U.S. life expectancy is declining while it rises elsewhere.

Evidence

Perhaps the bluntest assessment of human flourishing is life expectancy: while increasing elsewhere, it is decreasing in the U.S., due to a fraying social safety net, a privatized health care system leaving many uninsured and indebted, a deluge of guns, and “deaths of despair” (suicide, drugs, alcohol). — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 94

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘deaths of despair’ thesis echoes Case-Deaton and connects to the economic precarity that drives artists into exploitative ownership arrangements.
• QUESTION: Does the reader’s project implicitly compare US cultural output to peer nations’ output under different ownership regimes?