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Someone said there's less suicides during times of economic depression, because then there's a generally accepted reason for failure. In times of success, there
by scrrr 12y ago
Someone said there's less suicides during times of economic depression, because then there's a generally accepted reason for failure. In times of success, there isn't and so it must be our fault.
The more we believe that success of life is based on merit, the more disappointment will occur.
- DanBC 12y ago> Someone said there's less suicides during times of economic depression, They were wrong. There are more suicides (at least, in England) during recession.
- benpbenp 12y agoWell, and I don't think this is a nitpick, a recession is not the same as a depression. It would be good to get the original source for both of these facts to compare. Perhaps during recession, the number of "failures" is not increased quite enough to create the "generally accepted reason for failure" you might find in a depression.
- DanBC 12y agoOkay, that's a fair nitpick. It's explained by my careless use of words. Rates of completed suicide correlate strongly with a bunch of economic indicators: number of people without work; number of house repossessions; etc.
- ptaipale 12y agoAt least in Finland, there was a decrease in suicide rates in 1940-1945 (war) and the more recent downward trend started from 1990 (beginning of very strong 5-year recession). After the war and immediate reconstruction, the suicide rates predominantly climbed up from 1950 to 1990. http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/ksyyt/2010/ksyyt_2010_2011-12-16_kat_006_fi_001.gif http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/ksyyt/2010/ksyyt_2010_2011-12-16...
- danieltillett 12y agoYou do raise a good point which is how much credit we can take for our successes and failures. I am by most definitions a "success", but I have doubts about how much of this success was due to me and how much was due to randomness. I guess the positive of this is I can distance myself from my failures too.