Why Has The Death Rate Of Middle-Aged White Americans Risen So Suddenly?

[spinbaby]

From the article:

Drivers for this trend could be the increased availability of prescription drugs, and the decrease in price and rise in quality of heroin. The researchers also suggest that an increase in financial stress, with wage stagnation starting in the late '90s and the financial crash hitting the least-educated the hardest with wages dropping by an average of 19 percent, might also be playing a role. They note that this group of white middle-aged Americans were promised a better financial situation by this stage in their life, which was then pulled out from under their feet when the markets tanked. In comparision, the researchers suggest, those from other ethnic backgrounds never had such expectations in the first place, and so were less impacted when financial stability wasn't delivered.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/rising-death-rates-among-middle-aged-white-americans-due-epidemic-drugs-alcohol

[luvspeas]

1. so true

[abelenkpe]

2. Prescription drugs, wage stagnation and financial stress

Sounds right.

[Downwinder]

17. Funny, there is no mention of health insurance.

[Arugula Latte]

3. "Massive" rise in suicides in this group, up 81 percent

Wow.

[Trajan]

5. An absolute non sequitur ...

Kinda silly to use race relations as a joke in a thread about early death and public health ...

[Human101948]

7. It's a serious joke...

There is a terror among white men at the prospect of losing their privileged position in our society.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. When you can't imagine a world without your political views being dominant..

read about this little historical shocker:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Goebbels scroll down to "Suicide"

The six innocent victims of this madness:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goebbels_children

Helga Suzanne, 12
Hildegard Traudel, 11
Helmut Christian, 9
Holdine Kathrin, 8
Hedwig Johanna, 6
Heidrun Elisabeth, 4


Ironically enough, Magda's only surviving child from a previous marriage, Harald Quandt, had five daughters who are among the wealthiest people in Germany.

From Wikipedia: Harald Quandt's five daughters inherited about 1.5 billion deutsche marks ($760 million) and would later increase their wealth through the Harald Quandt Holding GmbH, a Germany-based family investment company and trust named after their father. Today, they share a fortune worth at least $6 billion.[3](Source:Bloomberg Billionaires Index)

[hifiguy]

15. If you really think that,

I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

20. I don't think that I would commit suicide if my political party didn't win.

I am using this as a historical example.

Because so many white men (and women) are convinced that the president is a Muslim Kenyan-born AntiChrist, I think it's plausible for some people to kill themselves because the president is black.

Besides all the economic despair. The Republicans have been feeding off the working class discontent for 35 years, since Reagan got elected. They have told working class Americans that their enemy is gay marriage and homosexual rights, and unions, and feminists, and illegal Hispanic immigrants, in order to divert their attention from the fact that real wages are going down, the middle class has been destroyed and income inequality has gotten greater and greater.

In fact, Bernie Sanders just said that on Chris Hayes' show.

There was a fellow who made a movie some years ago that talked about economic destruction and the increased rates of crime and substance abuse and suicide, and general social disruption.

That movie was called "Roger & Me". It was about the closing of GM plants in Flint, Michigan and throwing thousands of people out of work, and the subsequent social disruption. It was Michael Moore's first movie.

[hifiguy]

21. Just to clarify, I was responding

Not to you but to the same post to which you were responding. I agree with you.

[Arugula Latte]

6. Probably a few of them.

If Hillary gets in, these loons are really going to flip out.

But mostly I'm guessing it's the difference between the expectations and the reality of their lives, absence of good-paying jobs, etc.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Why did you assume that it's limited to men?

This thread is gonna be a great Rorschach test. My guess is that 50% will comment with some variation on "good - it serves 'em right".

We're at 43% so far.

I dunno, maybe observing that the trend includes middle aged white women will tamp down the schadenfreude.

[hifiguy]

14. The only thing that prevents me from alerting on this

is that this kind of nonsense should be seen widely for what it is.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Holy crap! That is an enormous jump!

I do think it has a lot to do with economic factors and not seeing any hope for a future as a solvent senior citizen in a society that would just as soon throw them out into the street as care for their needs.

[rbrnmw]

19. what the hell are you talking about?

[LiberalEsto]

9. Stress

Economic stress in particular

[B Calm]

12. Beats me, all I been hearing from some DU'ERS is we are living longer

than when Social Security first started.

[hifiguy]

13. Financial stress is certainly the root cause.

And I dearly do hope some of the snottier comments on this thread are intentional sarcasm.

[Romulox]

18. We're becoming a majority poor country, with all the pathologies that accompany that. nt

[SoCalDem]

22. People of that age group probably fall into two camps

1....worked hard their whole lives, and see nothing but more struggles, after a lifetime of struggles

2... have been poor for far too long to want to continue being poor

[kelliekat44]

23. When the economy was going great, the majority population was able to pay for their drugs and

thus had no need for committing crimes or becoming noticed as an addict...Wall Street comes to mind. As the economy tanked so did their ability to hide their addictions.