FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Is the economy shortening Americans’ lives?

It has long been known that high-income people in the U.S. tend to live longer than those lower down the income ladder. But a growing body of research shows that millions of Americans are, for the first time in more than a century, seeing their life expectancy slip. And, while the reasons for that decline are complex and not yet fully understood, the contours of an explanation are starting to take shape: Despair is shortening their lives.

“One thing we’re seeing is that people who are poor live a lot less — a striking amount less — than the rich,” said Diane Whitemore Schanzenbach, an economist with Northwestern University and director of The Hamilton Project, a think tank focused on boosting the country’s economic prosperity. “There are real disparities across the income distribution.”

Under Obamanomics, income disparity is up, labor force participation is down, and wages for the working poor are stagnant.

That all sounds a lot more like “despair” and a lot less like the “hope and change” we were promised.