Suicide, at 50-year peak, pushes down US life expectancy

[Julian Englis]

Source: AP

Suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths last year, and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live.

Overall, there were more than 2.8 million U.S. deaths in 2017, or nearly 70,000 more than the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It was the most deaths in a single year since the government began counting more than a century ago.

The increase partly reflects the nation’s growing and aging population. But it’s deaths in younger age groups — particularly middle-aged people — that have had the largest impact on calculations of life expectancy, experts said.

“These sobering statistics are a wake-up call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC’s director, said in a statement.

The suicide death rate last year was the highest it’s been in at least 50 years, according to U.S. government records. There were more than 47,000 suicides, up from a little under 45,000 the year before.

Read more: https://apnews.com/de57909c5bcc4162b122948539ed9c6a

[Mickju]

1. I wonder how much the Trump presidency...

...has affected the suicide rate.

[BigmanPigman]

7. I realistically estimate about 25-50%

directly or indirectly. His selfish attitude toward healthcare and enormous drug prices is part of his goal to bankrupt then eventually kill people. He hasn't done shit about the opioid crisis either. Add the depressing future of Climate Change, stagnant wages, etc and you can see results in the overall rise in depression since he wasn't elected. Americans are stressed, depressed and psychiatrists have noticed the change. Meanwhile tRump loves, loves loves hurting people...he is a sadist.

[appalachiablue]

2. K & R. Tragic but unsurprising given conditions in the US in

the last 40 years esp. since Reagan.

[KPN]

5. YES.

[SunSeeker]

3. We are awash in guns, which makes depression far more deadly.

Of course, the CDC under Republican control won't talk about that.

[yardwork]

16. I agree that that that is probably highly significant.

Gun ownership also drives domestic murders.

[SunSeeker]

17. For sure.

[Shoonra]

4. Normally, this statistic has only limited political significance, but ....

With the way things are, I would not be surprised if the Trump policies had a lot to do with the rise in suicides.

The American economy is eroding, with companies closing or down-sizing, and Trump's trade war doing more damage to American employers as well as causing prices to rise on many common products.

The declared Trump goal of killing off Obamacare means, to many middle-aged and elderly Americans, the prospect of a wretched old age, unable to afford medicines or medical treatment.

The rise of racial animosity, the White House indulgence of racists and 'nationalists', shooting massacres with increasing frequency, and sweetheart deals for dictators and oppressors, means a world in which American honor has been frittered away.

Gerrymandering and similar tricks that indicate the same politicians will remain in charge until they die.

The destruction of the environment, with the prospect of air, water, and food becoming difficult to obtain in the near future, does not encourage anyone to live to that hideous time.

And the beat goes on.

[KPN]

6. Bore deeper and one has to wonder is this their distant vision intent? Thin the herd?

At a minimum, it's not an unwelcome consequence for them it seems.

[Ohiogal]

8. Perhaps due to

the fact that only the wealthy can afford health insurance in the U.S. which is appalling and pathetic.

[IronLionZion]

9. This is a big part of why Movember exists

https://us.movember.com/

It doesn't help that our president constantly talks about the world is a scary place as if we're living in some dystopian hellscape with dangerous immigrants coming to kill us. And RW groups encourage people to boycott health insurance because it's socialism. And society generally discourages people from seeking mental health treatment because that's a sign of weakness or something.

We recently lost celebrities Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade. Spade's family claimed she avoided treatment fearing it would damage her brand and lose customers.

[Rizen]

10. It's because Republicans

the world is a dystopian hellscape.

[lagomorph777]

11. Not surprising. Trump has nearly driven me there since his installation.

But now I feel we will survive this, and I want to stay around.

[maxsolomon]

12. Given that our overpopulation threatens the viability of all other life on the planet

I am not going to get upset when human death rates rise.

[Bayard]

13. Easy to say

Until you lose a loved one to suicide. I would more favor setting limits on how many kids people can have.

[maxsolomon]

15. I have lost several acquantances, not family, but I take your point.

I was reading about Mozambique yesterday, and the average birth rate is 5.9 children per woman.

There are plenty of people on this planet; 47,000 out of 2.8 million deaths is 1.6%. It's the emotional toll it takes on others that is the tragedy of ODs and Suicides, not the sheer numbers.

When you don't know the people who died, there is an emotional distance - even to a celebrity death like Bourdain. This is a fact of human nature. It's how Republicans dismiss Mass Shooting deaths so easily. Or how a Sociopath blames the victims of a howling inferno of a wildfire.

[hughee99]

20. Are you suggesting the government should start making reproductive decisions

For women?

[Bayard]

21. Rethuglicans already do.

No, I'm saying encourage people to not have litters of kids. First of all, provide contraception. Next, provide incentive--pay people NOT to have kids. Third, educate from an early age on what so many people are doing to this planet.

[Bayard]

14. Never know the numbers of attempted suicides.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. Despair is deadly

Stagnant wages for the middle class have made life just too damn hard. Middle aged people get laid off from jobs they've had for 20 or 30 years, and there are no jobs to take their place. They're too young to retire, too old to compete with workers in their 20s and 30s.

[appalachiablue]

19. All of that, stagnant wages, job layoffs/outsourcing, loss of

Last edited Fri Nov 30, 2018, 12:40 PM - Edit history (1)

unions and guaranteed pensions, rising costs of exorbitant housing, health ins. and college loan debt. Factor in a diminishing safety net, costly and scarce mental health services, violence and guns to understand how insecurity and despair have grown.

The U.S. lost its 1st place world Middle Class ranking to Canada for the first time in 2015. Our northern neighbor's banks didn't get involved in the sub prime mortgage racket so it came thru the 2008 recession better off. Decline in the U.S. started as we know with Reagan in the 1980s, giving money to the top, not the lower levels and more. Every dog has their day, as they say and a harsh reality for the losers.
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*Reuters, 2012. For the first time in history, a truly global middle class is emerging. By 2030, it will more than double in size, from 2 billion today to 4.9 billion. >Brookings Institution scholar Homi Kharas estimates that the European and American middle classes will shrink from 50 percent of the total to just 22 percent.

Rapid growth in China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia will cause Asia’s share of the new middle to more than double from its current 30%. >By 2030, Asia will host 64% of the global middle class and account for over 40% of global middle-class consumption. https://www.reuters.com/middle-class-infographic
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The Guardian, Nov. 28, 2108. Americans dying younger as drug overdoses and suicides rise, report finds. Life expectancy declined in 2017, falling to 78.6 years – the third straight year it has declined in the US.

The suicide rate in the most rural counties is nearly double that in the most urban ones, the data shows. In 2016, suicide became the second leading cause of death for people aged 10-34. It is the 10th highest cause of death for all age groups.

Of the nation’s 10 leading causes of death, only the death rate for cancer fell last year. It is not just drug overdoses and suicides driving the drop in life expectancy. Deaths from seven of the causes – accidents, respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, flu, and suicide – went up. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/29/americans-life-expectancy-down-drug-overdoses-suicides-rise-report

[Cold War Spook]

22. If you are closing in on the 78 year mark,

remember that is for babies born now. Even if you are 90, you still have a few years left. I'm 75 with a good chance to hit 86, but that is because I am White don't drink or do drugs except for the 16 meds the VA gives me.