Life expectancy in the United States fell for the second year in a row in 2016 — and it’s clear the epidemic of drug overdoses is at least in part to blame, government researchers said Thursday.
Overall life expectancy for a baby born in 2016 fell to 78.6 years, a small decline of 0.1 percent, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) team found. At the same time, mortality from drug overdoses rose by 21 percent.
“This was the first time life expectancy in the U.S. has declined two years in a row since declines in 1962 and 1963,” the NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.
“The new report shows the decline in life expectancy occurred despite an overall decline in U.S. mortality,” the statement added.
Politsturm: The U.S. drug “epidemic” has been identified as a major factor contributing to the overall decline in life expectancy. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and tramadol have been identified as the largest contributors towards America’s growing drug problem. The aforementioned article cited a 21% increase in mortality due to drug overdoses. One factor that is mysteriously omitted from the discussion surrounding drug addiction is why Americans are turning to drugs in the first place.
The capitalist economic system is subject to periodic crises of overproduction, the most recent of which began in late 2007. Millions of people were evicted from their homes, laid off from their jobs, and were forced to cope with these traumatizing events. The bourgeois government was completely impotent in resolving these contradictions and predictably served the interests of the economic elites. Should it be any surprise that Americans are turning to chemical substances to cope with the harsh realities of capitalism when there is no support for the working class?
Drug addiction, decreasing life expectancy, global climate change and a myriad of other problems should not be addressed individually. All of these contradictions exist within and are exacerbated by the capitalist system. We are not all equally affected by these problems as the corporate fake news would like the mass of American people to believe. With respect to health care, rich Americans who represent the oligarchy live longer and receive better care than the working class. Health care and other social problems need to be addressed principally as systematic problems of capitalism. Strategies for resolving these problems need to be formulated along the basis of class if we are to have any hope in resolving them.