> Between 2015 and 2017, life expectancy fell year on year in the U.S., the longest sustained decline since 1915-18.<p>Correlation: World War One.<p>> Such "deaths of despair" coincided with decades of economic decline, particularly among those with low levels of education, loss of social safety nets, and falling wages and family incomes in the U.S., all of which are thought to have contributed to growing feelings of despair.<p>Yep. Corporations have determined, and figured out how, to pay most of us the absolute minimum necessary to enable us to come back to work the next day. Gig companies currently the most efficient at that.<p>And if you miss a day because of a sick kid or a dead car, or you had to suddenly choose between two conflicting "flexible schedule" jobs, a company, or its responsibility washing 3rd party labor contractor, might just find it more efficient to fire an "unreliable" worker, because we make more cheap workers every day.<p>Life in the worker's paradise.<p></attitude>