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This link of yours links suicide rate to social welfare spending, this is unlikely given that France, Finland and Belgium and specially Japan offer free healthc
by patrickaljord 8y ago
This link of yours links suicide rate to social welfare spending, this is unlikely given that France, Finland and Belgium and specially Japan offer free healthcare and have much higher suicide rates. In fact, if you take out suicide by gun in the US, you get much lower suicide rates and it is a fact that guns make suicide easier and more likely.
- dv_dt 8y agoThe article hypothesizes suicide increases because of reduction in social welfare spending as well as social support. And notes some correlations, and calls for deeper study. Suicide by guns don't count because?
- patrickaljord 8y agoSuicide by guns counts, it just diminishes even more the inequality cause because if you take out suicide by guns then suicide rates are even much lower than in these other countries with less inequalities and free healthcare but no suicide by guns.
- dv_dt 8y agoI think that's a huge unknown assumption that if there were no gun, the victim would simply not commit suicide. There might be some dissuasion, but we have no way to gauge it - and pegging it at everyone in that group would be saved if only we took away guns seems like an assumption at one extreme end.
- sam0x17 8y agoNot to complicate things more, but social welfare spending != efficient social welfare spending, leading to more potentially contrary (in both directions) trends.
- diogenescynic 8y agoIt’s almost like there could be multiple contributing factors and there’s not a simple explanation.