White uneducated people. We knew suicides were going up rapidly, and that overdoses mostly from prescription drugs were going up, and that alcoholic liver disease was going up. The deeper questions were why those were happening — there's obviously some underlying malaise, reasons for which we [didn't] know.
On what's driving these early deaths
These deaths of despair have been accompanied by reduced labor force participation, reduced marriage rates, increases in reports of poor health and poor mental health. So we are beginning to thread a story in that it's possible that [the trend is] consistent with the labor market collapsing for people with less than a college degree. In turn, those people are being less able to form stable marriages, and in turn that has effects on the kind of economic and social supports that people need in order to thrive.
In general, the longer you're in the labor force, the more you earn — in part because you understand your job better and you're more efficient at your job, you've had on-the-job training, you belong to a union, and so your wages go up with age.
How long have whites told blacks who lived in areas with no economic opportunities to lift themselves up by their boot straps? Go to school. Start your own company. No excuses. Well now it seems that it's uneducated whites who are the ones struggling. Let's see if they take their own advice.
My guess is they will blame the wrong people. Reminds me of poor people in red states who vote for guys like Mitch McConnell over god, gays, guns and racism.