No Deaths of Despair in Italy

Interesting to note that in Italy, where the economy has been much worse than in the US, and the political scene even more chaotic, life expectancy has risen well above the level in the US. The obvious difference is the availability of opiods, although one might also point out that in Italy nobody has any sense of decline, since things there have never been particularly stable or prosperous. (Compared to the US or the rest of Europe, I mean.)