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He was clearly joking, but Japan’s suicide rates have dropped. Meanwhile countless Americans are dropping out of life, overdosing on drugs, and their deaths are
by fiblye 6y ago
He was clearly joking, but Japan’s suicide rates have dropped. Meanwhile countless Americans are dropping out of life, overdosing on drugs, and their deaths are counted as a separate statistic. There were about 46,000 suicides in America in 2016 and 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017.[1] Looking at rates of unemployment, depression, and other problems, I doubt the overwhelming majority of those are completely accidental. If someone were to close their eyes and slam the gas pedal and accept whatever happens, we’d rule that a suicide, but we try saying drug overdoses are just accidents. It’s time to take it seriously and recognize that something in life is driving people to accept the risks of dangerous drugs. Including them in the statistic would be enough to push the American suicide rate to about double Japan’s.
But to focus on the actual topic, most of the problem in Japan is social pressure. Workers have actual legal rights. Employers are required to offer vacation time and workers can’t be fired without good reason. It’s actually incredibly difficult to fire someone.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/prescription-drug-overdose/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/prescription-drug-overdo...
- nix23 6y ago>but Japan’s suicide rates have dropped. Yes as everywhere in the world. >He was clearly joking, Why? Because the US is so much better? It would be acually a joke, IF the US is much better... EDIT: And im really no shure why you point to drug abuse...
- adventured 6y ago> Including them in the statistic enough to push the American suicide rate to about double Japan’s. Including all drug overdoses in suicides would be a very far overreaching fabrication requiring knowledge that you can never possess about the person that died (you have to know their state of mind and intent at the time of overdose). It also does a disservice to the aspect of how extraordinarily dangerous opioid drug addiction is and how easy it is to overdose by accident (especially if fentanyl is involved). If we're going to play that game, then you have to use that god-like power to remove all suicides that didn't really mean to do it and all accidental drug overdoses. Magically the number just dropped by 2/3. Suicide is defined by a successful attempt to kill one's self. The fact is you have no idea what the intent of all the people that overdose on drugs is, so conflating them is plainly incorrect.
- suby 6y agoI agree with you, and I'm reminded of this experiment which I think adds evidence to the idea that drug use and perhaps other vices are tied to how happy / fulfilled people are in life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park