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I don't think you can tie this to economics alone. After all, blacks and hispanics have been feeling the economic pressures as well. Suicide, drug use, and al

I don't think you can tie this to economics alone. After all, blacks and hispanics have been feeling the economic pressures as well. Suicide, drug use, and alcoholism have deeper cultural ties. I have no idea what those ties are, but it likely won't be fixed by a 4% annual increase in wages. I can't help but wonder if perhaps this increase in self destructive behavior is due to an increase in secularism. Blacks and Hispanics are more religious than whites, and with that religiosity comes greater church attendance which likely brings greater community support (a generalization, I know, but I'm guessing that this is probably more true than not).

deleted 11y ago
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maxerickson 11y ago
Comparing the numbers here: http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2013-Demographics-Report.pdf http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2013... to the US in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta... The military has a slightly higher percentage of whites than the general population (and much higher percentage of males). Not quite the right age group, but I wonder how military service factors in.
SHIT_TALKER 11y ago
I don't think you can tie this to economics alone. After all, blacks and hispanics have been feeling the economic pressures as well. You have to be standing up to be knocked down.
- vfrogger 11y ago
  I don't know, I remember seeing that Blacks and Hispanics were hit the hardest during the recession. I found an article about this: http://business.time.com/2011/07/26/great-recession-drives-financial-wedge-between-whites-minorities/ http://business.time.com/2011/07/26/great-recession-drives-f...
djtriptych 11y ago
Please tell me you're under 25 y/o
- vfrogger 11y ago
  Because I'm suggesting that there might be less community support today than in the past because fewer people today attend church which historically has been a major source of social interaction within a community? I fail to see how this is a ridiculous hypothesis. It might not be true, but ridiculing someone for their hypothesis instead of addressing the hypothesis itself doesn't speak well to your own level of maturity.
  - djtriptych 11y ago
    So what about the millions of years of human social interaction before church?
    - vfrogger 11y ago
      I fail to see how our primate ancestors ability to socialize outside of church somehow disproves that removing a large social component in modern American life could lead to less social support.
      - vfrogger 11y ago
        I just did a quick google search on church affiliation and suicide rates (to bring this back to the original article and my hypothesis), here's an interesting study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on the topic: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2303 http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.16... So at least one study seems to support the hypothesis (interesting that it also showed increased substance abuse, which was also discussed as one of the culprit's of the higher death rate for white men).
        djtriptych 11y ago
awl130 11y ago
Good theory but the same cohort in Europe has not seen the same Effect despite even higher secularization
- vfrogger 11y ago
  I don't know, I don't believe Europe is really doing a bang up job of preventing suicide either, but I will admit that I don't know much about the situation, I'm just hypothesizing.
dredmorbius 11y ago
I don't know about recent trends, but I've been looking at mortality trends from the 19th century onward, and one point I _did_ key on was that from about 1960-1970 onward, white males and females saw relatively little increase in life expectancy, though black and minority experiences improved. These had lagged whites by 10-15 years, so there was a lot to make up for. One possibility is that we're seeing a confluence of trends: continued improvements in minority life expectency due to better service and access, but still making up for past deficiencies. While whites are being hit by the leading edge of both decreased access and falling economic opportunity.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

maxerickson 11y ago

Comparing the numbers here: http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2013-Demographics-Report.pdf http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2013... to the US in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta... The military has a slightly higher percentage of whites than the general population (and much higher percentage of males). Not quite the right age group, but I wonder how military service factors in.

SHIT_TALKER 11y ago

I don't think you can tie this to economics alone. After all, blacks and hispanics have been feeling the economic pressures as well. You have to be standing up to be knocked down.

vfrogger 11y ago
I don't know, I remember seeing that Blacks and Hispanics were hit the hardest during the recession. I found an article about this: http://business.time.com/2011/07/26/great-recession-drives-financial-wedge-between-whites-minorities/ http://business.time.com/2011/07/26/great-recession-drives-f...

djtriptych 11y ago

Please tell me you're under 25 y/o

vfrogger 11y ago
Because I'm suggesting that there might be less community support today than in the past because fewer people today attend church which historically has been a major source of social interaction within a community? I fail to see how this is a ridiculous hypothesis. It might not be true, but ridiculing someone for their hypothesis instead of addressing the hypothesis itself doesn't speak well to your own level of maturity.
- djtriptych 11y ago
  So what about the millions of years of human social interaction before church?
  - vfrogger 11y ago
    I fail to see how our primate ancestors ability to socialize outside of church somehow disproves that removing a large social component in modern American life could lead to less social support.
    - vfrogger 11y ago
      I just did a quick google search on church affiliation and suicide rates (to bring this back to the original article and my hypothesis), here's an interesting study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on the topic: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2303 http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.16... So at least one study seems to support the hypothesis (interesting that it also showed increased substance abuse, which was also discussed as one of the culprit's of the higher death rate for white men).
      - djtriptych 11y ago

awl130 11y ago

Good theory but the same cohort in Europe has not seen the same Effect despite even higher secularization

vfrogger 11y ago
I don't know, I don't believe Europe is really doing a bang up job of preventing suicide either, but I will admit that I don't know much about the situation, I'm just hypothesizing.

dredmorbius 11y ago

I don't know about recent trends, but I've been looking at mortality trends from the 19th century onward, and one point I _did_ key on was that from about 1960-1970 onward, white males and females saw relatively little increase in life expectancy, though black and minority experiences improved. These had lagged whites by 10-15 years, so there was a lot to make up for. One possibility is that we're seeing a confluence of trends: continued improvements in minority life expectency due to better service and access, but still making up for past deficiencies. While whites are being hit by the leading edge of both decreased access and falling economic opportunity.