Ashley Heacock

We have a 9/11-scale loss at least every 12 days from deaths of despair in the US. The opioid epidemic is claiming more than 100 lives per day, and suicide rates are well over 100 lives per day. Deaths of despair are spreading across the country like a plague. While we fear foreign terrorism, Americans are taking their own lives.

What could be causing so many people to turn to suicide, drugs and alcohol?

The trend in “deaths of despair” in the U.S. is affecting a certain portion of the population, namely white middle-aged Americans lacking in formal education. Over the past decade, whites comprised 90% of new heroin users and 85% of all suicides, while making up 61% of the population. While blacks and Hispanics have much higher rates of poverty, they are not resorting to personal harm in the same numbers. Whites in America die of suicide at a rate of 14.7 per 100,000 people compared with 5.4 for blacks and 5.8 for Hispanics.

These statistics, along with the 2016 election, made me wonder what story about America was not being told. As a researcher at MIT looking into trends in automation and job loss, I wanted to understand if automation could account for some of these deaths of despair and what that portends for the future. America was founded upon a Protestant work ethic and a culture of industriousness and individualism. If jobs are leaving America’s heartland, what does that mean for people’s sense of identity, meaning, and purpose in life? Could societal changes due to advancements in technology be part of the cause for despair and could it only get worse?

Princeton Professors Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who discovered the trends in deaths of despair, point to automation, globalization, and de-unionization as the socioeconomic root causes of the hopelessness. They conclude, “Ultimately, we see our story as about the collapse of the white working class after its heyday in the early 1970s, and the pathologies that accompany this decline.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers estimate a 50% chance of AI outperforming humans in all tasks in 45 years, and that all human jobs will be automated in 120 years, meaning more of us are potentially at risk. Are the trends we see in deaths of despair in the US just the beginning of something much larger in nature? And when does despair turn into extremism? Is there anything we can do to turn hopelessness into hope?  In this report, I detail my findings around automation’s impacts on job loss and the trends in deaths of despair, and potential solutions.

Liberals and Marxists differ in their approaches to politics and economics. Liberals view economics as a natural extension of the individual and politics as an artificial creation. Marxists see economics as controlled by forces of technological change, and politics as a result of class conflict due to this change. Liberals focus on the freedom of the individual whereas Marxists focus on the transformation of society.
These differences affect how the two theories approach social problems. Liberals think the free market is the best way towards progress and that government should have very limited interference. Marxists believe society will naturally evolve into a planned economy, and all members of society will share in the profits of production.
On the topic of inequality, liberals see distribution in wages as a positive sign that individuals are exercising their ingenuity to drive innovation forward for the betterment of society overtime. Marxists on the other hand do not believe in the Great Man Theory, but rather believe that everybody connects the dots of innovation eventually, and that progress is achieved through the labor of all workers and should be evenly distributed as such.
This paper will go into more detail in each of these three areas: the liberal and Marxist boundaries between politics and economics, how these boundaries affect their approaches to social problems, and what their views on inequality can teach us for the inequality we face today in the US and around the world.

People in the United States are increasingly looking for fulfillment in life. The Millennial Generation in particular wants a job that incorporates impact, flexibility, creativity, and empowerment. Adults are turning towards populist candidates who highlight income inequality as a top concern and who argue that companies are not valuing their employees as human beings integral to the success of the firm and entitled to the profits. Many Americans are dragging their feet at jobs that pay well, but have no higher purpose. Customers are demanding companies be more fair and sustainable to their employees and the environment.
The old spirit of capitalism that was motivated purely by providing for one’s family is under siege, and the largest and most popular companies are scurrying to find ways beyond pay to motivate employees to retain the best and brightest, and to do good in the world to keep their customers. Will capitalism survive millennial and populist sentiment, and the overall decline in the old spirit of capitalism?
This paper examines the stability of the capitalist system overtime to understand how it has adapted to changing circumstances. It looks at the theoretical perspectives from Max Weber, Karl Polanyi, and Luc Boltanksi and Ève Chiapello (B&C) – social theorists who have examined capitalism through the centuries. Weber views capitalism as founded upon meaning, but sustained through a morally defunct and unbending Iron Cage. Polanyi sees capitalism as inherently crisis-ridden because the basic human needs of reciprocity, householding, and redistribution are not being met due to the commoditization of labor, land, and capital. B&C view capitalism as stable, but constantly changing as a result of injustice and contradictions in society, and critique against those sources of indignation.
This paper then turns to the newfound threat to capitalism – the decline in the spirit of capitalism due to yearning for fulfillment beyond earning a salary – and analyzes how the three social theories explain this phenomenon. It argues that B&C’s theory of the evolution of change within the capitalist system is the most useful paradigm to consider when thinking about this newfound threat. Capitalism is a stable system, but only in its ability to change and adapt to the cultural currents of society.

"Ashley Heacock gives a clear and concise depiction of the challenges businesses in Africa face that goes beyond theory and hypothesis to real, on-the-ground actions and experiences." - Colin Coleman, Partner, Managing Director, Sub-Saharan Africa, Goldman Sachs International

This book describes what many entrepreneurs face when starting a business in Africa. It is essential reading for social entrepreneurs, Western and African entrepreneurs, and anybody else looking to do business in Africa or any developing community or nation. The author accurately depicts the context and environment that surrounds entrepreneurship in Africa, detailing the specific challenges faced, and considerations for overcoming them.

Bonus Materials: "Your 'How-to Guide' on Starting a Business in Africa," "A Philosophy on Development: Redefining Poverty," and "The Impact of Mining on a West African Community.""

This book is based around the three main players who took part in the 2012/2013 conflict in Mali: the Tuareg, Islamist rebels, and the Malian government. Tuareg rebels want their own state, or at least greater autonomy and political and economic opportunities; yet, there are many rivalries in the north between and even among different ethnic groups. Islamist rebels want to create an Islamist state in the north based on a brutal form of shari’a law, and they use drug smuggling and hostage taking as financial means. The government in Bamako wants to keep the country together and limit Tuareg and Islamist influence, but also has complicated and corrupted interests in the conflict itself. What can be done to solve the crisis, and what can stability practitioners use to counter instability and sources of insecurity? What can history and a deeper look at ethnic and racial grievances tell us? From the origins of Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), to the reasons for the coup d'etat in 2012, to the underpinnings of colonialism that helped shape Tuareg demands, Understanding Mali takes a holistic view of the current conflict in Mali, explaining all variables and perspectives in a clear and concise manner.

Kirkuk is a city and governorate in northern Iraq that holds significant importance to three different ethnic groups. Kurds, Turkmen, and Arabs each view themselves as the rightful heirs to the land and use history to legitimize their claims. Kurds assert they have inhabited the area for hundreds of years, while Turkmen feel their Ottoman past guarantees them rights to the land, and Arabs allege Kirkuk has been a fundamental part of the Iraqi state since its inception in 1921. Running parallel to ethnic disagreements, and complicating an already sensitive subject, is the fact that Kirkuk holds around 12 per cent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves—totaling 13.5 billion barrels. As a result, an Iraqi election law, hydrocarbons (oil) law, constitution, and national census have all been obstructed by debate over the future of Kirkuk. This book clearly and concisely tells the narratives of each ethnic group and explains the significance of ethnicity in Iraq in order to understand the conflict that persists today over Kirkuk.

Arab unity is by no means a new idea, and strides towards greater cooperation have taken place throughout the history of the modern Middle East. From Pan-Arabism, to Nasserism, to Islamism, no recent decade has ever gone without its own widespread notion of a single, collective community existing in the Middle East. After years of dialogue supporting the concept of Arab unity, however, what do Arab states have to show for it? If history is to be our guide, what can countries of the Middle East learn from past crises to help them in the future? What causes Arab states to unite or disunite, and has “Arab unity” ever existed? If a collective will is necessary to solve the problems of the future, what does the past foretell: a grim or hopeful picture? This book explains how relationships between Arab states came to be and what forces impacted their actions and beliefs. It looks at three significant events in recent Middle East history -- the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and Oil Embargo, and the 1991 Gulf War -- then analyzes why Arab unity failed or triumphed, and makes connections and conclusions for the future of the region.