I think the primary problem is that these people were the children of parents who enjoyed a long period of undeserved wage growth in the post-WWII era. Companies were forced to pay higher wages because the industrial bases of Europe and Japan were destroyed.

As other countries rapidly reindustrialized, increased global competition created downward pressure on wage growth while technological and financial innovation rewarded those who had enough knowledge and discipline (or luck) to transition from a defined benefit pension to a defined contribution retirement account.

I’m reminded of a quote by a former UAW President: “Our members have the best contract that people with their skills and education could ever hope to get. But we have convinced them that with every new contract, they are entitled to more.”

These despairing whites have a 60s UAW mindset but they live an economy that can’t support it. Black Americans, on the other hand, don’t have that shared institutional memory.