US suicides hit an all-time high last year
US suicides hit an all-time high last year
Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and that recent increases might be driven by higher rates of depression or limited availability of mental health services
About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever, according to new government data posted Thursday.
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I find it interesting how much western countries have individualised the causes of sadness.
It's not that strange that people are often sick in a sick society. If you're depressed, it's likely that there are things that are causing or exacerbating that depression.
Give people homes, job security, less stressful jobs, and offer them a healthy work-life balance? Far easier to deal with and possibly even heal from trauma or serious health issues.
But that costs money. Selling people pills and self-help books? That makes money.
But that costs money.
It's worth noting that a lot of solutions actually save money.
For example, universal healthcare is a big issue in the US. Around 2/3 of all bankruptcies are from medical debt. People ration lifesaving medication like insulin because of how prohibitively expensive it is. GoFundMe is of the largest healthcare providers in the country, and over 1/3 of all campaigns are for medical expenses.
They've created a system where it's prohibitively expensive to seek necessary medical care, and is built on the foundational acceptance that people need to die and suffer for it to function as intended.
Yet a universal healthcare system is projected to cost the US an estimated ~13% less than they are paying.
Save taxpayers money, not the super rich. The system is working as intended for the parasites at the top.
Exactly its not about how much taxpayer money is being spent, it's about who it goes to.
Sort of. If they all worked together they would have been better off, even for their own class. Working together and further monopolizing businesses for American industries would have made them much richer (probably at the expense or other economies, but I guess we're just talking about "the west" so thats slightly irrelevant). Every other American would be better off too, but that might mean Elon Musk is worth 100 B instead of 180B and Larry Ellison is only worth 70B. But there would be a lot more Billionaires and a heck of a lot more millionaires. But that isn't how game theory works I guess, and that would be boring for them... they have no national allegiances anyway.
Around 2/3 of all bankruptcies are from medical debt
A bit misleading, though I get your point. 2/3 of people who file for bankruptcy have medical debt, not that the medical debt was the cause of the bankruptcy. Any dollar amount of medical debt factors into this statistic, so if I have $800 in medical debt with reasonable payments and I drown under a mortgage I can no longer afford and 20k in credit card debt, did the medical debt cause the bankruptcy? Of course not. It's counted anyways.
A bit misleading, though I get your point. 2/3 of people who file for bankruptcy have medical debt, not that the medical debt was the cause of the bankruptcy.
Your assessment of this is incorrect.
The study I was referencing reports on people who specify that medical-related financial stress contributed directly to their bankruptcy. This was broken down by medical expenses and medical issues leading to loss of income - with medical expenses being the higher percentage at ~60%, and the combined percentage sitting between 65-70% (with overlap in responses).
But that costs money. Selling people pills and self-help books? That makes money.
I am sorry but this is a ridiculous implication.
The vast majority of prescribed antidepressants (I'm assuming this is what you mean by pills) are old drugs with long expired patents, which makes them quite cheap. The profit margins have to be pretty low due to competition from generic formulation manufacturers. This is an area that actually could use more investment into R&D.
Self-help books are usually written by individual authors or small collaborations. It's profitable but not massive industry. The people profiting from self-help books are not anywhere near to being able to influence people getting homes, job security and work-life balance in either direction.
Many cultures have issues with depression or suicide. Including ones with a focus on collectivism.
Work-life balance could be a part of the issue. That can be an issue for individualism or collectism. Although I feel like with individualism it's easier to set your own standard.
The affordability of life is a problem as well but money being a thing won't go away anytime soon.