Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:

1. As of 1990, about how many more average years of life remained for 25-year-old American college graduates live than non-college graduates?

2. As of 2022, about how many more average years of life remained for 25-year-old American college graduates live than non-college graduates?

3. Describe the overall change in the gap in the average years of life remained for 25-year-old American college graduates live than non-college graduates.

4. Overall, between 1990 and 2019 describe the change in life expectancy for all Americans.

5. Overall, after 2019 describe the change in life expectancy for all Americans.

6. Out of 333,287,557 million Americans, about 260,836,730 are adults (over 18). Almost two-thirds of American adults do not have college degrees, and they have become increasingly excluded from good jobs, political power and social esteem. As their lives and livelihoods are threatened, their longevity declines. Explain the impact of the size of the non-college educated population on overall American life expectancy.

7. Researchers have documented an increase in corporate power relative to workers, which includes the decline of unions and their ability to raise wages for workers without college degrees and the decreased mobility of workers from less to more successful places. Non college-educated Americans have been increasingly excluded from the local and national power that once came with unions and have lost good jobs and wages to excessive health care costs, globalization and automation. Furthermore, the children of the elite rarely serve in the military and increasingly hoard places in top selective colleges. Unhealthy behaviors are more common among people without college degrees, but those behaviors can often be traced to the environments in which the individuals live, lack of work and community decay. Another factor is those without degrees being targeted by the pharmaceutical industry in the first phase of the opioid epidemic. The destruction of good jobs for less-educated men also helps explain much of the decline in stable two-parent families among non-college-educated men and women. And let’s not forget that 107,888 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2022. What do you think is the most important factor in explaining the gap between college educated and non-college educated Americans?

8. The divergence of life expectancies on either side of the college divide — one going up, one going down (as shown above)— is both shocking and rare. Families without a member with a college degree had a median income that was only 4 percent higher in 2019 than in 1970, compared with 24 percent higher for families where at least one member had a college degree. Is this information a compelling argument for going to college?

9. In the 1970s, American life expectancy grew by about four months each year. By the 1980s, it was similar to life expectancy in other rich countries. Since then, other countries have continued to progress, with life spans increasing by more than two and a half months a year. As shown in the visual below*, the average life expectancy for Americans shortened by over seven months last year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That decrease follows an already big decline of 1.8 years in 2020. As a result, the expected life span of someone born in the U.S. is now 76.4 years — the shortest it has been in nearly two decades. Why do you think U.S. life expectancy is declining?

10. The divergence with Europe is also striking. European nations generally finance their much less costly health care through government support, and Europe’s much broader safety net helps people deal with the disruption of jobs. Other countries do not have corporate-friendly policy on minimum wages, right-to-work laws, guns, pollution or tobacco taxes — that harm the communities, lives and health of less-educated citizens. Nor do they have leaders advising some constituents not to get vaccinated. What do you think is the most important reason American life expectancy is decreasing relative to other wealthy economies?

Write and Discuss

Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.

Act on your Learning

Contact the White House and let President Joe Biden know what you think he should do about the American education-death gap.

Or call the White House and tell the President I said hi at phone number:

• 1-202-456-1414 (Switchboard)

• 1-202-456-1111 (Comments)

Get Creative

Interview one person who went to college and one person who didn’t go to college. Without revealing their names, share the outline of their stories with your classmates along with your opinion about how their college versus non-college path impacted their lives.

Learning Extension

Listen to this short NPR story (below left) about the sad state of U.S. life expectancy.