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I think rising wealth inequality is underestimated as a cause of suicide in the US. So many statistics indicate that financial stress is rising on the 99%, with

I think rising wealth inequality is underestimated as a cause of suicide in the US. So many statistics indicate that financial stress is rising on the 99%, with no little change in sight. I suspect large numbers of American lives are being shortened, even if not by outright suicide, through diseases caused by constant stress, mostly economic.

cryoshon 11y ago
Agreed entirely. It's not impossible for the media outlets to obliquely admit this (either via articles like the OP or other "wow this economy sucks" style articles) but getting an article which synthesizes both the cause and the effect into one package is hard because it's perceived as pessimistic and contrary to the "the US economy is strong" propaganda. People feel that things were better 10 years ago. They were still getting squeezed then, too, but it wasn't nearly as bad as today. I predict that suicide/mental illness rates for people entering their 30s are quite poor right now as well, given the student loan burden and lack of traction regarding jobs or wealth generation.
vixen99 11y ago
What has inequality got to do with it? The 24/7 issue is whether people have a decent life day to day. Why is the existence of insanely rich Mrs X a cause of suicide? Of course there is an issue, especially in the US, whereby wealth translates into power. No more office boy to president! There seems to be reluctance to tackle this but that's up to Americans. Assuming you believe inequality is a bad thing in itself, you can only counter it by taking money from the rich. One does wonder however whether taking money from a hard-working entrepreneur and giving even more of it to an organization that has run up astronomical debts already (most Western governments) - to dole out to others is such a smart move. Opportunities here for fresh thinking. And since when has anybody really benefited in the long run from being given money. Give me a multiple of my income and I'll down tools and do something interesting but not necessarily economically productive.
- ridgeguy 11y ago
  Only with regard to your first three sentences: It isn't wealth inequality or the existence of "insanely rich" per se, it's the ever-growing sector of Americans who are excluded from wealth and who no longer see any realistic hope of changing that through their own efforts. It's the latter view that is a growing suicide motivator, IMHO.
agentgt 11y ago
There have been many studies that have shown that while extreme cases of wealth disparity do cause unhappiness (I'm talking extreme poverty) most of the time it is not the case. This is discussed in laymen and great length in the documentary "Happy. There is some indication that certain forms of non-chronic adrenaline producing stress (even life threatening ... ie sky diving) may help prevent depression (I'll find a reference shortly). I honestly believe that increased opioid usage is playing a huge part here and not wealth (at least through my own observations). In fact wealth and health care availability might actually be stimulating opioid usage (ie getting pills from doctors).
zacharytelschow 11y ago
While it would be virtually impossible to argue that the rich aren't getting richer, it is because they're capturing most of the gains. That means for the rest of us schmucks, stasis is the name of the game. In the presence of shortened lives and relative economic stagnation, are you arguing that people are effectively dying of jealousy?
morgante 11y ago
I don't think wealth inequality is a cause of suicide. It doesn't drive people to suicide seeing that Mark Zuckerberg is worth billions. Rather, it's stagnating wages and declining economic outlooks which are negatively impacting the 99%. It's important to separate these things, because the landscape of policy solutions are dramatically different.

cryoshon 11y ago

Agreed entirely. It's not impossible for the media outlets to obliquely admit this (either via articles like the OP or other "wow this economy sucks" style articles) but getting an article which synthesizes both the cause and the effect into one package is hard because it's perceived as pessimistic and contrary to the "the US economy is strong" propaganda. People feel that things were better 10 years ago. They were still getting squeezed then, too, but it wasn't nearly as bad as today. I predict that suicide/mental illness rates for people entering their 30s are quite poor right now as well, given the student loan burden and lack of traction regarding jobs or wealth generation.

vixen99 11y ago

What has inequality got to do with it? The 24/7 issue is whether people have a decent life day to day. Why is the existence of insanely rich Mrs X a cause of suicide? Of course there is an issue, especially in the US, whereby wealth translates into power. No more office boy to president! There seems to be reluctance to tackle this but that's up to Americans. Assuming you believe inequality is a bad thing in itself, you can only counter it by taking money from the rich. One does wonder however whether taking money from a hard-working entrepreneur and giving even more of it to an organization that has run up astronomical debts already (most Western governments) - to dole out to others is such a smart move. Opportunities here for fresh thinking. And since when has anybody really benefited in the long run from being given money. Give me a multiple of my income and I'll down tools and do something interesting but not necessarily economically productive.

ridgeguy 11y ago
Only with regard to your first three sentences: It isn't wealth inequality or the existence of "insanely rich" per se, it's the ever-growing sector of Americans who are excluded from wealth and who no longer see any realistic hope of changing that through their own efforts. It's the latter view that is a growing suicide motivator, IMHO.

agentgt 11y ago

There have been many studies that have shown that while extreme cases of wealth disparity do cause unhappiness (I'm talking extreme poverty) most of the time it is not the case. This is discussed in laymen and great length in the documentary "Happy. There is some indication that certain forms of non-chronic adrenaline producing stress (even life threatening ... ie sky diving) may help prevent depression (I'll find a reference shortly). I honestly believe that increased opioid usage is playing a huge part here and not wealth (at least through my own observations). In fact wealth and health care availability might actually be stimulating opioid usage (ie getting pills from doctors).

zacharytelschow 11y ago

While it would be virtually impossible to argue that the rich aren't getting richer, it is because they're capturing most of the gains. That means for the rest of us schmucks, stasis is the name of the game. In the presence of shortened lives and relative economic stagnation, are you arguing that people are effectively dying of jealousy?

morgante 11y ago

I don't think wealth inequality is a cause of suicide. It doesn't drive people to suicide seeing that Mark Zuckerberg is worth billions. Rather, it's stagnating wages and declining economic outlooks which are negatively impacting the 99%. It's important to separate these things, because the landscape of policy solutions are dramatically different.