin of “militant secularists”.
14
"So something bad is definitely happening to American society"
And it has beern happening for most of my life.
I was raised in a somewhat religious house, attended a religious school for the first eight grades and maintained my belief until I read the Bible in college.
Men wrote the "good book" in order to invoke and formalize the fear which accompanies ignorance and has since been used to control a large segment of the world's population.
These men who became the landowners owed their control to the rule of force since codified by their own written laws.
It really is that simple. Men took control and haven't looked back
Might still makes right and to have an unseeable all knowing almighty as the guide rivals any of today's spy agencies.
We see it throughout the world and have no problem pointing out the failures of other nations, but when it comes to our own it is god's will working in mysterious ways.
So called middle America has nothing left, but the residue of belief, which, thanks to our electoral college and Supreme Court, has forced our nation to look back to the dark ages for assistance. This is where our sitting President was spawned and brought into the mainstream.
We have to face reality next year and rid ourselves of both the symptom and the disease. I can only hope reason prevails and we as a nation begin to see the error of allowing supernatural belief, such as Mr Barr professes, to gain further access in our government.
Iran is an unwelcome example.
4
William Barr equates rising mortality rates with "militant secularists". According to a survey done by Gallup in 2018, Mississippi ranked as the most religious state. They are number 50 in life expectancy. Conversely, only 26% of New Englanders and 29% of those in the Pacific NW were determined to be "very religious". These areas have longer life spans. The cause of shorter life spans has nothing to do with how religious someone is. I find Barr's statement exceedingly offensive in fact. The cause is related more to substance abuse, rates of smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, poor dietary habits and poverty. Type II Diabetes is rampant in some populations, which leads to all kinds of chronic conditions. Mr. Barr's comments are embarrassing coming from someone serving as the Attorney General - they are also troubling, as it is clear his religiosity likely colors his policy making.
16
Red=state America has bought into the fantasy that the government is fundamentally bad and that it is too intrusive in our lives. Blue-state America has understood that facts matter and that government has a responsibility to its citizens. This difference is as much ideological as it is cultural.
Unless, or until, the majority of citizens in red-state America move their ideology/culture to one more resembling that of blue-state America, this particular inequity will only worsen. The real issue is red-state America has to change; not blue-state America. The federal government can only do so much; it is up to citizens in red-states to own their life expectancy issues.
8
Other articles have mentioned how perceptions of safety and danger influence political ideology. The ties to the corporal and political bodies is clear.
I don't dispute Krugman's findings, but disagree with his analysis of the root causes. For the God-fearing people of this country (and, mind you, it has been built by such people), the leftist assault on moral standards is what drives us (against our own economic benefit) into the arms of the GOP demagogues. The left would do extremely wise and well by divorcing economic and political issues from cultural ones. It would thus gain a permanent majority, I believe.
2
What “assault on moral standards??”
I’m going to bet all the things you think constitute an assault are already common behavior in the rest of the world - that part that the article points outhasa higher life expectancy than us, and probably a higher degree of happiness as well.
6
@Robert Young I am not a betting man, for it goes against my religion, in all seriousness. But I am a man of science, and thus do not deal in hypothetical. The article asked why it is that people vote against their own interest economically. I stated that the difference between men and beasts is precisely that: honor, principles, consciousness, and the ability to go against one's stomach needs for the soul and the character believes.
1
@Mikhail23 - The Left advocates treating people equally, caring for the poor, elderly and disabled, paying working people a living wage etc. What exactly is so immoral about any of that?
5
Workers in other countries are taught to be proud of their class and to have contempt for bourgeois values and society. Their Socialist philosophy tells them that the wealth of capitalist society is only a product of the exploitation of their own, working class . . . Older workers in America, on the other hand, where Marxist ideas are not permitted to be part of the political discourse, tend to consider themselves to be simply individuals who have failed to become millionaire businessmen. They internalize society's negative attitude to a suicidal degree. It seems that Socialism is necessary for the public health.
2
@Red Allover Thankfully, working class, or any other class, in the US is not "taught" by anyone to be snobbish based on its social roots: just on hard, honest work and meritocracy.
The public health literature has consistently demonstrated the relationship between low income/lower levels of education and sicker health status. Furthermore the relationship between lower health literacy and sickness has been documented. The bifurcation of lower income and higher income has become more extreme over time. These trends started well before Trump, before Obama and started decades ago. It’s an interesting article but I fear no one can stop this. Education is a major root cause. Reinvestment in education would go a long way to improving the situation, as well as many other social ills. So let’s make sure to always bring education into discussions of how to fix the problem.
3
The Republican Party is the one consistently trying to undermine and short-change public education.
A system that supports preventive health care will always outperform a reactive health care system like what the US has currently.
But the biggest issue is like Jamie Oliver said years ago, what we eat. Diet-related diseases are the leading cause of death, they represent 60% of all deaths in America, compared to 0.8% from suicides. Processed foods are killing more Americans than drugs, vehicles, and guns combined!
The elephant in the room lobbies enough money to ensure no regulation on processed foods are added. When other countries ban foods from being sold by the US in their country because they don't meet minimum health and nutrition standards, it is time for the US to take a good long hard look at what it is feeding its population throughout the entire food process chain.
9
Today I'd say the biggest impact seen between red and blue states is education.
Red states want vibrant grammar and high schools to produce good workers. Blue states want vibrant college and graduate schools to create an innovative and highly productive work force.
Statistically, this is a proven fact. This educational difference then drives the health and mortality figures in two ways. First, the better educated are more aware of health issues and capable by themselves of pushing for positive outcomes for themselves. They are also able to afford it.
3
If you'd like an easy answer to why life expectancy is falling in Red states because of Red choices=, just go into a bar in a red state.
You'll immediately be hit with something I haven't had to deal with since I lived in Idaho in 1996: a cloud of cigarette smoke. All the states I've lived in since then, all of them blue, have banned smoking indoors. They all did it to cut down on smoking.
Conservatives love smokers. Tobacco is big money for Red businesses in Red states. So, cancer rates go up. Bankruptcies skyrocket when people get sick without health care, and already rich Reds pocket even more money.
I don't want them to die, but I can't stop them from running headlong into it.
6
Wonderful and insightful article, and one which we, especially in Blue states must pay attention to. Even though our state is Blue, our inland area is Purple-ish and in some areas deep Red. It’s the rural areas, where farming economy has been slipping for decades, where jobs are scarce because WalMart came in a devastated their small downtown mom-and-pop shops and businesses.
I believe that we, Democrats, must reach out to rural areas especially in 2020, during the various campaigns. And, we must be civil to those who criticize and bully us, online, in blogs, etc.
3
Not only life expectancy declines, but the average height of people has also declined over the last 50 years relative to other comparable (i.e., European) countries. And this correlates with general health of the population. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-shocking
3
Poor and less educated people tend to have higher levels of stress and anxiety. The cause: insecurity about jobs, housing, health care, and many other issues. Anxiety and stress often lead to less exercise. more eating of junk food, and more smoking. Add the politics of grievance and anger and you have a recipe for early death via heart attack, stroke, cancer. However, conservative politicians aren't going to address these problems, because poorer and sicker people tend to vote for them. Unfathomable.
4
When Trump and his nativists say the United States is full, it isn’t just a stupid statement, it misses the reason economic growth has been declining since the late 50’s and early 60’s.
Planet Earth can only sustain so many people, so the Pill was invented in about 1960 to slow the birth rate to a more sustainable level.
Emerging economies grow faster than developed economies mathematically in part due to higher birth rates. Nearly every developed economy have slow rates of population growth and slow economic growth rates, unless per capita GDP is relatively small.
Free trade and immigration at all skill levels have allowed the best quality and natural national advantages to produce goods or services that optimize utility to resource. Barriers in the form of artificial tariffs and immigration quotas counter the efficient allocation of human capital.
It is incredibly myopic to limit immigrants, who make as well as take jobs, and indiscriminately use tariffs regardless of market conditions.
Automation will replace job wages mandated by fiat, leaving people with nothing. Cutting health care and Social Security further undermines financial security.
Trump is ginning up the economy with trillion dollar annual deficits, browbeating the Fed to cut rates, while claiming the economy is great.
If it were, deficits would be going down and rates up.
Allow immigration to dying red and Midwest states to create pockets of economic industry just as in prosperous vibrant cities.
2
It’s not just Trump’s closest advisors who are criminals (Cohen, Manafort, Stone) but also literally his first two congressional supporters (Chris Collins & Duncan Hunter). All prosecuted by people his own administration appointed.
Trump is a walking crime magnet and apologist.
Quoted by honorable Preet Bharara is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. As a U.S. Attorney, Bharara earned a reputation of a "crusader" prosecutor. Wikipedia
4
@Tom Bandolini Yep, since when Wikipedia has become a quotation source of any repute?
as more boomers retire and flee blue counties and states for rural environs the dichotomy of blue and red will blur.
tech could speed this process and bring with it healthier trends for all involved across a wide spectrum current divisive toxins by dispersing its workforce and leveraging the connecting technologies they have built empires on.
I generally agree with your conclusions. But, as a citizen of Massachusetts, I'm concerned to see that MA is on the list of high-mortality state in the chart you linked. Though we do seem to elect Republican governors with disturbing frequency, we are basically a reliably liberal, Democratic-leaning state.
So, my question: If life expectancy tracks political orientation, why is MA on that list? Is there not some other factor we're missing that might explain it?
2
Unfortunately, Republicans, starting with their leadership, have completely abandoned facts and evidence as a basis for policy-making. We've tried reaching them with the facts, those that demonstrate they are supporting policies against their own interests and particularly those that go against their own stated principles. They call themselves patriots, but they celebrate a man who is undermining the US's interests by colluding (yes, colluding) with an enemy of the US. They call themselves religious, but celebrate a man who breaks nearly every rule of ethics. They champion a free market but support a president who is attempting to centrally control the US economy through punitive tariffs and subsidies to people harmed by his policies. I don't think we will ever get through to the hardcore Trump base. They are impervious to reason.
5
The problem is most acute in the Ohio River Valley, where dependency on government is growing. But Krugman only sees voters, not those who are suffering under dependence on others.
1
It is all down to a foreign interpretation of the first amendment being applied.
The first amendment is not a suicide pact. Propaganda is real, it works and should not be allowed.
Detection of objective reality is not so hard that rooting out propaganda is not possible. We used to do it back when we taught children how to be objective and how to think. When people knew how honesty worked and did not fear sharing the facts of their process because they were interested in being objectively correct not being right. Objectivity is the key.
1
Part of that foreign interpretation is that objectivity is actually subjectivity. It is not
Remember Mitt Romney's famous line about the 47 percent who want something (everything) for nothing?
What percentage of the electorate did he get in 2012, again? And Drumpf in '16? Coincidence?
1
Why would anyone vote against their best interests? Yet every time it happens it is within the aforementioned perimeters. Republicans offer the world but consistently refuse their constituents healthcare ,i.e. Medicaid expansion, planned parenthood, the list is too long for this post really. The current ideology has always been to divide the masses. The real problem is how to help everyone, even those who maybe don’t realize they need it. Oh but wait the republicans call that socialism. How convenient for them.
1
Deaths of despair would certainly implicate the growing economic inequality in our North American countries. However, Professor Krugman, you should take a look at how your data correlate with the centralization of medical care. As I understand it, the closure of emergency rooms and small hospitals is proceeding in the US. I encountered it because of studying our own centralization program in Canada. Concentrating medical care in fewer and larger medical centres costs lives. This has been documented. People with heart attacks and strokes, or severe bleeding, can't get to a hospital in time. Check it out, please.
1
Has anyone addressed the upsurge of complicated black lung disease and death in miners? Provided protections against the inhalation of silicates? Regulations of the mining industry and affordable health care can help these families. And yet...
1
The analysis belies the underlying dynamic. The reality is that the politicians in these places, and much of the (white) population don't care about life expectancy statistics because they tell themselves that their states are dragged down by "those people," regardless of the facts.
This resentment of the other is what drives much of their positions on public policy, and it seems that they will deserve the outcome that is coming to them.
4
My first thought was that hatred and intolerance are toxic. Then, I turned to that thought and sought to not be hurt by my own frustration and anger at those who constitute "Trump's base". I grew up in a small town where, for the most part, we looked out for each other and extended kindnesses as a way of life.
Now, I think about babies born to families steeped in hatred and despair and, all too often, addiction to opioids. I think about the brave immigrants who settle in rural areas and red state cities and find a way to thrive. I think about vulnerable populations who don't know how to think for themselves and take in the FOX myths, perhaps feeling that's how they stay loyal to their family and friends who are suffering. I think about farmers losing their farms, coal miners learning the mines can't be saved, small business owners trying to weather uncertainties trade wars and whimsical tariffs bring, people who may be crushed to let in the thought that they've been had.
I want our country to heal.
6
Kathy, thank you for your heartfelt comment. You are absolutely correct. I too, hope for our country to heal. When I comment here or on the various Facebook newsfeed articles, I strive to be very polite, especially to the snarky or mean comments from Trump supporters. We, who are aware of the toxicity of hate must do and be better, extending a friendly hand to those who oppose us.
3
@kathyb
"...small business owners trying to weather uncertainties trade wars and whimsical tariffs bring."
small business owners' demise is at the hands of Amazon and they will be long gone before trade wars and tariffs...just saying.
As is widely known; "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".
A National Geographic man traveled the world for a time gathering facts studying the diets and social habits of Centenarians or what is the world's longest living people. The winners are the women of Okinawa and here in our nation are devout religious people in Yorba Linda California. There is also the people of Sardinia or some in Latin America.
The study was remarkable in it's educational value from the foods eaten to the social habits of families and neighbors. Much that was learned is spreading throughout the nation in what is called "The Blue Zones Project" documented in several books, two of which I have read.
You've already heard the basics from minimal meat to consuming beans, vegetables, wine in small amounts, nuts, huge helpings of friendship and gathering at the table during meals, and exercise to name a few.
I've been consuming a Mediterranean diet for decades with a desire to remain healthy without needing health care. For most of that time, I have been healthy.
I blame Television for much of the enslaved poor health of our people. From sitting for hours to eating fattening foods, to the rage of minds being instilled by programming.People are taught to be angry and that enslaves them psychologically in front of TV's.
Think about this; how good it would be to shut off the TV and sit with family and be happy instead of enraged leading to health problems.
5
Is it any surprise? A toxic mix of hyper-masculinity (more smoking, drinking, over-eating, not needin' no doctor or the EPA) and a smugness growing out of an ostensible religiosity that minimizes taking precautions.
8
@arp "Hyper-masculinity"? Women in these communities deal with these same issues, are you saying all these women are hyper-masculine? "Smugness growing out of an ostensible religiosity"? What does that mean? One of the problems is access to adequate healthcare in rural communities and how to provide and manage that care locally while the funding for that care increasingly comes from the inadequately funded Medicare and Medicaid programs. This lack of funding causes the reallocation of resources away from rural towns.
Also, is this just in part a tale of 2 Obamacares - in states that rejected it (so it "failed") vs. states that embraced it (so it worked)?
11
I can see it now, the last "ever Trumper" in America, no doubt somewhere in Mississippi or Alabama, in the throes of a premature death, raising a gaunt, trembling hand and rasping "it was a witch hunt", as he slides into his grave. Unfortunately, as we don't have that luxury of time, we must find a way to educate the red states!
4
Religion is a big part of the problem.
People vote against their own interests because of religion.
They're falling for an phony promise:
That you'll be happy and fulfilled when you're dead, ("heaven").
5
@Stephen . It would be great if we could edit our posts as you can on other sites.
I meant "a" instead of "an" on the above, of course.
1
Mr Krugman... I would like to see your thoughts on the unnecessary deaths in states that did not expand Medicaid. I believe it is thousands, not to mention people unable to care for their medical illnesses. Kevin Sand MD
6
Rather short-sighted of the republicans - if they allow or contribute to the death of their supporters - who will vote them in? And an observation that has nothing to do with this article - interesting that the "maga" colour is red = republicans and Mother Russia, no?
2
If you believe, as many evangelical Christians do, that you are powerless in the hands of the lord, then there really is nothing that you need to do about any issue but listen to your betters, and pray. If your prayer is answered, then you are saved and the lord is on your side. If your prayer is not answered, then it is the lords will that you suffer whatever happens. If you see your neighbors starving, or injured, or victimized or addicted, you either pray for them, or you tell them to pray harder. Obviously, they are not doing right in their God's eyes. That is how their world works. Really.
What I am saying is that half the Republican Party lives in a magical world controlled by a mystical creature called God. His will is the way. He works miracles or not. No one knows why, but it has to do with sin. Nothing else matters.
9
Of course the torrents of federal funding directed at blacks and other "disadvantaged minorities" since the calamitous Civil Rights legislation of 1965 had nothing to do with the fact Whites (aka Trump voters) have suffered financially - excluding those affiliated with the pro-Krugman demographic.
Is “Conservatism” (or the deatheating “movement” perversion of this impulse) only killing those who have fallen under its thrall?
Or is it killing all of us?
I agree with those who say that no matter how much more productive, educated, healthy, and optimistic are the individuals who live in Blue States and who vote Democratic or Progressive, those libs don’t have all the answers.
But what alternatives do the Red Staters offer? They are now only acting out their despair and resentment. Their contribution is their vandalism.
"Conseil" to Mr.Krugman: Worry about your own mortality, rather than someone else's!As a fellow staff officer on the now decommissioned ATLANTIC passenger ship of the now defunct American Isbrandtsen lines was wont to say,"The next moment is never promised us," and admit I am superstitious, than when you write bad things about others, it can come back to bite you.Find something good to say about your fellow native born Americans, and remember what that staff officer, Otis Poindexter was his name, that the next moment is never promised us. The human body remains a mystery, despite the advances in medical science."a titre d'exemple," James T. Fixx, runner, jogger, health fanatic collapsed while running his daily laps! How many did not see the irony in that personal tragedy!
There are two America's alright. But Democrats seem bent on talking to only one of them.
@Themis Perhaps only one is listening?
1
So many Walmarts - so little time. Ironically, the red state conservatives continue to vote against their own self-interest.
I don’t care - do you ?
3
So, in Red States, the "opiate of the masses" offers eternal pain relief in some afterlife, while opiates FOR the masses offer pain relief now. Co-morbid conditions?
America also has a blue state homelessness crisis. Unfortunately, the Obama presidency only made things worse for everyone and that's why Americans voted for change in 2016.
1
The homeless flock to cities and blue states because that’s where the services are. How many rural areas have shelters, soup kitchens, and other social safety net programs? Heck, even hospitals are getting hard to find in red states. Ever wonder why?
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@Mark Huh? Is there a homeless situation in your part of West Texas? I grew up in San Angelo and have been to most parts of West Texas from there to Crane to Christoval to Post and Plainview. Bleak. Even when oil is above $50, certainly above $3/bbl as when I was a kid. But your point seems pointless to me. In Krugman's article today, what is the health of the region look like today? I know diabetes is on the upswing in a great way, from children upwards. I'll have to look at the state stats for the rest. I would say West Texas with its low population density and low rainfall has a low rate of homelessness, but that would be conjecture. Trump's election has been a disaster for the country, IMHO.
@Susan
Homeless people aren't moving to blue states for the soup kitchens and the hospitals. They're moving for the sanctuary cities and the safe injection sites.
It all boils down to government and taxes. Big, tax-and-spend governments produce a high standard of living for citizens. States that have fallen for the government-is-evil-and-needs-to-be-drowned-in-the-bathtub claptrap are poor and decayed accordingly.
Government done well is a blessing.
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If the red states are less educated, it is because they continue to disrespect education. They value pickup trucks. They have to deal with the consequences of their choice.
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Is there a poor-rich divide with respect to the dying? Are the early dying more likely to be people of color?
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This is a general observation, but I am curious - can anyone please explain how red states are conservative and blue states are liberal? It used to be that red represented communism, and true blue was pro-American. How did that get flipped?
"...blue areas getting more productive, richer and better educated."
Well of course. Conservatives look down on education as "elitist", progressive ideas as "socialism", and anyone who relies on reason rather than belief as "intellectuals".
That is their choice if that is the way they want to live. But unfortunately they want to drag the rest of us down to their level.
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"The thing is, the red-blue divide isn’t just about money. It’s also, increasingly, a matter of life and death."
Sure. Let's first look at the homeless populations in NYC, LA, SF, Baltimore - then talk about the advantages accrued by living in metropolises. Advantages reaped by pundits (such as PK) who are gingerly stepping around folks sleeping on cardboard as they go to work every morning.
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@Kai Krugman's statements are ones of fact. He never said that life is perfect for everyone in blue states.
That’s so disingenuous it’s functionally meaningless. Every city in the USA has homeless people. Yes, the bigger cities have... more homeless people! Because, wait for it... they have more people! period. ‘Red cities/states’ are doing no better with these complex, multi-layered problems (dilemmas, really) than are their ‘blue state’ equivalents.
2
To those comments that suggest Trump voters reside in under served areas by choice, ask why did they vote for Trump?
It is more likely that, regardless of where people reside, most of us want our communities and our lives to get better. (Of course, given that so many eligible voters refuse to vote, maybe there are great numbers resigned to their existences as they are.)
Trump promised many things to make better the lives of all those whom both parties reportedly had ignored for too long.
He promised the return of good-paying manufacturing jobs, which would, obviously, improve their lives. He promised the best health care system; something better than Obama Care.
Trump has not kept those promises and lied about hundreds of important things. Deregulation has not significantly helped the lower classes. Trump and the GOP have done nothing to improve Obama Care; they have offered no alternatives except to make matters worse. They have offered nothing significant to improve education or job training to provide opportunities.
Lower unemployment rates may have correlated with some improvement in wages in traditionally lower-paying jobs, but let's not kid anyone. Are the under-served, lower class, "red" Trump voters significantly better off now than they were two years ago? Nope.
A good campaigner, either Democrat or Republican (if the G.O.P. ever wakes up and behaves like a grown-up) should be able to easily beat Trump.
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@Chris Trump, more than anything else, sold those areas on there being people they could hate and blame for their problems, e.g., immigrants, racial minorities, liberals. That will not change no matter how many promises he fails to keep, as we've seen.
1
There is no medical care in rural areas. Certainly preventative care lags outside of cities and suburbs. These are the republican voters. Been down so long, Trump looks like up to them.
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Krugman's article makes a few calculations and then concludes that the breakdown of the family structure can't be all or part of the reason rising death rates in red states. How he makes this jump escapes me. Would an improved family structure have an impact on death rates? If you say no, you are kidding yourself.
The charts I've seen make no sense in trying to determine why people are dying earlier in the United States. Wyoming and California are the only two states that are not suffering from the problem. They could not be more different and yet Krugman doesn't take that into account.
After reading the sloppy research we should remember the old saying that "nothing lies like statistics." We should also remember that Krugman long ago became a partisan hack willing to say anything to justify a biased view of the world.
2
It doesn't help that the go to news source in those regions is FOX news and talk radio, both of which feed people's fear and anger, contributing mightily to their sense of despair. Don't get me wrong. Those places face real difficulties, but the fearmongers offer no effective solutions. Only more anxiety.
4
Excellent point, and I honestly believe, the germane one here.
Far too many middle Americans have fallen for the (apparently) ‘easy fix’ of blaming everyone in the world (EXCEPT those from their own tribe/party/ethnicity, of course) for a wide range of serious problems that desperately require some actual/serious debate AND action(s).
But... Murdoch’s deeply/darkly cynical fox media ghouls and profiteers, who actively manage & dominate ‘conservative’ talking points 24/7, offer neither solutions, nor any even remotely positive ideas. Instead, they actively profit from constantly stirring up rage, hate and fear via a sinister laundry list of cartoonish lies, distortions & plain weirdness, delivered by overpaid, but otherwise laughably buffoonish, carnival barkers like Grush, Schmucker and Ohannitty.
Those lies get repeated so incessantly that they have basically become indistinguishable from actual truth to millions of habitual zombies, er, viewers. Goebbels’ Big Lie works.
So, a dangerously messed up situation: roughly a third of the country is willing to trash everything the US is, and has always stood for, because...? they’re loudly, and now quite cynically... Unhappy? Based on rightwing media’s ecosystem of For Profit Lies? Seriously?
Can we figure out how to legally disincentivize intentionally programmed and targeted lies and political propaganda before we go under our own waves of managed emotional reactions? Jury’s (way) out...
Recall that after the fall of the Soviet Union, average life expectancy plunged in its former republics.
Apparently, talking points and conspiracy theories aren't the only things Republicans are uncritically accepting from Russia
4
Paul.......I'm certainly a lot more depressed than I was before Trump was selected president. At Seventy-five, I dread the thought that Barack Obama may be the last Democrat I will live to know. Please please please vote Blue!
7
It is because ignorance is concentrated in states that voted for Trump. Any public health expert could tell you that.
13
And the GOP and other conservatives have made sure to keep people uninformed and uneducated since the 50s.
Stop writing those "woe is me" articles about DJT supporters. They are suffering, and will continue to suffer. This is a good thing, and we will continue to curb stomp them at every opportunity.
7
@BK
now if only millenials and GenXers will just go to the polls and vote Democrat at every opportunity without coax and hand holding.
As my late husband used to say, "If someone does one thing right they're likely to do five things right." The reverse is also true.
7
It's always amazed me how the GOP manages to convince so many to vote for politicians who promote policies that oppose those voters' own economic interests, and now, it seems even their health and life expectancies. I think it's no coincidence that in another article today, we learn of the failure of the educational system to keep many of our children competitive in core subjects compared to those from other countries. Weak education (because of inadequate financing compounded with relentless GOP attacks on teachers) leads to voters with weak critical reasoning skills who are perfect fodder for the GOP machinery to manipulate.
4
The less educated, and often rural, poor tend to choose an angry façade of pride, even in imaginary or fictitious things, over a more practical or pragmatic approach to a depressingly dark and difficult life, and perceived future. Then a cynical, lying con man/failure, controlled by global gangsters, with hateful American billionaires & right-wingers behind him, comes in and... away we all went...
1
If you want to understand why people are dying read Emily Guendelsberger
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane
From my personal experience with a strong resume in a state that recruits order fulfillment and customer service reps, all jobs that treat people like caged egg laying chickens, this is about the only read that adequately explains why jobs are killing people and for no reason. Noone believes how really bad jobs are until you end up in one.
Trust me when I say they will try to turn your job into one of the soul crushing, body ruining jobs so well described by Ms. Guendelsberger
5
@no one,
I have both read Guendelsberger's book and worked in some of the jobs she writes about and she is spot-on.
You are completely correct that almost no one believes how toxic these jobs are until they have to work one.
1
Well, in the Red States, Republican Governors refused to expand Medicaid for those who needed it.
I needed Medicaid On June 16, 2014, at age 60.
I was in a Meeting at an employment Agency, when I felt very hot. I could not speak or raise my hand.
I could fell the blood draining out of my head like water going down a drain.
My vision was getting narrow, like the picture getting smaller and going down to a single point on a 1959 TV set.
Someone called for an Ambulance.
The female EMT told me my Heart Rate (HR) had gone up to 203 Beats Per Minute (BPM). (Normal is 50 to 100 BPM.) She said if it goes to 280 BPM, I die. She gave me the Heart Paddles and my body rose 3 inches off the stretcher. I said "take my bag, as my Computer is in there, then I passed out.
I woke up in a Hospital and then was transferred to another Hospital, where a Doctor blasted my Heart with Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) to cauterize the Heart Muscle. A Defibrillator was installed that I estimated cost $15,000. I estimate the Hospital Bill was about $10,000. I called Medicaid and told Naomi I almost died. She said "Don't worry, you're in good hands."
An Electrophysiologist is a Cardiologist who specializes in the Heart's electrical System, said my "Coronary Arteries were clear", so the TachyCardia source was inconclusive.
If I had been in another State, I think I would have died. But I was in New York, and the doctors at NY Presbyterian Hospital / Cornel, save my life.
8
As rural healthcare continues into crisis, with more hospitals/clinics closing and fewer/older doctors, access can be a ninety minute drive almost ensuring that routine healthcare is substituted for only acute care, worsening health prospects and costs.
Add to that the movement of folks toward the cities/coasts, especially those under 45, it is an inexorable trend unless dramatically addressed.
2
Why does falling life expectancy track political orientation? I'd like to think it's evolution, favoring those in the know over the mindless.
Doesn't matter though, if we're at the point of extinction.
4
Confer Jonathon Metz "Dying of Whiteness", which compares politics in Missouri(over guns), Tennessee(over negative white reaction to Obamacare) and Kansas(Brownback's ridiculous tax cuts). In each case the working class white population acted on racial lines in self-defeating ways. Its time to wise up, choose kindness over racism and work toward a more progressive and healthy future.
15
I have some red-state relatives who support Trump. They have the following in common:
- They're all blue collar and life's always been tough. Politicians making promises are seen as just taking hard-earned tax dollars and wasting in on bureaucracy or, worse, giving it to the underserving poor.
- Those who smoke, do so because it relieves some of the stress. There's little public health infrastructure. Look at the billboards--all you see are ads for alcohol and tobacco, and personal injury lawyers.
- Several are obese because their towns don't really have any healthier alternatives, and because it's cheaper to buy junk food anyway. One cousin recently died; he was morbidly obese and a heavy smoker. He proudly told me that when his doctor said he'd die in a few years, his response was that "only God knows that."
- They're by and large under-educated, though to a person they've pushed all of their kids to go to college or technical school, and, if possible, to LEAVE their parts of the country.
- They're also more or less evangelical, and firmly believe that whatever happens, God's in charge.
I think there's a real dynamic of shame at work here, where these people know that they're suffering but they're too proud to do anything about it, or it's too late for them, if not for their kids.
11
I think that during the 2016 campaign, Trump's genius was that he figured out how to turn these peoples' utter despair and passiveness into anger. The message he hammered into the crowd over and over was, "It's not your fault your life is ruined, it's the (fill in the blank, immigrants, non-white peeople, whomever)'s fault." I suppose replacing total, passive internalized despair with rage against some outside group feels good.
5
Completely false premise. Due to unbearable taxation and gentrification folks who scrape by in life are flocking to areas where it is affordable to survive (red states). In Tulsa, Oklahoma for example ... one one side of the tracks life expectancy is as high or higher than other places in the USA. On the other side of the tracks ... life expectancy is 10 years less. Tulsa is also one of the top ten giving communities in the USA. We lift people up from the darkness, we don't trap them into dependency. Tulsa is a place that those less fortunate can come and at least have a better life than living on the streets, To say that people in red states are less educated than states that voted for Hillary Clinton is pure hubris. When looking at data, one must look at all the data ... not only the data that fits a false premise that supports one's misconception of their station in life.
2
So you’re blaming “outsiders” for the dip in OK life expectancy. There are a lot of wonderful things in Tulsa, but facts are facts. Read the Brookings data that buttresses the assertions in this article about the growing divide in education, productivity, and life expectancy.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/09/10/america-has-two-economies-and-theyre-diverging-fast/
4
Also, what about our access to high quality medicine. Every day you hear about another colon nicked or a surgery gone bad. The nearby hospital has a 2.8 star rating?
1
I think poor critical thinking skills is also hurting the Trump voters who are dying from opioids, etc. The drugs they were prescribed for pain that got them hooked were prescribed for me and my children, too. I researched them and decided that it is best to avoid those. I became convinced that using standard pain killers is safer.
I think if you are so gullible to believe Trump then you might also agree to take these deadly drugs.
2
When there is this much inequality, historically, people try to find something/someone to blame.
The Republican leadership has done an excellent job of diverting the actual cause (the greed of the few) onto the wrong targets (Democrats, "socialism," gay people, abortion, atheists, etc)
Because there is no solution that the Republican masses can see working for them, they have no hope - they are overworked, underpaid, exhausted, and bitter. They do their best and see no change.
They also have no affordable health care. It's no wonder they are dying earlier.
652
@Lynn Taylor "They do their best and see no change". But that's the problem - they do NOT do their best. They indulge themselves in tribalism, in the rejection of fact, in the stubborn refusal to move to where the jobs exist or educate themselves to be in a position to take the new jobs that are becoming available. They have learned nothing and do not want to learn anything. They would rather blame brown people or muslims or gay people or women who make their own choices, when a good hard look in the mirror would tell them who is largely responsible for getting them into their position and who is most likely to get them out of it. They prefer to complain about their lives rather than do the actual hard work it would take fix them. And they vote based on their anger and resentment because to vote otherwise would be to acknowledge that they have been wrong.
I grew up in that milieu; I know these people. Many of them are related to me. I am so glad I got out.
164
@Lynn Taylor While it is no wonder that they are dying earlier, it is a bafflement why they vote consistently and passionately against their interests.
75
@snail Before we bruise ourselves back-patting, remember that most of the Democratic establishment appears to be successfully pressing the argument we somehow can't afford to pay for healthcare that costs less than what we are currently paying.
The membership of the GOP hardly has a monopoly on voting against their own best interests.
45
Right on target, as usual. But I fear Prof. Krugman falls into the common error of assuming AG Barr believes what he says. Barr, like his collaborators, is merely trying to cement the ignorant loyalty of the aptly named Base. The GOP always goes by strategic truth, that is, if a statement or argument achieves some objective of the speaker, whether in any way connected to facts or not, it is "true".
Unless Professor K is taking Barr at his word as a step toward discrediting the whole sham. Hmmm.
1
Is this issue really red versus blue states?
Couldn’t we just as well state that areas of deep urban dysfunction have horrible homicide rates with resultant low life expectancy for minority boys and young men and that poor diet and concomitant obesity rates are leading to a diabetes epidemic among urban poor?
Better education is an expansive need across the country. With education comes the ability to make informed lifestyle choices. Krugman’s hyper partisanship is silly.I suggest he spend time in dysfunctional schools-urban and rural.
There is much to be addressed.
"Conservative figures like William Barr, the attorney general, look at rising mortality in America and attribute it to the collapse of traditional values".
Barr may be right, but certainly not because of secularism. Listen to Trump's mimicry, vulgar, abusive and threatening claims, language, performances and tweets. Listen to FOX with their conspiracy theories, misinformation and attacks on so many non-white, non-Christian Americans, foreigners, immigrants, refugees, various sexual identities. All of this will make anyone sick, even Trump supporters.
Traditional and Christian values have been trampled by conservatives particularly their leaders and media for decades now. It must be tearing the insides out of Trump supporters to have no value based stability in their economy or leaders. Just about everyone who listens to Trump needs a drink or drug to get through the night or next day.
2
Democrats are fearful that the impeachment hearings are going to be nonproductive so now they have the hope of more Republicans dying than Democrats. There must be a way to regain the White House.
1
@Aaron Adams Actually....I just love seeing all these poor people dying off, unable to afford anything yet happy to put even more of their own money in the hands of the 1%. You can't buy that type of comedy!
1
This goes to a place seldom visited by pundits-on-the left. It uses facts - at least I hope they will hold up to fact checking - to debunk some largely unspoken false assumptions which Trump and R pols use to lie to their base. It comes pretty close to being an attack on folks in the base themselves for their delusional self images and for allowing themselves to be lied to and used against their own self interest. Good on Krugman. Perhaps it'll even do a little good with the few R base folks exposed to it. Certainly the standard, boringly predictable pundit-on-the-left attacks on Trump & his R pols do no good beyond perhaps making D's feel better. They probably serve to weld the base even closer to its party.
234
@Jeff Atkinson One can hope. Unfortunately there are many instances where those on the right seem unswayed by data ....climate change or the impact of tax cuts on the deficit for example.... It not clear that the right holds many positions based on evidence.....
69
@Jeff Atkinson for the average baby boomer the instant vs delayed gratification divide led to the wealth divide, that led to the health divide, that led to the death divide.
7
@Jeff Atkinson You have a point, but only up to a point. We, who don't believe Trump's lies, and use some critical reasoning skills in evaluating current events, get a little tired of trying to talk common sense to the true believers who believe all of Trump's lies.
38
Maybe being anti-science in all aspects isn't good for your health.
9
@Ted
maybe?!
1
Many voters were tricked by Trump into thinking he was serious about better and cheaper health care, bringing back jobs, and repairing our infrastructure. The hangers on remain because underneath it all, they are as racist and sexist and ethnocentrist and angry and afraid as Trump.
3
Could it be that the same people who deny the science of climate change, because it is inconvenient, also deny the science that says cigarettes will kill you and fast food will make you fat?
2
It has been said many times, the undereducated vote against their own self interest along with the fact that these people really don't care about good healthcare and education. Some people feel that obesity is good and genetic. That education is not a path to anywhere. One hundred and fifty years ago we fought the Civil War to keep the country together and free the slaves. Maybe, it's time to let the south go and let the blue state country prosper. The Red states in the West can become another country by itself. Another alternative would be to have each state's number of Senators altered. California, Florida and New York with large populations would get four senators and states like Wyoming and North Dakota would get one. Then the senate would really represent the country. Then bills for better healthcare and education would pass and we could become a more progressive healthy country.
5
GIVEN THE EVIDENCE Of more extensive abuse of alcohol and tobacco in the Red states, it is logical to hypothesize that the unborn are poisoned in many cases, due to being exposed to toxic doses of alcohol and tobacco. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is higher among mothers who drink heavily. Other problems such as low birthweight, asthma and deafness along with ADHD have been found to be related to exposure to tobacco toxins prenatally. Meaning that the overall intelligence of babies born to mothers who drink and smoke may be impaired, which may be causing an epidemic of impaired learners in the Red States. That and toxic religious beliefs and practices. Conversely, it seems that the birth rates are higher in red states, which, hypothetically, mean that more will be born poisoned by alochol and tobacco. That seems to prove Barney Frank's observation that the Republicans believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.
2
If Democrats were smart, they would start campaigning on "Quite literally, voting for Republicans is bad for health and could cost you your life."
3
How can this be used for the election? It's a good reason to vote for a Democrat.
2
I grew up in the coal fields of Western Kentucky. Not only is that industry dying but if you worked in those mines chances are you are also dying.
1
I am wondering how soon the West Coast will say, "to heck with this. We're the fifth-largest economy on the planet. Why do we need to subsidize the South, only to get told how awful they think we are?"
To which the Northeast will reply, "Good point."
And that will be the end of this nation founded in liberty.
3
If your life is a mess, who cares about life expectancy?
More valuable is someone to blame (besides yourself).
And that's what the Republican Party and their propaganda agencies (Fox News, talk radio, conspiracy websites) offer: scapegoating based on lies (false witness against thy neighbor).
So you vote for the people who deny your family health care, ruin your local schools, and corrupt your government because they supply the scapegoat.
Which makes your life a mess but if your life is a mess...
The truly evil are those who exploit and promote ignorance for their own financial and political gain.
1
It's not just the "red" states. It is also "red" counties in Blue states. Like California. The poorest counties are also the red ones. It is a microcosm of the US. The coast of California has San Francisco and LA, San Diego. They are all doing well for those who have skills and make more money than most countries. The interior farming country is dominated by ultra right winger farmers who could not care less about the people there. They vote continuously against more healthcare, against schools, etc. They really do not have a clue. Who represents that area? People like the ultra right wing fantasy boy - Devin Nunes - one of the dumbest people ever to be elected and now a Trump sycophant.
5
This is one of the most moving of Professor Krugman's articles. And wow has it stirred up folks! It will move some also. Some repubs are not cruel, inhumane and full of hate.
In Barr's assumption, the decline is due to secularism, or rather turning away from his 'god', yet deaths and 'deaths of despair' are increasingly happening in states that allegedly are the most 'god fearing'. These same states are the most likely to experience domestic violence, gun deaths, drug and alcohol addictions and are the largest consumers of pornography. Obviously, Barr and his ilk need to remove oversized plank from their own eyes, before branching out.
2
I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that America’s Hobbesian winner-take-all culture contributes to the stress and anxiety that drives the increase in “deaths of despair”.
2
It is because the Red State economies have been doing so poorly that many of their residents, feeling powerless, have turned to drugs and have voted for Trump. He voices their anger with a government that has been ignoring their plight.
Our formal Immigration System awards almost two-thirds of its green cards to relatives of immigrants who are already living here, regardless of their relatives’ levels of education, fluency in English, or overall ability to support themselves. This results in huge numbers of immigrants who end up relying on the government for all kinds of services and subsidies. Many of these immigrants are not immediate family members, but more distant relatives, and they, in turn, bring in their own extended families. Chain migration means many immigrants have extensive networks here, but a large percentage of them rely on government services and subsidies.
Our informal immigration policy allows poorly educated, unskilled foreigners to live here illegally. Just as with many of the “chain immigrants”, most illegal migrants could not support their families without government subsidies.
If we reformed our immigration system to favor people who had the education, skills, and fluency in English to support themselves and their families, and if we ended illegal immigration, then our government could direct its resources to our own needy citizens. The latter would see a brighter future for themselves and would be more open to what Democrats have to say.
1
Why don’t you start by asking Trump why he is against chain migration for all others, except the family of his wife?
At the same time you can ask him why he is so adamantly opposed to immigration of those lacking critical skills required by the nation, but he sponsored his third wife, a Slovenian model, using an H-1 Einstein visa generally reserved for distinguished scientists or athletes?
Hypocrisy has always been one of the most distasteful human qualities. In Trump’s case, it is lost in a sea of tragic destructive flaws.
1
From m WVa, which is surely a barometer of the nations ailments, which you so detail so well: amen!
1
Part of the problem is Facts Themselves: When the Raw meat Conservative runs into a string of hard, undeniable facts that totally go against the grain of what they have been Told is their culture, they do not have the resiliency to change their way of thinking and move on, instead, they get angry, obsess, find more data disproving them, and then the despair train hits...like finding out that death due to despair is so uch higher in Trump Country, and it is not from folks losin the farm, it is from losing their values and handing them to a fake, that then fools them, and they feel shamed and do not know of any way of facing family and friends to say "I Was Wrong"...they just Can Not Do That.
And that is what is killing them, instead of finding out that Dems would happily include them in the wealth, but their own Governors and State Legislatures deny them the right to have the same as other Americans, and then they are trained to hate the wrong people for the mistreatment they are getting.
It is like the impeachment: anyone who knows the Constitution and has half a brain knows that what Trump has been doing is badly wrong, he cannot be trusted to talk to Boy Scouts even, so why are the Republicans laying tribal games with no winner but Trump, and them, when the Whole Nation loses, loses it's pride, loses it's sense of lawfulness, loses it's sense of Honor and Dignity, because Trump treasures none of those.
And drags all of us through the sewer of his own mind with his tweets
2
I am shocked. People don’t live as long in states that want to pollute more and have less health care! Ultimately science does matter and facts catch up with you.
3
If we take a micro view of the red state populations that are in danger, we would probably find that alcoholics, drug addicts and people sufficiently depressed to commit suicide, probably don't vote. So are the populations of these states a statistical continuum, with the undepressed/unaddicted just a few bad breaks away from joining the ranks of the early dead, as is implied in interpreting that red = dead, or are the populations of these areas bimodal, so that the righteous and the self-righteous vote and interpret their lives and values as Mr. Barr
1
The New York Times ran a similar article just before the 2016 election although without correlating political affiliations. Then, it and many of it's readers were surprised by the election of Donald Trump.
1
Let's make one thing crystal clear. Barr and his ilk use religion to control their serfs. They don't believe it themselves which is evidenced by their appalling behavior.
I tend to agree with the person who commented about being angry and ready to fight at a moments notice.
We spend a lot of time in this country rigging things so the greedy can get more money at the expense of everyone else. Money is King! We steal it from the most vulnerable so a pig in a corporation somewhere who doesn't do a lick of real work can buy his third yacht.
I have to wonder how closely this situation correlates to the rise of conservative media?
3
A nice campaign slogan would be "Voting Republican is bad for your health"
Conservative and liberal are tired, meaningless words. People are driven by a mix of fear and trust: a preponderance of fear drives the 'conservative.' A preponderance of trust drives the 'liberal.' Fear of economic loss, stature loss, and now, fear of losing life itself. And voila, we've got a strongman daddy figure proclaiming, "Only I can fix it."
2
Since I actually live, not in a red state, but a seriously red, rural county, I feel that I can speak to this issue. I believe that the attitude at the core of this phenomenon is a rebellion against what locals see as the nanny state trying to tell people what to do. Regulations about what to serve for school lunch, taxes on soft drinks, exhortations to exercise, even seat belt laws--these are all incursions into their individual rights and therefore worthy of derision. Government is the enemy of the individual in their minds so any attempt to encourage healthy living by the government is an affront to their sense of freedom. In my opinion, they have a very underdeveloped sense of what freedom means. It's all about doing what they want when they want to do it. If you follow that attitude out very far, you get a very unhealthy lifestyle. I'm not discounting the lack of access to healthcare or other factors such as lack of opportunity which makes young people feel hopeless, but I do think that nobody-tells-me-what-to-do attitude is a huge part of the problem. Perhaps when you don't feel genuinely empowered, all that's left is indulgence.
8
Many of the responses to this article blame lack of, or poor health care. The real determinant for life span and more importantly, health span, is lifestyle - what we eat, how much we exercise, how we stress and avoid alcohol and drugs etc., are the real determinants. After all, if your lifestyle is good, you rarely need health care. The red folks are just a little more likely to have poor lifestyle habits, but unfortunately it is just a little more likely.
I moved to FL 5 years ago, I’ll tell you why, bc Tallahassee doesn’t listen to their voters and the people keep voting them in.
Appalled at the number of comments both here and on yesterday's HIV article that are basically "they deserve it." No. Nobody deserves lack of health care, despair, environmental poisoning, or drug addiction. On the most basic level this attitude ignores the many people who don't vote red in these states-- children, non-whites, likely most queer people (also most likely anyone addicted to heroin-- the people commenters wished death upon yesterday). It also ignores the many people in these states who have fought tooth and nail for change, like the striking teachers in recent years, or the women (especially Black women) who keep the few remaining abortion clinics open. But even beyond all this, it's frankly disgusting to wish death upon people because of their votes, and certainly makes you no better than the Trumpists you decry.
8
@M
As a Democrat in an leaning Democratic state I couldn't agree more.
These comments are appalling and are probably a major reason why those in Red States think the Democrats hate them--people in Red States read the New York Times too.
It's worth pointing out that regardless of the cause, the more red states spiral into poverty, depression, mortality, the more they will be susceptible to a wannabe strongman promising to blow stuff up and take revenge.
6
I would expect that Krugman would not confuse correlation with causation, as he does in this column.
3
Do red state politics and policies and culture cause bad red health? Does bad red state health cause red politics and policies and culture? Or is it a feedback loop, with some of both? I think it's the latter. A self-destructive feedback loop. And a liberal dose of Fox propaganda keeps it chugging along, in the same old rut.
8
People like AG Barr disgust me with their holier-than-thou proclamations blaming the demise of the family on an increasingly secular society. The two have little connection except in the minds of religious zealots who believe that men should lord it over women because their ancient holy books say so. Jobs/earning ability, racial prejudice and women increasingly in the workforce (and therefore NOT dependent on men) explain the demise of the "traditional" family unit. But people like Barr never bother to check facts; they prefer their tidy little fictions and bring them into government with them. Pathetic!
5
I think the answer to this discrepancy lies flatly on ignorance, slanted information by Fox tv and brain washing by religions, especially evangelicals.
Red states have the highest number of welfare recipients, Medicaid , poverty , opioids deaths , alcoholism etc.
It is grotesque that given all this “government “ help ( socialism) they still vote republican.
8
Fox 'news' feeds its viewers a steady diet of willful ignorance, anger, and resentment. Republican dogma can be very hazardous to your health.
9
I'm sure there are many overlapping factors at work in individual lives that end too soon. But if it has something to do with conservative politics, we should look at the messages conservatives have been sending. "If you're not rich, it's nobody's fault but your own" is the message underlying conservative politics. There's also the repeated "free stuff" meme, which means "You don't deserve any help from your government to make your life easier and more secure." Then there's "makers vs. takers," "success envy" and "redistribution of wealth." All create a sense of unworthiness in those who labor but don't get rich. People who feel unworthy don't care about their health or living a long life.
7
Very interesting observation. Sadly, the increase in contaminants into our air, soil and water per Mr Trump, the EPA & corporate titans will deliver a more homogeneous distribution of toxic stuff to Everywhere USA, equalizing the red & blue geo-graphics. It is imperative these elements be woven into the Democratic & independent party platform message. There is no time to wait.
3
This article reinforces all of the stereotypes I have of Trump voters. Thank you! I love to be proven right.
2
@Joel G
There are not enough "deplorable" for Trump to become president. How do you explain all the highly educated, financially successful people who voted for Trump?
My large extended family scattered over many states voted for Trump. We are all professionals leading comfortable lives. Some of us used to be Democrats but can't abide the leftward trend of the party.
Keep believing the stereotypes of those that voted for Trump... you'll be shocked all over again in 2020.
I would love to see the correlation between political party and opioid addiction. My guess is opioid addiction tracks heavily with red areas.
3
Always at ease with cherry-picking statistics and choosing only the data that fits his model, Our Author is at it again - failing to provide references to scientific studies substantiating his claims, and failing to explaing the exact definition of life expectancy, and the definition of the population to which the statistics apply.
Classic.
But in the end nothing indicates that this claim will be any different from almost all his other economic predictions of the past few years - all demonstrably incorrect, when viewed with all the relevant facts.
2
Drugs and despair come knocking on everyone's door. To color life expectancy Red or Blue when the margins in the battleground states were so narrow in 2016 does nothing but drive the wedge deeper into the rhetorical abyss.
4
@Dave G
Beautifully stated.
But when your poor it knocks the loudest.
1
As before, Dr. Krugman infers causation from correlational data, using the "wrong" parameters at that. "Deaths of despair" variance is probably explained better by POVERTY than by Trump voting.
3
All you need to do is to look at the states with the highest obesity rates. They are solid red states and voting Republican in every election. Oh btw they are ranked lowest at the education ranking as well. Can you say Bible belt?
4
Unfortunately, Mr. Krugman's thesis is based on data. It will not have any impact in the red states.
9
@Jay Becks
But this happens to be a good thing because his thesis is not grounded by the data presented.
1
Ok, how about Canada. We have a huge part of our country that has a small population etc. We have a longer life span than Americans. Look at yourselves and your politics!
JRH
4
People are dying in red states in large part due to a lack of focus on education.
Education about policy, GOP scams, religious cons, healthcare, drugs, obesity.
Ignorance is killing people.
9
Dr. Krugman has demonstrated the problem brilliantly. Our present healthcare system is failing especially in the red states. It is failing because of a lack of governmental help in public health resources and the absence of public policies to ensure a healthy environment.
The commenters all seem to understand that the problem is a failure of our representative democracy to represent us. What the government does now represents the oligarchs. Through a series of political changes since 1980 the use of the citizens does not dictate public policy, the views of oligarchs predominate.
What is not stressed in this article and the comments is what we can do about it. We can change it. To do that we need to work together.
Join makeitfair.us. Look up the American anticorruption act. Join one of the local groups which are active in changing the political system to give a vote to the people and to stop hidden money and campaign contributions from driving or governmental decisions.
It's important. Get involved. Indivisible, represent .us, makeitfair.us are all organizations dedicated to getting money out of politics. If you want to save lives that's the way to go.
1
Would could we call an entirely too belated secession by red states and the old Confederacy? I suggest "Amexit".
3
Let's assume we split the country into two. Blue USA and Red USA. As a scientist, I am very familiar with though experiments and their usefulness.
The Blue USA will have significantly higher IQs, SAT scores, significantly lower Gini coefficient (and a population who would know what that means), tighter wealth and income distribution, higher life expectations with tight distributions around the mean, universal healthcare, universal access to free public education from pre-K through doctoral programs, equal gender pay, environmental policy consistent with the 21st Century realities, no guns except for hunting, no Citizens United and no American rhetoric poisoning the minds of its citizens. It will not have an electoral college to elect its government. It will have excellent and logical foreign policies and trade agreements with the rest of the world. It will trade technology for Idaho potatoes at nice rates of exchange that would make David Ricardo proud. Krugman the Trade theorist would get a chuckle perhaps.
10
Jonathan Metzl's book--Dying of Whiteness: How the politics of racial resentment is killing America's heartland--is a fascinating look at this issue. https://www.dyingofwhiteness.com/
1
@Ohio Reader Thanks for the lead; hadn't heard of it. It pains me to have to thank an Ohio State fan for something. Go, Badgers!
1
@Mark O-H-I-O :-)
To add to this reasoning, i think we could also consider cutting taxes. The Republicans are always running on “cutting taxes” which leads to cuts to teachers pay, less improvement on infrastructure, less free child care, less drug rehabs etc. These cuts impact our health and wellness too.
4
Look at the obesity numbers by state and it's all clear. Attack that and health care costs plummet and lifespans increase. The message is simple: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
1
Pardon me for a ghoulish thought, but isn't this one more example of a demographic trend that favors the Democratic party? If we can't eliminate gerrymandering, voter restriction and Russian election interference, perhaps we can prevail by simply surviving longer.
10
It is because the Red State economies have been doing so poorly that many of their residents, feeling powerless, have turned to drugs and voted for Trump. He voices their anger with a government that has been ignoring their plight. We have been ignoring them to focus our attention and resources on helping poorly educated immigrants.
Our formal Immigration System awards almost two-thirds of our green cards to relatives of people who are already living here, regardless of their relatives’ levels of education, fluency in English, or overall ability to support themselves. This results in huge numbers of immigrants who end up relying on the government for all kinds of support. Many of these immigrants are not immediate family members, but more distant relatives, and they, in turn, bring in their own extended families. Chain migration means many immigrants have extensive family networks here, but many of them rely on government support.
Tolerance of illegal immigration policy also lets in the poorly educated who could not support their families without government subsidies.
If we reformed our immigration system to favor people who had the education, skills, and fluency in English to support themselves and their families, and if we ended illegal immigration, then our government could direct its resources to our own needy citizens. The latter would see a brighter future for themselves and would be more open to what Democrats had to say.
1
@ann With respect, I don't think your assertions about illegal immigrants' consuming taxpayer resources are accurate. While there are likely some cases of this happening, studies that I've seen in this paper and others indicate that immigrants put more into the economy than they take out. The same cannot be said of many red-state Americans. As one example, the Seattle Times two weeks ago ran an article that showed a county-by-county breakdown in WA state of where taxpayer dollars go. King County residents put in a LOT MORE than we get back in services; our $$ goes to eastern Washington.
While we need to reform our immigration system, we shouldn't be blaming immigrants for our problems.
5
@ann Couldn't disagree more. The "poorly educated" immigrants that I see are hard working people doing the jobs that Americans, for the most part, are unwilling to take. Also, you should talk to educated American professionals whose jobs are being taken by those wonderful educated immigrants who are willing to work for less.
2
@ann
Hi Ann,
Your comment is littered with inaccuracies.
Briefly; studies have shown that immigration is a net gain for our economy and society.
Other exhaustive studies have shown that Trump's support was due to racial animus, not economic dispair.
6
Two different economies. Two different countries. Two different realities. Two (at least) different value sets and moral compasses. And on down the line. There is no longer room for compromise.
Maybe a piece comparing American in 2019 to Rome 2000 years ago. Things didn't work out so well in Rome, and we are most definitely on the same path.
4
@Matt Actually things worked out amazingly well in ancient Rome over a vast area--imagine, no trains or airplanes!--for an astonishing length of time. But nothing lasts forever.
If red states would invest in the future, their economic prospects might brighten. They have much to offer. Instead we have a cycle where economic distress begets isolation, isolation brings anger, and anger brings misery for all but the most economically secure. It will get worse.
3
How does Murdoch’s fox spin this?! Definitely invites more study. What are the critical variables? Of course shocking outcomes like will be savagely attacked by conservatives so any further study may be difficult. Also conservatives’ have successfully denied climate change for over 2 decades even as increasing extreme weather harms us all and only a few republicans are beginning to trickle in as converts of the climate science.
3
The Republican party takes a puritanical approach to life that people are bad and irresponsible so they deserve the bad and horrible things that happen to them. There is just no changing that kind of mindset. In Republican opinion, if you live in a flood-prone area and are swept away by flash floods, it's your own fault. If you have a disability or illness, then it's because you didn't lead a righteous life. There is no way to break through the GOP's twisted logic.
7
The rural red states are suffering more in the realms of health care, education, income disparity, drug overdoses, and so on. Yet they vote Republican against their own self interest. Why is that? Emotion is the driver, not rationality. I think that as their lives become more miserable they look more to a "savior," a "strong man," i.e., a Trump, who will tear the system/status quo apart and either improve their lives somehow (make America great again?), or, make it miserable for everyone including the hated liberal elites. It's irrational as Trump is actually a very weak and shaky man who certainly is not going to MAGA, but could very well bring us all down.
7
Excellent article! You go in depth debunking the myth about secularism. Thank you.
5
The irony of Attorney Field Marshall Barr's comments is that the greatest source of nihilism is not the secularists. It is the so-called Christians that have taken up the Gospel of Ayn Rand! They hold two completely incompatible ideas at the same time. Sure, they claim to worship God, but they really worship mammon. Perhaps if they worried more about their own sins and less about everyone else's they would get better results.
11
@Andy Makar They just missed that part about worrying about the speck in their neighbors eye when they are suffering from a log in their own. Matthew.
It seems obvious that the despair is driven by chronic economic hopelessness and deprivation. Ironically, the Republican party has enacted policy after policy which exacerbate economic and social inequality, and deepen the hardship for their constituents -- passing tax cuts for the wealthy, allowing corporations to destroy the environment to profit shareholders, decimating safety nets like snap and Medicaid, and undermining public good institutions like education and health care. The GOP governs solely for the benefit of the donor class and big business, while simultaneously pointing fingers at the 'radical left' to deflect responsibility. Trump has been the perfect rodeo clown to distract the masses from their shameful destructive record.
7
Dr. Metzl's book Dying of Whiteness analyses the health data to show how those policies made life harder and shorter. Powerful.
1
On one point I strongly disagree with Mr. Krugman: we liberal types need to understand that the poverty and (in our view) the backwardness of the so-called red states is in large measure attributable to neoliberal economic policies that have been the Bible of both conservatives and liberals--no difference between Reagan and Clinton/Obama on this score.
Before we get too smug, we should examine our own economic priorities. My parents and grandparents had decent blue collar jobs, bought houses, had cars, and sent their children to college. Now we've set the bar conveniently higher so that only those who have gone to college can (and not even all of them) offer comparable opportunities to their children. Who wouldn't yearn for a better world under these circumstances?
Republicans get this: they harp on "traditional values" because they know that when the unemployed awake from the illusions of lying conservatives and false religious promises they will begin demanding what to them appears to be the birthright of liberal elites.
Time to rethink the economic model in a serious way--harping on the backwardness of Trump supporters isn't going to change anything.
2
Apparently, Mr. Krugman hasn't reviewed the statistics for that icon of blue state dystopias, Charm City (aka Baltimore). Yeah, sure. Let's focus on what's politically palatable for progressives while ignoring the elephant in the room. Fifty years of Baltimore's Democratic rule provides you with a 10 year lower life expectancy relative to the rest of the state. Death trip? Yes, and purely Democratic.
3
@mike: Typical right wing tactic: attempting to prove an argument by anecdote-the demagogues friend.
Perhaps one day quality of life rubics will be the standard by which we measure the success of our country's policies and governance instead of whether the stock market is increasing 401ks. Last time I checked, you can't enjoy your 401k if you're dead.
This is a lazy analysis. As Mr. Krugman knows, correlation is not causation.
2
@Ben You don't think there's a direct link between lack of access to health care (including drug treatment) and negative health outcomes? Yeah, it's all just a coincidence.
4
Krugman should put "secularist assault" in quotation marks since they are Barr's words and Barr made the whole thing up.
3
not stated in the column but i'm sure smoking rates are higher in trumpville......
5
My take away from this article is that being a conservative is bad for your physical, mental and financial health.
3
The problem with red states and losing populations and all persuaded by propaganda Fox News political you wrong. The only way to fix this problem such as the red states they should give up their power and combine them with four other states to make a whole for the electoral college.
This is not fair for the American public where your majority a population is supposed waited by a minority stands out the value of freedom. Republicans have seen this as an advantage lies threats about the Democrats if you turn on the any radio station you listen to rush Limbaugh, and Hannity giving out false information usually damning information. What I the Democrats going to do with medical for immigrants one simple solutions is as a general right for everybody that comes in our country as Christ said if you leave one of these children behind like a millstone tied around your neck and dropped in the deepest part of the ocean. The other things that the Republican Party trying to tackle that immigrants are murderers and rapists and it's the fault of the Democrats. As I see it they had eight years of Congress and the house and they could affix the immigration problems that would've solved most of it with immigrants. They will lie to you they will steal from you they will make falsehoods of reporting on the air and never tell the truth. So red states should give up their power for the minority and give the rights to the majority.
1
@Rick Johnson your comment is extremely difficult to read.
Cause or effect? Correlation doesn't confirm a causal relationship. Still, there are many other things, such as teenager motherhood, that track with red states...
What I want to know is, based on this current trend, when will the populace of red states die off and no longer be a burden to the economic, political and social progress of this country?
4
If you listen to conservative talk radio, they always blame everything on "liberals." They have made the word synonymous with the word evil. I cannot stand how much they lie and misinform without facts and knowledge. My question is WHY do they intentionally "lie" about everything. We have an administration that to LIE is to govern.
4
As Ben Rumson said in Paint Your Wagon: "There's two kinds of people, them goin' somewhere and them goin' nowhere. And's that what's true."
The Blue States are populated by those going somewhere, while the Red States are populated by those going nowhere. I give you California, the 5th or 6th largest economy in the world, which is populated by those going somewhere and their descendants.
4
@Jeff We know where California is going quite well. Once a melting pot paradise, is now homeless encampment and sectarian battle zone.
So according to Barr, the rise in mortality is due to secularism, yet, it is in the Bible Belt red states where mortality has risen inordinately. THINK ABOUT THAT! Seems like he's admitting that whatever "values" have been taught, the young people either are rejecting them or feel that their system has failed them. Why not look at the LACK of medical facilities; that the "RIGHT TO WORK"means a worker is at the mercy of the employer; that higher education is not only limited, but looked down upon as "leftist"; that young people WITH education are more apt to leave these areas for less restrictive more diverse communities (Blue states). EXPLAIN THAT, BILLY!
5
The whole red ideology seems to be built on the willful cruelty of those who believe themselves to be on top, combined with active suppression of everyone else. Who would want to stay alive if that were their workplace, home, church, school, community, and everything else, as well as their politics?
Utah seems to be an exception, but not everyone is a Mormon.
3
I've always said that the majority of Republican voters are digging their own graves, but I didn't know I was literally correct.
13
Very Sad. As a London-based reader, I am always saddened by the default position of too many Americans that “our country” is the best at everything. It is not. On the same day as this Krugman column, the NY Times reports that test results of American 15-year-olds are stagnating in reading and math. American teens were below the “middle of the pack” in math. Fox “News”, elected Republicans and Republican voters themselves are contributing to a decline in American absolute and relative standards across a spectrum of important parameters.
It is time to Make America Decent Again.
Americans need to get MADA!
8
It’s opioid addiction, and it affects ail creeds and colors. It is pretty low of you to make political hay out of this tragedy.
2
@Pjlit It's definitely not just opioid addiction. It's higher rates of smoking, alcoholism, obesity, etc. and less access to health care (which, with refusal to expand Medicaid, was purely a political decision).
2
Does living blue in a red state save a person from early death? It certainly makes one miserable in many ways. Asking for a friend.
4
This opinion piece makes sense from the perspective of Republicans being for "less government." For it is government that provides for the general welfare. In the red states voters vote for minimal taxes which translates to shrunken government services and less support for a vibrant public school system. At the core of Republican philosophy is a belief in the survival of the fittest. To the winners goes the spoils, everyone else is a loser and deserves what they get. Trump himself has said he doesn't like losers. This is what Republican voters vote for whether they realize it or not.
8
Oops, missed something in another polemic.
Need to work climate change into the blame game. Red states have been more resistant to climate change measures than blue states and now that is coming home to roost.
2
@Mort,
Climate change is not, and probably never will be, a priority for people who are living paycheck to paycheck and can't come up with a couple hundred dollars for an emergency or their car unexpectedly breaking down.
Lack of support for Climate Change policy is not always a function of ignorance but often how precarious a situation many people in the country are in.
1
President Trump rails against the homeless problem in California, calls Baltimore unlivable, and Chicago virtually a war zone all to discredit liberals and Democrats. He manipulates sensational media coverage of these issues purely for political benefit, with nary any intent to do anything to make life better for the people who are suffering. Meanwhile for many of his supporters in red states, run by Republicans, life grows ever shorter. Trump goes to rallys bragging about how great everything is now. His supporters cheer because, no matter how miserable life is for them or their fellow citizens, Trump gives voice to their fears that majority white America is becoming too brown and their hatred of liberals. In fact many are okay with the GOP agenda of dismantling the social safety net, even to their own detriment, because they falsely believe its main beneficiaries are “undeserving” minorities. Rather than join with black and brown people to demand a better life for all, which would truly make America great, too many Trumpsters support the divide and conquer politics that has historically kept ALL working people down. It’s sad.
14
So all you need to make the United States of America the Utopian States of America is for every voter to vote only for Democratic candidates, the blue ones, right, which will make the voters healthier. We wouldn't want different opinions. Different opinions are so messy. American politics was always competitive, but it wasn't always this mean.
1
@Jim Facts can sometimes be "mean."
1
Certainly that many of the red states have rejected Medicaid expansion is one of the causes of higher death rates. This may be a major factor.
1
Red States have become Pottersville of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life.’
3
“E pluribus trump-unum” — out of many, the self-chosen-one. Forget spreading the wealth. The reds want to spread the misery, keeping all the wealth on top.
The unrestricted movement of goods and services is guaranteed to benefit those at the top.
The party, ... er cult, of individual responsibility blames everyone else for their predicament - minorities, immigrants, welfare recipients, food stamp recipients, healthcare recipients, the educated and believers in facts - and have found in trump (and their guns) an outlet for their selfish self pitying rage.
They fail to recognize that their predicament is, in part, their responsibility in that they blame the wrong groups with fictions and propaganda while giving their voice and power to those who are actually exploiting them - like the trump, Kochs, Mercers, Adelsons, etc.
In their rage they want to stick it to us and reduce the life expectancy of the rest of us too - and trump and the Republicans are giving it to them. With a shorter life expectancy, no wonder they could care less about climate change that affects the rest of us who care to grow old and our descendants quality of life - not just of the wealthiest.
I wonder what the correlation of life expectancy is between red gun ownership and blue gun ownership is.
2
I wonder how much environmental toxins play a role here. Cancer clusters in TX & LA among other places tend to hit the working class harder than coastal communities
2
There is one area where America unquestionably still leads the world: willful ignorance.
10
So how long before blue states take over.
1
The agrarian economy of the southern slaveocracy was defended even by poor whites, who felt they were defending their "way of life" against intrusions by liberals, foreigners, and evil new religions.
Making America Great Again also appears to arise from anti-governmental fear that something is being taken away, something that cannot be recovered by merely retreating into a well-armed, survivalist enclave.
The Regulator Uprising, the Gloucester County Conspiracy, and Bacon's Rebellion were testaments to the American tendency to rise up against government in response to cultural and economic paranoia ... long before the USA even existed.
More concerning than this universal human dilemma is the emergence of charismatic ringleaders who perform stunning feats of destruction while eerily coaxing others into acts of self-destruction.
2
File under: chickens coming home to roost.
11
Since the 2008 election and the “tea party movement,” the NYT and countless other media outlets have run stories about white-working-class Evangelical Flyover America, portraying them as moralistic and misunderstood. Instead of trying to convince Sane America to embrace Red America, the media should have spent more reporting telling Red America that their blind allegiance to Trump, Republicanism, and Fox News is killing them.
4
@PAB For the most part "Red America" would immediately turn off any media that tried to tell them those things.
The part of Paul's column that shocks me is the part about Florida and Texas. These two states are characterized by a high degree of in-migration from other parts of the nation. Granted, Texas is taking in many disgruntled Republicans from California and Florida is taking in many retirees, but the inevitable consequence of the population influx for both states is that they become more urban. Texas has three cities with over one million people and two more approaching one million. And number six--El Paso--is no slouch at about 700,000. Florida's numbers are skewed by the fracture of conurbations among different counties with only Jacksonville reflecting its true population at 900,000, but Florida is also full of large urban centers. If the past century is any guide, the increase in urban population will push both states away from the policies currently trumpeted by the Republicans. Urban populations need different things than do rural populations.
Unlike a lot of opinion columns, this one has solid facts that qualify as news. Good, enlightening, important info.
4
There really are 2 Americas, red and blue, Democratic and Republican, and the differences are stark. Take just about any public policy, and the Democratic approach is better for people and the earth, and the Republican policy is worse. Climate, energy, health care, education, income inequality, Social Security, guns, freedom of and from religion, voting rights, women's rights, civil rights, defense spending, international relations - Democratic policies are objectively better (if your goal is the pursuit of health and happiness for all).
Republicans claim to be the "values" party and they are critical of Democrats' focus on "identity" politics. But really it's Republicans for whom the culture wars are most important. Fox News, hate radio, conservative pundits like Hannity, Limbough Coulter and Levin, all demonize liberals while offering their listeners - nothing.
The question is if, how and when the tide will turn, and Democrats will gain power. Time is running short, and the "structural change" Elizabeth Warren favors is looking like a distant and unachievable dream.
6
In the long run, we’re all dead.
1
It's mainly the denial mindset of the right wingers. They deny real education is worth anything. They deny science is useful to determine facts. They deny that diet choices could harm anyone. They deny facts that normal people understand as facts. They deny that they are responsible for their own well being. They deny that Blue States subsidize the Red States. And on, and on, and on. It is only fitting that their Dear Leader is a compulsive liar who denies any responsibility for any of his massive failures. And they deny that their Dear Leader's policies are actually hurting them. They just like they way he talks.
6
Despite Barr, I believe secularists are every bit as moral, if not more so, than religious fundamentalist bigots.
10
Interesting but incomplete! Within red states there are also deep divides where the affluents have great life expectancy ...
Dear Mr. President, Spin this. Regrets, GGallo
When will we stop treating Barr as if a word that comes out of his mouth is uttered in anything resembling good faith? He's a thinly-veiled political operative and a complete ringwraith, whatever soul he had long since sold. I'm pretty sure he doesn't consider the evidence before he says anything, and am increasingly not even sure he even believes what he says.
6
I don't know whose readership inspires more vitriol among their supporters: Paul Krugman or Charles Blow--both very divisive and destructive forces in the national dialogue.
3
@Eunice They tell the truth.
4
@Peg I'm afraid you are confusing absolute truth with relative truth. Truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference. The "truth" of Blow and Krugman is no more than their opinion and is relative to their very partisan frame of reference.
2
@Peg Don't bother. To people like Eunice not lying is considered "divisive and destructive"
This column and its point remind me of a Sharon Stone movie.
[Nicole lights her cigarette]
Leo : Second-hand smoke kills, you know.
Nicole : [blowing smoke in Leo's face] Not reliably
The arrow of causation seems to be backwards in this argument.
The Republican Party has become the party of dissatisfaction with the status quo. They have as their face and leader someone who fundamentally disagrees with and disrespects the fundamental assumptions of our country to the point of near nihilism.
Someone leaving in a desperate economic state will be drawn to expressions that things terrible and that we need to throw out the baby and the bathwater to get things back to how they should be. Realistic incrementalism and rationally informed public policy agendas don't effectively speak to people that are being evicted, that have experienced local economic collapse, are living through an addiction crisis, or are facing bankruptcy. Easy, unrealistic solutions do.
The details may play out in different ways in different times and different places, but there is, I believe in general, a correlation between intelligence and longevity.
3
How about we stop wavering on candidates, like I have been, and all get behind Elizabeth (she’s the best all-around candidate hands-down) and go! They can’t stop us when we are united! Fix the water, fix the air — clean energy! Good healthcare to us all! Let’s make Bernie, who will always be our hero and fighter, proud! And if she picks him as VP, she’d make me the happiest girl in the world. But let’s go Elizabeth. Clean up time!
4
The best news ever: people in red states are dying 4 years earlier than people in blue states.
How sad that the electoral college has made me gleeful over this news.
3
Median access to comprehensive healthcare seems to be the most heavily correlated statistic.
Would be informative to look at the mortality by wealth/income inequality but the data do not exist. Or even in 'blue' states, such as California, look at mortality by region (red vs blue) and then by a measure of inequality (of course further correcting for other factors, such as gender differences).
Regardless of what the data show, its people's beliefs that carry more weight, even AG Barr believes its due to moral trupitude and even for someone with a supposedly advanced degree, the facts would not change his mind. Or he would just find another way to rationalize his beliefs and actions.
Trump's efforts to roll back the clean air act are a perfect example of GOP efforts to help their backers and in turn leads to tremendous health problems. Particularly with the poor(primarily black and Hispanic) in the intercity who are forced to live in the most polluted places. The ACA Medicaid expansion is another area where GOP rejection of a program that would absolutely be beneficial to the public is rejected for totally crazy reasons. The Democratic establishment seems determined to give the voters a corporatist neo con as president. This will lead to more concentration of wealth, more monopolistic behavior by Facebook and Amazon and less grass roots involvement in the party. Progressives in the Democratic party have ideas to address the environmental, health care, massive income disparity challenges that face the country. The Green new deal and the Medicare for all would have tremendous positive impact on innovation and improving the health care outcomes for all Americans.
3
The few red staters I run into while traveling think that even with subsidies from blue states and the added voting power from the Electoral College, they are not heard. They need those perks because life would be so unfair [to them] without them. At the same time, their views are uninformed and fear driven, definitely not open to discussion, and I have learned better than to try. At one time, one of my jobs entailed visiting libraries in all states and territories. You could definitely tell where you were by public libraries. In red states, their paucity and lack of funding was telling and sad. If you can’t learn anything, you can’t change your life for the better. How about library size and circulation in red and blue states? I would also like to see red vs blue state statistics on soft drinks, cigarettes and vaping, fast food and gym memberships.
9
State by state comparisons still muddle the data. Texas has busy universities and a booming tech economy. Calling Texas less educated just doesn't ring true. But then that is part of the problem. The educated areas within red states tend to be quite blue, but the minority ruling class in places like Texas have rigged the system. If you're going to talk about out-of-touch elites, then the Republicans across the South are a perfect example.
10
@Odo Klem
by your measure California with the fifth largest economy in the world and days of rolling electric grid blackouts owns the "out-of-touch elites" category
Without reviewing death certificates and knowing political affiliation you cannot correlate life expectancy to political parties. Differing life expectancy has more to do with education, wealth and access to healthcare. Rural areas don't have much to offer in terms of these and there is no fix, as middle of know where Idaho will never be NYC no matter how many Democrats move there.
1
@Jim Refusing to expand Medicaid (thereby expanding access to health care) was purely a political decision in these states. Not only did individuals not get coverage, but rural hospitals were forced to close.
What if opioid deaths were factored out of the national statistics? Also discount deaths related to smoking tobacco and the states that vote Republican would likely look a lot more like those that don't in terms of life expectancy.
Most traffic deaths occur late at night on two lane roads. In rural, less populated areas, this is where people drive at all hours.
The point is that big conclusions from broad data are difficult to reach and might represent distortions.
The opioid epidemic hit at just the right time when millions were out of work from the Great Recession. When people have idle time and when they also feel like there is no goal in life, no hope, it is easy to turn to drugs for a sense of escape. In turn, opioids, the worst drug crisis ever to hit our country, were a factor in the election of Trump: our lives and those around us are a mess, let's try something different. (2016 was, in any case, a normal change year when voters turn against those in power.)
It would be equally wrong, however, to discount the lower quality of life in areas where wages are generally lower and laws on the books favor the merchant and stockholding classes. Health care, education levels and disappearing opportunities for advancement all play a role.
1
Good post Dr Krugman. It's a simplification of the data -- others might argue with this detail or that statistic -- but it's important to take a 30,000-foot-view to get the general patterns. Let's hope the red states are paying attention!
4
Well, if it keeps up, the Republicans will die their way out of power...
2
Here it is in a nutshell: They're killing themselves - and once they're dead, this country will be better off. That's harsh, I know, but it's true nonetheless.
6
Can you now rewrite that in terms which Trump's "base" can understand ....?
5
Could be that many denizens of red states suffer psychologically - with attendant physical sequelae - from constantly being told they are at risk from all types of imagined threats, ranging from immigrants to "black man with gun" to elites mocking their very existence. I encounter these folks daily who are locked into a fight-or-flight response from their steady diet of Fox News and the Trump cult media.
7
This opinion piece reflects the fact that the 21st Century Democrat Party is no longer the party of the poor, the oppressed, or the workers. It is the party of those who think of themselves as the elite, the rich, and the people who are sure they know better. This is why people in red states die earlier—because they have less than those in the blue states. So way to go you blue staters with your huge carbon footprint matched only by your virtue signalling.
@ehillesum Maybe people in red states have less and are dying earlier because politicians in red states have fooled their supporters into rejecting things, like Medicaid expansion, a stronger social safety net and better environmental protections, that improve public health? Not to mention, how about the impact of anti-worker and anti-union laws and low spending on public education on poverty levels? Not sure how the dismal stats of red-led states like Kentucky and Kansas are the fault of New York or California, but this type of deflection to blaming all their failures on "elites" and educated people is a big part of the problem.
Last, there are plenty of poor people and workers, not to mention people who aren't "elite", in blue states--but there's a reason why those same populations in red states are dying sooner.
And as far as Democrats being the "party of the people who are sure they know better," well, yeah, if they're the ones with longer lifespans, then maybe they do.
4
In 1900 life expectancy for white males in the USA was 47 years. For black males it was 33 years.
Red state or blue, quit complaining. The human race has never had it so good.
1
Thoughts and prayers.
6
My thoughts and prayers for the red states
4
So, the ignorant, self-centered, prejudiced, science-denying Trump supporters are dying, while the educated, hard-working, rational, empathetic democrats are thriving? Combine this with today's article about how the world's most overpopulated areas have the worst air quality and, hence, are also dying, and one can only conclude that either there is a God, or natural selection is hard at work. I say, bring it on!
4
Red states like Tx , WV, repub controlled PA, ND have welcomed fracking and it’s related health risks.
2
People in red states have lower life expectancies than people in blue states.
Why do red state voters support policies that make their lives shorter and more miserable than they have to be?
"Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."
-The Masque of Pandora by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
6
Just Google longevity by country. Mediocrity is our mandate. The US is a Red Country.
A hilarious irony as in the 1950 thru 70s the “Red Countries” were the Communists, you know as in Red China.
Now we are “Red” though corporatist instead of communist, but much more violent.
2
Surprised to not see Jonathan Metzl's name mentioned here, since he's written an entire book regarding this subject. 'Dying of Whiteness' is an essential read.
When people tell you they'd rather die than have "socialized medicine," believe them.
12
There is a compulsion in Red States to find staw man arguments to distract from their own elected emasculation and stupefaction. Why do the hard work of organizing and holding a Monsanto or a DuPont accountable when it’s much easier to target destitute illegal immigrants? It’s outrage in search of an easy target...just don’t hold up any mirrors! This has been the same old song and dance for decades; first it was the commies (and liberals), then Islamic terrorists (and liberals) and now it’s immigrants (and liberals). We’ve reached the nexus of maximum absurdity and peak tax cut.
5
The ten poorest states are RED. The ten least educated are RED. And they keep voting against their self interest. For 40 years this has been true. It's really a club that is still fighting the lost civil war. The north won. The North won because of better education, which leads to better science and engineering, which leads to better killing. And Our generals were better generals. Better generals with better scientists and end up winning. The loosers are angry, and resentful, even hateful. And so it is today. The Auto plants down south are making excellent cars and the empoyees are earning 65% of wht the Detroit based auto works make. Why. Because the Repubicans run the governments of the South. he North has a pile of drug users, and the South does too. A lot of things lead to early death. But mostly it is education and economic differentials. Which influences the general philosophies. The white haters hate the non-whites not because they are superior to the non-whites. They hate them because they aren't superior to them. And I'm using North and South as metaphors for raw uneducated verses 10% of Research University Educated, West Virginia verses New Jersey, Kansas verses Mass.; Florida v. Illinois; Utah v. California. You get the picture: New York v. Arkansas.
2
One word: Guns.
1
So according to the AG Barr, secularists are the main causes of the problem facing American people like suicide rate, drug abuse, violence,... I forget who said that Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. But for Barr and the politicians whom implemented the Big Business and the religious right agenda, religion is the last refuge of those scoundrels.
4
Eat healthy, natural foods? No this sounds elitist - just eat whatever you want!
Take care to preserve a healthy environment? No this sounds elitist - just do whatever you want!
Trying to ensure all Americans have affordable health care? No this is an elite plot to give me worse healthcare!
Read, study, think, analyze to nurture and development your mind? No this sounds elitist - just watch Fox Propaganda!
Is it any wonder why this has happened?
11
Perhaps more religion in red states likely means less belief in science, meaning God will take care of their problems not medicine, diet, exercise, etc.
4
During McCain's 2008 campaign for President, I watched a rally in his home state of Arizona -- reliably red -- where the topic of health care came up. He posed a situation, hypothetical, I hope, in which a young man who can't afford health insurance has a motorcycle accident and is lying in the gutter needing help. McCain was the kinder, gentler Republican, remember? He said we need to have supports in place to help him, and at that a woman in the crowd clearly shouted "let him die!" I know what I saw and heard and McCain, who must have heard it, too, said nothing. It's kind of hard to forget something like that and I never have. Does the GOP position on health care lead or reflect that of their voters? You can answer that question when you vote.
5
I guess lattes are good for our health...
2
Since the Republicans playbook is to win by cheating by rigging the system, like gerrymandering or ignoring facts(party over country) the goal is clearly not to help their constituents get a better life but to con them for power. Thankfully they have propaganda machines like Fox News to spin their deceit and gaslight for them short term. However, if they want to stay relevant for years to come the best strategy would be to improve their game, long term to actually deliver on their promises and improve the lives of those they serve. Otherwise the red states may find themselves sitting in a deteriorating or collapsed house.
3
What a great, eye-opening article. I have friends and colleagues who are eager to leave the NYC metro area because, and only because, of high taxes. Some retire to Florida but many are headed to red states where they are promised lower taxes and costs.
There is a reason why taxes are lower in these states. The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. Want lower taxes? Expect less services, including health care. WE are most definitely becoming two countries: one progressive and one regressive.
5
What we have here is failure to communicate. As Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harrari explains, human societies have always been structured around fictions rather than facts. All nations and states are political fictions, as are most religions, myths and legends. The reason our social battles seem so insane is that we are fighting and launching bloody wars over competing fictions. The Confederacy was based on the fiction -- clearly stated in its constitution -- that African homo sapiens were inferior to Caucasian home sapiens. The fictional self-made man, gun-toting, Bible quoting, Trump voting, has a boogeyman in the form of a nanny-state, politically correct, Latte sipping liberal who is going to take away his money, his guns and his power as a patriarch, possibly forcing him to accept homosexual marriage. This "liberal" is a fictional character, as is the Red State superman. None of us are the narratives we tell ourselves; all of us are a mixed bag. That Red Stater may be gay. That "liberal" might own guns. Putin manipulated us by our fictional narratives. If we could somehow quit debating fiction and face facts, some progress could be made in how we relate to one another. It would represent a revolutionary change in social organization, and maybe some of us could quit seeing "progress" as a loaded word.
3
I was living in Kentucky when our governor opted into the Medicaid expansion and managed it brilliantly. Kentucky had one of the few computer systems that worked so when the Affordable Care Act went live there were 500,000 newly-insured people in a state with 4.5 million people. The NYT sent a video crew to Louisville to look at what the business of caring for people looked like. https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002296126/a-clinic-braces-for-change.html?searchResultPosition=4
This video is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see. When people have not been able to see a doctor for years they have a constellation of problems. This video shows the doors opening to a world of orderly medical care. Kentucky subsequently elected a Right-wing Evangelical who found ways to restrict care to over a hundred thousand of these newly-insured people. Of course some of them have started dying.
5
‘E pluribus unum’: “one of America’s traditional mottos” used to be the Official Motto. It was replaced as the Official Motto in ‘56 (the decade America became a Christian nation) by Eisenhower, who deemed ‘In God We Trust’ become the Official Motto. The same decade we edited the Pledge of Allegiance to include “under God” after “one Nation.” The same decade we added ‘In God We Trust’ to our currency. The same decade the National Day of Prayer was adopted. The same decade dozens of manufacturers hired evangelical preachers to spread the word that capitalism was indeed Godly and socialism the work of the Devil. I feel like Democrats are the only ones still pursuing that mamby pamby socialist sentiment “Out Of Many, One.”
5
People who embrace progress and new ways of thinking are living longer, while people who want society to remain stuck in "the good ol' days" are dying younger?
Sounds like Charles Darwin's theories at work to me.
Then again, the conservatives don't believe in Darwin, either...
5
This is a brilliant column, and the preliminary findings about discrepancies in mortality rates between red v. blue states seems plausible considering the wholesale rejection of science by the republican senior leadership. How can any administration expect better health and wellness outcomes without using the term "empirical evidence?"
7
Writing here from my small, ultra-red town in a very red state:
What Dr. Krugman avers in this excellent piece is more than substantiated by a regular look at our local newspaper's obits. They abound with notices of the deaths of young people who were not killed in car wrecks or other accidents.
And a single trip to our Walmart further supports Dr. K's point that morbid obesity is more prevalent, by far, here than it is in the small Oregon town my daughter's family calls home. It is an epidemic here.
Specifically, as for deaths of despair, I can speak more personally than I wish to that point: 10 years ago yesterday, my brother and only sibling shot himself in the head in his garage. The economy then was vicious, and he simply couldn't abide the situation.
6
@VLMc,
So sorry for your loss and pain.
2
Paul Krugman pens an especially sobering Opinion detailing the expanding divergence of the red state/blue state dilemma. The statistical data cited is both compelling and instructive, revealing the highly myopic predisposition of red state elective political beliefs. In so few words, pride goeth before a fall. Red states summarily rejecting Medicaid expansion are content with maintaining a status quo that is lethally injurious to their citizens. Preserving that ultra right conservative belief is far more important than to even tacitly recognize a modicum of federal relief that would benefit all of their citizens. Underlying this extremely dogmatic position is the existence of racial and ethnic issues, immigrant xenophobia, and anti-LGBTQ paranoia, examined in the context of employment, societal, religious, and educational opportunities. Fear stoked by the Vietnam War draft dodger's persistent shrill of an alleged invasion by brown complexioned persons seeking refuge here fuels the red state resistance and reinforces the obtuse mindset of inflexibility. California and New York lead the nation in racial and ethnic diversity as well as providing expansive health care. These progressive states exemplify the best of America. The Republican Party today reflects an expressed attitude voiced by George Wallace at his rallies during the 1960s that, even though his supporters were less educated, lacking cultural awareness, their white skin privilege assured their place. Race matters.
9
All predicted by "The 'Bell Curve'." Americans with higher than average IQ's will thrive, those with lower than average IQ's will perish. Auto workers in Detroit who used to get paid extremely well to put doors on cars are not able to function in a society that is increasingly reliant on workers ability to perform mental tasks. What is to be done? Welfare for the many is the only way, it seems.
5
@Ayecaramba: Corporatism generally calls for people near the center of the bell curve.
I might suggest that we let the Republicans in Washington give back social responsibilities to the states. But that will probably result in a huge migration of people from red states to blue states. I'd rather give them the money and keep them where they are.
5
@Jimmy "But that will probably result in a huge migration of people from red states to blue states." It already has. The Los Angeles Times has done a series of articles about the homeless. It's striking how many people living on the street are new arrivals to California from other states, oftentimes "red" ones.
2
The reality is, for the most part, that Republican policies are hurting red states more than blue states by depriving them of badly needed healthcare, education and other services. Republicans pretend to care about these folks, but not only doesn't the GOP offer them much needed help, they also denigrate and label those who would offer and fund programs to help them as socialists.
How ironic that the people Republicans are hurting the most are among their base of supporters. It's just another in a long string of hypocritical efforts to con those Americans into believing that the GOP has their backs, when in fact, what the GOP is doing is sticking virtual knives into them.
10
As Shakespeare said”something is rotten in the state of Denmark “. The conservative evangelical philosophy of individualism and limited government has done a great disservice to many in these red states. Milton Friedman’s idea of unfettered capitalism has not worked well in many countries around the world. The idea of a more socialistic approach to is abhorrent to the evangelical movement and until that changes,they will continue to struggle.
7
"So something bad is definitely happening to American society. But the conservative diagnosis of that problem is wrong — dead wrong."
Well, why should the conservatives be right about that when they're wrong about everything else? They're just being consistent.
6
Living my long life in Indiana confirms this rising death rate. I scan the obits of our local paper and have noticed a sharp increase in deaths under the age of 55. Sadly, weekly deaths under 30 and plenty of early 20s and teens. My young adult children have had to confront the deaths of their PEERS! I never had their experience of grief they face yearly.
The hyper-pious, conservative GOP Christians I live with are proof of the success of GOP stinginess. Cut education and health care and social workers and blame the victims of poverty and despair.
"We pulled ourselves up by our OWN bootstraps! and WORKED HARD for what we got. Those people are lazy., and won't work", my comfortable upper and middle class neighbors shriek. That 'greatest generation' with its' boundless pride, also ran home to family farms to eat during the depression or lived in small isolated communities that did care for their own. But the lesson of generosity only extends to kiff and kin, not to others. The 'others' be they black skinned or poor white, the expectation , is for those people too fail. Selfishness is a pitiful way to live. Oh they help the 'deserving poor' but just who is that? GOP is the party of "Get up the ladder and pull it quickly up, so no one else get's a share:)".
9
@hoosier lifer wrote; ""Get up the ladder and pull it quickly up, so no one else get's a share:)".
This is exactly what many cities, particularly major ones t have done with housing policy---many of the larger cities are Democratic I might add, so this mindset isn't limited to Republicans--which has had the predictable result of putting the cost of living out of reach for anyone who isn't upper middle class (or above) or manages to qualify for a limited number of affordable housing units.
The response when this is brought up is often that people don't have a right anywhere. If that is your attitude that is fine but if that is your attitude get off your high horse about how Blue Cities are better.
To your earlier point about the bootstraps, replace "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" with "get an education" and you have a similar mindset within certain parts of the Democratic Party, as evidenced by many of the comments on this piece and similar pieces.
Just as it's not always as simply as pulling your bootstraps, it's not always as simple as getting an education, especially if you consider the fact that less than 40% of the country has a 4 degree.
I'm never been a supporter of the Republican Party and am appalled by Trump but the Democratic Party is no saint either as has some things to answer for as well.
1
'This rise in mortality has, in turn, been largely a result of rising “deaths of despair” '
I would have accepted this sentence but for the word "largely." Needs substantiation.
In my opinion, Donald Trump is the all-unseeing eye at the apex of America's “deaths of despair” pyramid.
Trump's supporters have lost their faith in America and their way within it. Meanwhile the POTUS and his handlers have uncovered a wealth of political (and financial) gain within their collective suffering.
6
Unfortunately the electoral college favors the red states, so were all in this race to the bottom together.
4
Up is down and in is out. Truth is what we are told. Why would anyone want health care. How about some personal responsibility. I can go on but why? Don't get in their way!
1
Two Americas. Very unhealthy for a stable country. Blue states should help the red states correct their poor health, economics and education. Perhaps congress should invent a new social safety net which will be made available to the red states. Perhaps in time reparations would be in order. I don’t know. Do you think the red states’ representatives would be in favor of and vote for the Red State Rehabilitation Act?
I wish this super insightful column was written BEFORE Thanksgiving not AFTER.
Some of us (including Maureen Dowd) could have used it talking with our tragic relatives.
3
The bottom line is this: Red states are cheap. They don't want to tax enough to pay for proper health care for the poor and the unemployed who lose their health insurance. They don't want to tax enough to pay for decent public school education K-K12 and college? Forgeddaboutit! Uneducated, unhealthy people fall for all sorts of scams, schemes and are generally the suckers of society, as well as the poorest paid (if they can even find jobs) and least informed. They're not interested in the news or current events in the USA, let alone the world in general. They're not interested in changing their lives to try and improve themselves through training programs and/or education (too much work and no guarantee of a pay-off), and far too many of them think that somehow they are entitled to a better standard of living than what they can earn or create for themselves, and feel a heck of a lot resentment and worse toward anybody who is doing better than they do. As pay-back, they victimize and demonize others. But they're the true victims of their own ignorance and hubris, when all is said and done.
4
I think the shrinking life expectancy is correlated to the shrinking ability to afford to live a long life. As people see they are running out of money I believe many lose the will to live. I will never be able to support myself as long as my parents and grandparents did so why try to stay healthy? Might as well eat the doughnuts.
1
Yeah, but if you don't care about who is dying, then it's all working out.
These embittered people have first crippled themselves, and are now being politically manipulated into crippling the nation.
The rich line their pockets, able to afford health care, education, etc, as they compare Return on Investment and Yacht size.
4
His “diagnosis” was not meant to be explanatory. It was not a diagnosis at all. Barr gave a speech to reassure his audience that they can feel secure in their prejudices. You don’t need facts for that.
7
The Red States believe that “government is the problem,” and that belief, imprinted on their very souls by the patron saint of freedom, Ronald Reagan, is why they would rather die young than follow practical working policy that had its origin in a government agency. It is Libertarian leanings coupled with corporate propaganda resulting in mass homicide. The NRA has learned well the lessons of that mindset. Trump has turned over the last card in that hand and is using it to forestall action on Climate Change. We won’t know until November 2020 if he has 4 aces or a pair of twos, if we all will die young or just his cult members.
1
@Doug Well said, but the poker game, card hand analogy I suggest needs tweaking. To wit, we know he doesn't have anything in his hold cards. What we don't know is at what point and how he will attempt to grab the pot and escape the ensuing chaos (possibly while setting fire to the poker table to destroy evidence and enhance the chaos).
"So something bad is definitely happening to American society."
Opiods.
Everywhere. Right and Left. It's all in the NYT Prof. Krugman. See this and many more:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/02/us/opioid-crisis-high-school-teenagers.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
2
@Joshua Schwartz It's not just opioids. Red states also tend to have higher rates of smoking, alcoholism, obesity, etc., compounded by a lack of access to care to address those problems.
1
Many medical conditions come from stress. Stress is caused by worry. Worry is caused by, let's see, a Wall Street enabled housing crisis that saw hundreds of thousands foreclosed from their homes, a medical system that routinely leads people into personal bankruptcy, pensions replaced by 401(k)'s that not everyone knows how to manage, escalating costs of education, and on and on. Europe has safety nets. Basic levels of care. People there don't die nearly the same level of "deaths of despair."
10
I also feel that there is a difference between how religion is used in blue states that red. I grew up in a very blue area of New Jersey, and moved around a lot in the North East. I went to a lot of churches in that area. I often found that those churches emphasized acceptance, caring for neighbors, and an academic analysis of the Bible. Religion is used as a way to guide, but I have rarely been in a church in the North East that perches a political view.
I also attended many churched in the South East. There, I was often struck by how exclusionary the churches I attended were. There is the expectation that church-goes will accept the spoon-fed child analysis of the Bible, without accounting for translation, culture, and modern application. I was often directly confronted by church members about my beliefs, and derided when my experiences and beliefs did not match theirs. I have long learned it is not good to share religion in the South East.
Here in Iowa, it is somewhere between. There is an acceptance of different people, but there is still that expectation of acceptance of your denomination's doctrine. There is less analysis of religious texts.
I know I have had an interesting history with religion. Between tagging along to my dad's music performances, and my own family's diverse religious background, I have had a variety of religious experience. At the end of the day, religion is just what you make of it.
6
I volunteer to knock on doors and distribute information for Democratic political candidates. It is a discouraging slog. After thirty years of being dominated by Republican machine politics, many in Texas are profoundly disillusioned about voting. When talking to voters, they often shrug their shoulders and wish me "good luck" in fighting the Republican machine that has kept its murderous grip on this state since 1994. I say "murderous," because under this cohort of Republicans, Texas has the status of a third world country when it comes to maternal death rates. The number of people without access to healthcare is horrifying. But Republicans themselves are doing fine, because they have built a system that supports only the wealthy, and they have made themselves very wealthy indeed with their self-enrichment schemes that involve directing taxpayer dollars into their pockets. They work very hard to make sure that the rest of us are cut out of the "welfare for the rich" system they have erected for themselves, and have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Our voter participation rates are dismal, and it is because Republicans have gerrymandered themselves into power and obstructed every path that people can take to vote them out, so voters have simply given up trying to vote against the machine. They either leave the state if they want to survive, which pleases the Republicans no end, or else they die if they can't afford to move, which also pleases Republicans.
8
I would imagine the results would be even more striking if it was calculated based on population density rather then state delineations. Metro and rural areas have their divergence compressed into these state-wide studies that misrepresent what is actually going on.
4
The country is being split in half.
Red states have no idea about reality because they are lied to by Trump and FOX.
Red states will thus continue to decline.
It is the current greatest danger to our country.
12
A vicious cycle. The low education leads to a poor understanding of what’s really going on and keeps them voting for a party that will continue to feed them untruths and leave them uneducated.
9
Democrats need to move to red states, especially those with low population sizes, and turn things around by sheer numbers, entrepreneurship, and culture change. Many Democrats have jobs enabling them to work remotely. This can be done.
4
Warning: Don't give Republicans a mirror to look into. It will only increase the disparity between red and blue longevity!
It’s grimly ironic that Republicans can be so extremist when it comes to the so-called ‘pro-life’ movement, yet so willfully indifferent to lives lost before their very eyes...
11
I see many comments pointing out the disparity between the success rates of red states vs blue states. That's not the point or goal for the conservative party. The Republicans only concern is protecting the wealthy and corporations. The resulting averages in the states are irrelevant to them.
Democrats love to point out that we are behind other countries in education, health care, income inequality, etc. While this is factually true, it is besides the point. Do we offer the best health care to the wealthy? Do we offer the best education to the wealthy? Do we offer the best opportunity to make the most money to the wealthy? These are the questions Republicans are asking.
That is why Bernie is gaining momentum. He is not playing the same game.
2
Unfortunately, it’s voters in the red states who elect our presidents.
3
So if you want to be "healthy, wealthy and wise", it is better to be blue than red?
1
Liberal Enlightenment vs Restrictive Conservatism. The latter is no match for the former as we see.
3
I think what we're seeing is true devotion to a cause. So many people are willing to die to show their support of all things trump and the Evangelist creed. They would rather die than be educated. They would rather die than admit religious hypocrisy. They drink the koolaid willingly. Is this some sort of flagellation to the death that they perceive will open the gates of heaven? No it's more akin to a opioid addiction and they can't recognize the dealers of death they are dealing with.
10
I had a cousin, who after a stroke continued to drink. He said he would die with a beer in each hand and within five years he did. These are people who deny science because basic science says one day America will truly integrate and they would rather die than live in a place where white skin does not make them special.
5
Republicans love to campaign for traditional values because they don’t cost them anything.
5
It's not a mystery.
Red State America has been fed a steady diet of fear, anger, hate and lies since October 7, 1996.
That's the date Fox News launched.
It rapidly became the sole source of information for most Republicans. The addiction to Fox is rampant, almost 100%.
And after 23 years, the results of watching Fox News exclusively are showing.
The constant drumbeat of fear, hate and indignation is a killer.
Read any medical journal - the effects of constant stress, depression, anger and fear on the human body are well documented.
On Fox News, the glass is always half empty, the news is always bad, the future is always gloomy.
Fox News is killing off it's own viewers while it tries to kill our democracy.
If we are lucky, the country will survive as more and more Fox News viewers die off.
Vote Democratic in 2020.
Every office, every seat.
16
As the United States became the Divided States, its become more and more obvious that perhaps its differences, its beliefs and its future have become less and less reconcilable. How ironic that Republicans sensed this first, while Democrats refused to acknowledge it. As for the Independents, perhaps it's their turn to
lead the way. Hopefully all is not lost, yet everyone knows this system of governance is no longer acceptable if our country is to survive, let alone thrive. Once we thought we were invincible and immortal, now we realize we're not.
3
Make America Healthy Again
(in more than one way)
1
60 years of union busting, 50 years of wasteful wars, 40 years of migration of all wealth to the top, 30 years of opposition to affordable health insurance, 20 years of attacks on Social Security and Medicare, 10 years of the celebration of poisoned air and water and the answer is a brave attack on the Fed to increase the comfort of those Americans least in need.
1682
@Eric Carey
Yes. This in a nutshell.
59
@Eric Carey
Brilliant synopsis.
53
@Eric Carey
and 23 years of Fox News.
166
Peasants always accepted their oppression because they were told it was mandated by god. They accepted the great chain of being and believe their earthy toil will be rewarded in heaven. They vote for the oppressor who pretends to be godly.
However, biology overrides religion. By accepting their fate glucocorticoids build up in their systems and they self medicate or take other drastic actions to relieve the pain.
3
Had to laugh when Barr was mentioned as one of the causes was obesity. Not only is he ranting about the wrong things but he is a walking example of one of the real reasons. Normally I wouldn't pick on someone for this but this guy is complicit in the administration's meanness.
8
Family closeness in the red states is, I suspect, a factor in the rising death rate. Families are fraught with conflict, failed expectations and unrealistic demands. I am no longer a believer in family traditions, and this time of year can be a spiritual killer, a depressing mishmash of emotions stifling role play. Obesity, as Stanford biologist Robert Sapolski has demonstrated, is a result of stress, as are other chronic conditions. I think you will find in Appalachia and the south, situations where adult children continue to live with their parents and a coincidence of drug use, out-of-wedlock children or divorce, just general family mayhem and conflict. The delusion of religion promotes "family values" such as patriarchy and scripted behavior that are often unbearable and unsustainable. Donald Trump is the tyrannical father figure, an authoritarian who must be obeyed and excused, no matter how shameless his behavior. His supporters are his co-dependent victims. They are society's losers.
7
I would be very interested to know if the results are also aligned to urban/rural divide, in addition to, the blue/red divide. EG: Would we see similar wealth/life expectancy differences between Montgomery Ala., and Marion Junction, Ala.?
I expect urban Americans likely live longer due to access of medical services, better social interactions, ...
The fact that urban areas are also the locations with economic vibrancy, and are generally Blue leaning is also interesting.... Cause and effect at play ?
4
Let's be honest, both parties do not serve the 99%. The repubs never have and the dems haven't since LBJ. Both parties are owned by big money. Until you solve this relationship the politicians will continue to tell their constituents what they want to hear and do what their big money lobbyist puppet masters tell them to do. Not that hard people. Wake up!!
2
The people in the red states are not reading this article, Mr. Krugman. They prefer Fox News.
And, thats the tragic irony!
1
Why would Krugman quote Bill Barr? What does Barr know about the health and mortality of Americans? He is a Trump sycophant who doesn't even know how to run the Justice Dept. as a non-partisan organization but instead behaves as if he is Trump's attorney and chief supporter.
6
I think that there is a perversity in that Red States simply buy the hogwash of faux conservatives and vote against their own interests.
Interestingly, capitalism, which the MAGA crowd claims to worship, seems to work better for the blue states and counties than the red ones. There is a reason for this. Liberals have accepted the obvious truth that complex economies are mixed economies. There is no way around that.
Red counties are filled with people that have developed a faulty view of a "simple" economy that cannot possibly support the civilization they live in. They want their devices and Facebook and Twitter but not the complexity that makes it all possible.
Yes, 1955 was a simpler time. But we are not going back because there is no way back.
5
I would also suggest that corporate greed is at work here. In the heart land there used to be a tradition of locally grown food. Now with mono crops and big farming we no longer have the diversity that the farm used to have . The top soil is being eroded and the fruits and vegetable are increasingly without nutrition, polluted with chemical fertilizers and genome manipulations . Meat and poultry industry has taken over towns and destroyed both the environment and small farms, producing meat and poultry raised on grain that no longer has nutritional benefits and is filled with antibiotics . Fast food has replaced home food. Big agriculture and the medical industrial complex unite in creating a death spiral of bad nutrition and then expensive medicine to treat the heart disease, the diabetes and the host of other ailments . Who wins big corporations .The Thanatos of Capitalism reins.
7
I don't think higher education has contributed directly to the dispare in red states. They are more indirect such as pharmaceuticals pushed by corporations financed by Wall Street. Many of the low paying jobs in manufacturing migrated to the south which was historically agricultural area from the north. Now many of the jobs are gone to low wage countries ( thanks to Wall Street again) leaving many unskilled workers without any chance of advancement.
Little has been said about the right to work laws or overlooking illegal immigrants now filling low wage jobs (poultry factory) which only benefits the owners not the workers in these communities. Despair is a symptom of capitalism's lust for money.
3
Take a look at the data in the JAMA article cited by Dr. Krugman. Chart 3, comparing life expectancy by state in 1990 and 2016, is absolutely breathtaking!
Changes in party dominance over time appears to have impacted life expectany. In 1990, when current Number 2 California was largely controlled by the GOP, their life expectancy was right in the middle of the pack, at #24.
When Wisconsin (my state) was more evenly controlled by the two parties in 1990, we ranked #9 nationwide; as hard right Republicans came to dominate, we dropped all the way down to number 18.
Mike Pence's Indiana, which was governed by more moderate Republicans in 1990, held at a middling 27th spot back then; after 4 years of a Pence administration and a right wing legislature, they dropped to 42nd place in 2016, the lowest of any Midwestern state (and the only one in the bottom 10, which is nearly completely occupied by the old Confederacy).
The correlation between party control and life expectancy is extraordinary! With few exceptions (and none in the top and bottom ten), Democratic dominance is connected with high life expectancy, GOP control with low--in fact, all but two of the blue states are Democratic trifectas (and Massachusetts and Vermont, with Republican governors, have over two-thirds Democratic control of the legislature); 9 of the bottom 10 are GOP trifectas (Louisiana has a Democratic governor, but he first took office in January 2016).
So voting Republican really is toxic!
6
In the event that this opinion survives NY Times censure, I would suggest that movement in the USA to a authoritarian government was predictable.
If you examine other authoritarian regimes, you will see countries struggling to keep order in a unfair economic system.
Look at Russia, having to conquer satellite , non Russian countries to get ports and food to feed a centralized population surrounded by harsh habitat and a growing season comparable to Main. Big, wealthy Russian cities and poor rural areas. Non Russians forced to bend to Russian authority.
Look at the disparity in China, with two different cultures and languages. Harsh terrain that isolates China and consequently endears itself to the global economy. Poor peasants in the rugged interior of China providing food for the wealthy Chined port cities.
The same can now be said about the USA. Two now seemingly different cultures propelled by an unfair economic system. A system that created wealthy blue cities and poor red rural areas. A line in the sand. Because of America’s geopolitical position, long growing seasons, three accessible coasts, great river systems, the USA will always feed it’s people.
A Democracy worked when America had more equality with incomes. Factories dotted the interior, once blue rural areas.
So, an eventual want to be authoritarian like Trump, was predictable when looking at the trajectory of America since 1975.
1
@Fausto Alarcón you need to travel the USA. We have a smooth interstate highway system and a network of railroads. No geological features prevent economic development in the middle of the country. You need to look no further than the front range of the rocky mountains for proof.
If you are searching for a hypothesis with more empirical merit than geology map economic development to secularism and education.
Good luck in your studies!
It's more than deaths from despair. About half the increase in lifespan is due to decreases in infant mortality. As Medicaid expands, it is easier for pregnant women and new mothers to get the inexpensive care needed to keep their children healthy. It's also about preventive care. If Medicaid is expanded, it is easier to get cheap preventive care. When that is neglected, some people die before getting emergency care, decreasing the lifespan.
3
What a pungent analysis of the power of conservative denial. Mere facts and impartial statistics seem less impressive than they used to be. It seems to me that many residents in red states engage in what I call 'aspirational voting' -- casting their ballots for political figures they'd like to resemble, without considering the fact that this is not how things actually work.
5
"It's the economy stupid."
Let's face it, when daily life is about survival there is no room left for the ingredients of thriving: education, strong humanist value systems, proactive and preventative healthcare, personal wellness, etc.
The poor have been targeted by Purdue Pharma and every other major corporation that sees them as dispensable or customers of cheap junk. Junk food. Junk credit/lending practices. Junk, junk, junk. That's all they're offered. And what does anyone do when they're worn out and overwhelmed (the rich, too)? They buy whatever pleasures they can to make life endurable.
Junk in, junk out.
The rural poor have so much going against them and I lay the blame at both parties over the last forty years who've enabled the corporations to do these things. After that I blame the new religious fundamentalism that emerged after the Social Revolution (and that the Right co-opted the moment they discovered how powerful the critical blowback was). It's a toxic stew of poor values and bad actors taking advantage of desperate people. I don't have the first clue about how to change it but I sure wish I did. Because at the end of the day, they're Americans and I'm responsible for them, like it or not.
8
+++ sigh +++
Red states - and even red counties in blue states - have all the attributes of being "unteachable:"
Stupid people need to have their hand guided to the light chain, and may need some help pulling it.
Unteachable people refuse to see the light, even after they have turned it on.
In today's column, Prof. Krugman shows this is a deadly distinction.
3
Maybe it's just Darwinism at work. The fittest survive, and the fittest happen to live in blue states.
6
I'm fed up with the Republican voting base. What they bring on themselves, they deserve.
5
Sounds like a blue wave in 25 years
@Brandon
The Blue Wave in 25 years would be true from Red attrition and growth of the multicultural population, BUT that would require a functioning democracy which at current rate is disappearing fast. More like a Totalitarian Corporate Theocracy in 25 years. Unless we resist hard enough.
1
Paul, I can't believe you have it so wrong. Red-state Americans - real Americans - live longer, better lives than the "elites" on the coasts. They also make more money, stay married longer, and live happier lives; it says so right here in the alternate-fact handbook - a severely Republican publication. Duh!
4
Each of us have our own worldview to guide our vote. It seems that some folks have chosen safety and security, law and order, don't worry because we will get the evildoers. Trump has cornered the isolationist and anti-science conspiracy theory vote. This kind of voting makes people worse off... they are turning to scanning cable news daily for yet another threat, chatting with other ignorant fake news parrots on social media, and cheerleading at Trump rallies for the establishment of a dictatorship of the self-righteous.
1
The GOP has a hold on Red counties/States because the GOP has unfortunately been very successful at selling social issues. The GOP no longer sell "Family values" they sell branding (i.e. war on Christmas, America First). They've sold the ideal health insurance, clean water, an educated populace is socialism that will take away their right to be free. Their followers claim they would do anything for their family members. Yet, failed at the basic essentials of quality life, such as health coverage for their young. Mainly because they have accepted the ideal any coverage would result in others receiving coverage therefore no one should have health insurance. Including their young.
3
They don’t listen.
1
Another insightful column by Krugman!
Why does it make sense that red states have more obesity than blue states. And why is it so gratifying?
I wish I could feel sorry for them, but they are getting what they want, fried foods, lots of rolls and gravy, and a President that doesn't make them feel stupid or crude.
5
I live in a deep red county in an even deeper blue state.
My first encounter with a Trump supporter was August 2016 coming out of my town's—population 10K—IGA to see a badly used pickup parked in the handicapped space, no authorizing tag hanging from the rear view mirror, with a morbidly obese elderly gray adult male smoking a cigarette with an open carton of cigarettes on the dashboard and a Trump MAGA bumper sticker on the dented tailgate.
5
Poor blacks are almost invisible in Krugman's statistics, blacks whose life expectancy has always been lower than whites'. Even in blue states, blacks aren't necessarily benefiting from "stronger" economies. Sadly, this piece, as with much of the media's lament about the declining age of death in this country, is focused on white economic distress, the white opioid crisis, and white suicides.
2
Thanks for the good news!
1
As a general rule, stupidity is a causative factor in shortened life expectancy. Look no further than Utube, and a limitless array of fatal or near fatal stunts caught on video just for a brief flicker of fame.
1
"The internet will have as much impact on society as the fax machine" P. Krugman, 2000
2
I recommend " Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland" by Jonathan Metzl. Here is a recent interview on his book. Goes into more detail on what Krugman barely touch on: http://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/dying-whiteness-jonathan-metzl-podcast-transcript-ncna987671
next; krugman will analize the median temperature across states and come up with a great article that shows that red states are warmer than blue states. and he will accomplish this by avoiding to show any data, any corrrelation, anything really. just like this article
1
also to be found in today's NYTs
"Watch 4 Decades of Inequality Drive American Cities Apart"
'The biggest metropolitan areas are now the most unequal.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/upshot/wealth-poverty-divide-american-cities.html
and the most unequal and deepest of deep blue.
1
Denial is not just the name of a river.
2
Perhaps the bad conditions led to a Trump vote - instead of a Trump vote causing bad conditions.
Krugman based his piece on a 2016 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzes the years 1990-2016. (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2678018)
Krugman overlooked the fact that the last 8 years of the study were Obama years.
Perhaps that's why they voted for Trump - because of the bad conditions under Obama's 8 years.
How about that: a "Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize Winner in Economic Sciences" . . . . . got it backwards!
3
They'd rather die young and free, that's all, with their money in their pockets rather than in the government's.
1
So what about swing states? I live in Ohio and sometimes we are red and sometimes we are blue so......? This article makes no sense because you would have to look at it from a standpoint that everyone in a 'red' state votes Republican and everyone in a 'blue' state votes Democrat when that is not the case. So people in 'red' states who vote Democrat die early by association? Just because they happen to live in that state? Really? And for the record I am not a Republican nor a Trump supporter.
2
The current incarnation of Republican Party hate for government is not new and is very much racist in origin. It stems from bitterness over losing a war when the government said that you can’t own other people just because they are another color. This is the ego-wounding trespass in the collective unconscious of modern Republicans (flip-flopped from their Democrat origins roughly around the time LBJ championed the voting rights act, the war on poverty, and the immigration and nationality act) that has festered for 150 years and is the original source of hate for government. Along the way they picked up other powerful allies who didn’t like government because it was preventing them from freely exploiting workers while destroying the planet for profit and flooding the streets with machine guns. Then Reagan opened up the doors for folks who were prevented from forcing their self-righteous religious ideology as law to eliminate abortion, or using tax dollars to spread their mythology in tax-funded schools, or outlaw competing mythologies spread by brown foreigners.
3
Don't congratulate yourself too quickly blue-staters. My state, Missouri, historically a bellwether purple state, is now more red than Georgia and North Carolina.
1
So,
Compared to people in red states, those in blue states are more tolerant of immigrants and diversity, better educated, better informed, better off financially, more productive, less obese, get more health care due to their acceptance of the expansion of Medicaid, less prone to alcohol, drug abuse and suicide and have a longer life expectancy.
Evangelicals, I guess God's will is being done.
3
Wow what an inflammatory article. I'm not surprised the NYT would double down on division.
This article just promotes viewing people who live in rural areas as the other. The comments I think very much reflect this. All the vitriol is pretty disgusting.
Its almost as if we have political religion now, and each side has its fanatics and fundamentalists that seek to hold dominion over the populace of less commited believers. The media becomes the propaganda machine for each sides favored dogma, and eventually they will be out in droves killing the heathens and heretics.
Meanwhile us independents and moderates get to experience the ups and downs of a bipolar society, and we all regress back from the goal of unity and harmony. What a world, and I thought I lived in a special time...
2
Please explain how pointing out the bad consequences of our political divisions is “encouraging division.” It’s just the opposite. This Republican talking point about division is obviously idiotic.
3
Essentially with their policies, the Republicans are slowly killing off their base, sad but true. Not my problem any longer and I do not feel sorry for those who live in Red States and have to bear the burden of the ills placed on them by their elected officials. You get what you vote for, live free and die....and in their case, it is to die.
1
Natural selection and survival of the fittest.
1
I enjoyed reading!
1
Cultivated hate and anger is unhealthy to begin with so it's obvious what led to this decline in life expectancy as the maga folks watch mega TV and movies that made them that way making them obese and unhealthy. It also elected the man who made hate great. He ain't!
2
Yes. Americans believe that they are number 1 in everything .
US health care cost ? Number 1 !!!
But quality...? 38 th place in world ranking .
Really bad.
French health care cost ? 34 th in world rank.
Quality ? Number 1.
US violent crime rate per capita ? Number 1 !!!
8 times higher than Europe.
US incarceration rate per capita ? Number 1 !!! the champions !
Also 8 time higher than the European average .
2
How ironic that “the red places” complained so hysterically about the “death panels” that were alleged (falsely) to be part of Obamacare. The red places then pursued policies that have substantially increased death rates. Sad.
The article mentions the 2018 JAMA study. Another one was just published in JAMA on November 26. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2756187?guestAccessKey=c1202c42-e6b9-4c99-a936-0976a270551f&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=112619
Things are getting worse. There's an interesting map included
"the conservative diagnosis of that problem is wrong."
You mean it's not because of Hillary's emails?
1
The common denominator seems to be anger and resentment, these people are told to blame immigrants, blacks, gays, Muslims, liberals, college, etc. etc. At some point in time when the government services they receive are reduced they might catch on, until then they have their anger to comfort them.
1
Thank you Paul Krugman for insightful article.
1
Irony: when conservatives use the phrase “Culture of Death” to criticize liberals.
4
"You are what you eat." Who said that? How long ago?
Unhappy, spiritually disoriented people with too much time and leisure forced upon them tend to eat, overdose, and find other self-destructive means to do themselves in.
Those who feel most unhappy find they live together looking outward for reasons why they are on the shortend of the stick.
They see the most selfish as those elitists living incredibly extravagent lives as the guility ones to blame for how low they feel.
Trump reeps not what he sows; he fools the poor into believing he is Robin Hood when in fact he's the grim reaper coming to take them home. The chosen one defies all definitions; a man for everyman who wants to get back at the unseen forces oppressing them. A comic book avenger who's taking the people for a rolicking ride.
"Soaring suicide rates" mark our desperate journey given us by a hopeless leader offering that koolaide again.
Pick your flavor.
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"militant secularists"?--That idea Trump Christians will surely pounce. Could it be lack of jobs in rural area leads to decay in healthy lifestyles? Bill Barr grasping for straws--and from looks of it--doughnuts.....
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My thoughts and prayers for the blue states
Hmm, now Paul, you have given us Democrats a real wedge issue.
Want to live longer? Vote for a Democrat!
Trump's base loves him because he eats like them, talks like them, thinks like them....
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I suggest AG Barr stop blaming secularization and lack of morals, and instead look at things like unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. But maybe this hits too close to home for him.
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The conservative assault on science and education in public schools--no doubt a knee-jerk reaction to the fictional "secularist assault on traditional values"--is perhaps the largest contributor to the decline of just about everything in 'Red State Heaven'.
Those people--who are not really stupid--live in a fear-filled fantasy world largely thrust upon them by greedy, power-grabbing, populist politicians.
If anything, the government should spend as much money as possible on improving public educational programs in those areas--if necessary force it on them. That degree of willful stupidity is dangerous for everyone.
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