Well, lets look at this cohort. I doubt that any other group has fallen quite as precipitously and far as the middle class middle aged male. From King of his castle and primary breadwinner, he has gone to an all out effort to save his home from bankruptcy or being underwater financial. All due to government laxity of regulation the banking, mortgage, and investment industries. Meanwhile providing food, health insurance, and affording health care have become increasingly out of reach. The dream and fulfillment of the previous generations happy and secure retirement has faded to no vision of the ability to retire and certainly not with financial security. All the while, jobs go south due to NAFTA, illegals flood across our borders and take jobs and suck up social services, education dollars, and get freebies that a legal citizen who paid for these benefits could never hope to get. What is the poor working slob going do do but turn to alcohol and perhaps drugs to dampen the paid of his failure and demise lead by the very government that was meant to help. So. what is the surprise in this data? We have pulled the rug from under the Atlas that has traditionally held up the Economy, productivity, and ingenuity of the U.S. What is in their future but gloom and disrepair, with no time left in life to recover. One has to consider the possibility of an active effort on the part of our "leaders" to make a socialistic wasteland of our Nations, it's economy, and backbone.
12
The amount of heroin and prescription opiates being abused is astonishing in this country and I believe the chart can be directly tied to Purdue Pharmaceuticals and their push to get every MD to increase their prescription of opioids in the 1990's. Also, the easy access to guns in this country and the number of guns in this country also explains the increase in completed suicides.
The media is also too blame by allowing false information to be given equal footing to accurate information in this country and creating an atmosphere where low information voters can continue to believe in a political party that does not represent their interest.
The media is also too blame by allowing false information to be given equal footing to accurate information in this country and creating an atmosphere where low information voters can continue to believe in a political party that does not represent their interest.
8
My hope is that the struggling middle class, black and white, will listen to Bernie Sanders and yes, former candidate Jim Webb who understand what blue collar and white collar workers are experiencing in the country.
We DO need a revolution in our political systems in this country. We MUST stand up to the capitalist who exploit their own fellow citizens and who EXPORT jobs to low wage countries, IMPORT cheap labor and REDUCE wages for Americans to the point that life becomes unbearable.
And no, republicans are not our enemy; both political parties own this problem.
#feelthebern
We DO need a revolution in our political systems in this country. We MUST stand up to the capitalist who exploit their own fellow citizens and who EXPORT jobs to low wage countries, IMPORT cheap labor and REDUCE wages for Americans to the point that life becomes unbearable.
And no, republicans are not our enemy; both political parties own this problem.
#feelthebern
7
When I taught university classes on the ideas that have shaped history, I always began one snowy-day session by asking the students, "What or who makes it possible for us to be here talking about history in such warmth and comfort?"
The students start with bricklayers and heating contractors. I stay silent, and let them keep going--on to plumbers, carpenters, miners of copper and iron ore, steel-makers, oil-drillers, railroad workers, truckers, road-builders, farmers...The students surprise themselves: We couldn't be here learning anything without all of them!
And what happens to the bodies of these hard workers? The answers come quickly: They get hurt. Their bodies break down. They can't keep working like that when they get older. They have a lot of pain.
So, do we owe them anything for the privilege of being here? Yes! We should take care of them, especially when they can't work anymore. It's only fair! We're back to Plato for a minute--Where did you get that idea of justice in your heads? (They usually decide they were born with it--very Platonic of them.)
So, I ask, who is the "we" who owes them care? They answer with a hint of a question mark: Our country? It is always their first guess--and their last, even after they realize that that means all of us--and all of them.
Sometimes the desperate anguish of physical pain comes, not from joblessness, but from working too hard--for us, who reap the benefits of their labor.
The students start with bricklayers and heating contractors. I stay silent, and let them keep going--on to plumbers, carpenters, miners of copper and iron ore, steel-makers, oil-drillers, railroad workers, truckers, road-builders, farmers...The students surprise themselves: We couldn't be here learning anything without all of them!
And what happens to the bodies of these hard workers? The answers come quickly: They get hurt. Their bodies break down. They can't keep working like that when they get older. They have a lot of pain.
So, do we owe them anything for the privilege of being here? Yes! We should take care of them, especially when they can't work anymore. It's only fair! We're back to Plato for a minute--Where did you get that idea of justice in your heads? (They usually decide they were born with it--very Platonic of them.)
So, I ask, who is the "we" who owes them care? They answer with a hint of a question mark: Our country? It is always their first guess--and their last, even after they realize that that means all of us--and all of them.
Sometimes the desperate anguish of physical pain comes, not from joblessness, but from working too hard--for us, who reap the benefits of their labor.
40
People: get out there and vote like your lives depended on it. And get others to vote too. You are describing a systemic problem. Don't fall for the Republican charlatans, or let your friends and family support them. Sounds like a lot of societal damage done by MBA mentality run amok. The cost of everything (minimize it), the value of nothing. We could do better. We must.
11
It's interesting how many of the comments here focus on a rise in death rates among white males when the article says nothing about gender. Also, very few have commented on the role of physical pain, illness, and disability, which was explicitly mentioned. Shouldn't we be looking beyond the psychological fallout from the loss of job, social identity, or even community -- important as all those factors may be -- to forces driving a more fundamental physical deterioration in this cohort of Americans? I am thinking of the general undermining of our health from ever increasing loads of pesticides, herbicides, GMOs, and other environmental toxins, a food supply woefully lacking in nutrients, and exponential growth in electromagnetic radiation from wireless technologies etc. It may be that wealthier and more educated groups are better informed about these threats and more able to protect themselves against them, and that mediating factors may exist among members of the non-white groups as well. At least it's something to consider.
10
Dear Gina Kolata,
The content of your article is surprising and thought-provoking. Your article addresses white, poorly educated middle-aged Americans; is it possible to break down the data by gender? I wonder whether the death rates of such men and such women are identical?
In studies of populations in other countries, such disparate death and illness rates are often interpreted as evidence of discrimination. I wonder whether the deaths from self-medication and suicide in this group reveal a loss of hope and self-esteem because the group no longer is confident of belonging in this culture, or owning it in the way the group used to in the 1950s through about 2007 or 2008?
I hope scientists continue to look into why this group's death rates are rising while the death rates of other groups in this country continue to decline; it's a subject that seems to me potent with possible explanations.
The content of your article is surprising and thought-provoking. Your article addresses white, poorly educated middle-aged Americans; is it possible to break down the data by gender? I wonder whether the death rates of such men and such women are identical?
In studies of populations in other countries, such disparate death and illness rates are often interpreted as evidence of discrimination. I wonder whether the deaths from self-medication and suicide in this group reveal a loss of hope and self-esteem because the group no longer is confident of belonging in this culture, or owning it in the way the group used to in the 1950s through about 2007 or 2008?
I hope scientists continue to look into why this group's death rates are rising while the death rates of other groups in this country continue to decline; it's a subject that seems to me potent with possible explanations.
4
There are 1954 comments. In my view, the single most important comment is one that I discovered only because it appears in a new or at least rare category:
NYT Replies-1
The reply is by Community Editor Bassey Etim itself important for two reasons:
1) Bassey Etim replies to Greg Donovan's comment that begins with this sentence: "I find the comments every bit as interesting as the article"
2) Bassey Etim then took action and the result is http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/health/readers-react-to-rising-death-r...
I recommend that anyone who reads this go to the URL above as I shall now do. I am one of perhaps many who have written from time to time that the comments on many articles become articles in themselves, articles sometimes more substantial than the article.
Thank you Bassey Etim for taking this step. And perhaps thanks to Public Editor whose contribution I saw on Times Wire at 1:33 Central European Time today 5/11. Thank you also to Greg Donovan.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen USA-SE
NYT Replies-1
The reply is by Community Editor Bassey Etim itself important for two reasons:
1) Bassey Etim replies to Greg Donovan's comment that begins with this sentence: "I find the comments every bit as interesting as the article"
2) Bassey Etim then took action and the result is http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/health/readers-react-to-rising-death-r...
I recommend that anyone who reads this go to the URL above as I shall now do. I am one of perhaps many who have written from time to time that the comments on many articles become articles in themselves, articles sometimes more substantial than the article.
Thank you Bassey Etim for taking this step. And perhaps thanks to Public Editor whose contribution I saw on Times Wire at 1:33 Central European Time today 5/11. Thank you also to Greg Donovan.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen USA-SE
5
Doors are closing for white, middle aged Americans. Can you hear them slamming all across the country? Bam.
This is one reason I laugh at those who harp on and on about getting a college degree. We throw away people with college degrees after the age of 45. Ph.ds, too. Many are forced to take work far below their skill and training levels.
Where my wife works, a local television news department, they had buy-outs a couple of years ago. To get around age discrimination, the buy-outs are offered to everyone, but you get more money based on how long you've been there, so the payoff is higher if you are older and are willing to depart. One guy who took a buyout, probably in his late 50s, was one of the best known on-air reporters in the region. He had deep contacts and news sources just about everywhere. Last I heard, he was working as a "starter" at a golf course. Ultimately, he might be happier, but why toss away his skills and experience?
From what I can see, employers are highly demanding of training, skills, dedication and production. They want everything, right now, but they aren't willing to give raises except to a few "stars". Many rounds of layoffs by downsizing, the Great Recession, and offshoring have shifted the balance of power to employers.
People who are discouraged about life, who can't find useful work for themselves and who might otherwise have health problems look for a way out. Suicide solves nothing, except the person doesn't have to worry any more.
This is one reason I laugh at those who harp on and on about getting a college degree. We throw away people with college degrees after the age of 45. Ph.ds, too. Many are forced to take work far below their skill and training levels.
Where my wife works, a local television news department, they had buy-outs a couple of years ago. To get around age discrimination, the buy-outs are offered to everyone, but you get more money based on how long you've been there, so the payoff is higher if you are older and are willing to depart. One guy who took a buyout, probably in his late 50s, was one of the best known on-air reporters in the region. He had deep contacts and news sources just about everywhere. Last I heard, he was working as a "starter" at a golf course. Ultimately, he might be happier, but why toss away his skills and experience?
From what I can see, employers are highly demanding of training, skills, dedication and production. They want everything, right now, but they aren't willing to give raises except to a few "stars". Many rounds of layoffs by downsizing, the Great Recession, and offshoring have shifted the balance of power to employers.
People who are discouraged about life, who can't find useful work for themselves and who might otherwise have health problems look for a way out. Suicide solves nothing, except the person doesn't have to worry any more.
13
Add me to the list.
I worked 9 years at a mid-senior level for a small local publisher that Barnes & Noble had bought in the flush times. It was the best job of my life, and I loved it. When the economy tanked, Barnes & Noble came in and cleaned house, starting with the older people. I was called upstairs, sat down, and offered severance—but only if I would sign a statement that said my age (54) had nothing to do with my layoff. I had two minutes to decide.
Here it is, 6 years later, and I'm severely underemployed though I have a masters' degree and teach as a community college adjunct, which is horribly unstable work. For years I applied for jobs and held on due to the severance, then the unemployment, then, finally, the modest 401k. Now, nothing—no, even less: I owe taxes on unemployment like you wouldn't believe. My home of 18 years is gone. I haven't seen a doctor in 2 years. I rent two rooms in a friend's modular home and have lost hope of ever earning enough money to support myself again. I'm only 61 though I know I look a good bit younger.
If I weren't sober 23 years and didn't have my 12-step fellowship and modest Episcopal church family, I doubt I'd even be here now. I identify so much with some of these stories.
I worked 9 years at a mid-senior level for a small local publisher that Barnes & Noble had bought in the flush times. It was the best job of my life, and I loved it. When the economy tanked, Barnes & Noble came in and cleaned house, starting with the older people. I was called upstairs, sat down, and offered severance—but only if I would sign a statement that said my age (54) had nothing to do with my layoff. I had two minutes to decide.
Here it is, 6 years later, and I'm severely underemployed though I have a masters' degree and teach as a community college adjunct, which is horribly unstable work. For years I applied for jobs and held on due to the severance, then the unemployment, then, finally, the modest 401k. Now, nothing—no, even less: I owe taxes on unemployment like you wouldn't believe. My home of 18 years is gone. I haven't seen a doctor in 2 years. I rent two rooms in a friend's modular home and have lost hope of ever earning enough money to support myself again. I'm only 61 though I know I look a good bit younger.
If I weren't sober 23 years and didn't have my 12-step fellowship and modest Episcopal church family, I doubt I'd even be here now. I identify so much with some of these stories.
31
I'm guessing that many of those who are depressed and and struggling in so many ways are an audience for the kind of fear mongering and anger expressed by many Republicans running for office, and not just on the national level. Shaking one's fist at the world can be temporarily exhilarating. Not that most of those kind of candidates have any serious interest in addressing human needs other than their own.
It's dangerous for the country. The rich are getting richer and many are getting left behind and left out.
Our roads are crumbling, many of our schools are inadequate, and yet we've made a national fetish of "not spending public money."
I was impressed by the commenter who likened what's happening here to what happened in the former USSR when, in similar fashion, death rates of middle aged people rose. It's extraordinarily sad and inexcusable in a country like the US that in toto has vast resources and huge piles of money.
It's dangerous for the country. The rich are getting richer and many are getting left behind and left out.
Our roads are crumbling, many of our schools are inadequate, and yet we've made a national fetish of "not spending public money."
I was impressed by the commenter who likened what's happening here to what happened in the former USSR when, in similar fashion, death rates of middle aged people rose. It's extraordinarily sad and inexcusable in a country like the US that in toto has vast resources and huge piles of money.
14
This article hit me on a number of levels. I think we are making a grave mistake by focusing on the educational levels attained. As a number of readers have commented, this one included, it is primarily age, sad to say. I have a bachelors and a masters, and am without employment. Without income and health insurance, I have been anticipating a wave of suicides, passive or active, since the Great Recession. We have never recovered. The media focus is and has been on the Dow Jones indices, and deeply flawed labor statistics. I remain puzzled why there is superficial emphasis on preventing suicide, to what end? By and large these folks do not have the means to support themselves, those especially without families. This is an atrocious mess, which will not garner the attention of Washington, as sure as the monthly mass shootings have not, or the AIDS crisis before that, as other commentators have pointed out.
17
One of the hardest things to deal with, regardless of your political beliefs, is that our government basically sat and did nothing while millions of good jobs went out the door of this country, taking with them the incomes and self respect of millions of people. The exodus of jobs continues, and so does the pretending not to see it on the part of our government. How can such a major change in a society be just ignored by those who made all those speeches (when running for office of course, quickly forgotten later on!) about how they care about people and they have this plan or that plan. I grew up in a beautiful small town in upstate NY with good jobs, good schools, nice affordable homes, the whole picture. You should see that place now - you would not wonder what is causing despair.
20
Understand. I grew up in Detroit. Don't despair, there are many that feel the same way. Just not the NY times. Democrats are the same, maybe worse than republicans or not. I believe they are both crooks.
But in the end, I'd have my local government as democrats and hope for a balance in DC. If not a balance, I'd pick reps. In theory, that gives us local freedom based on resident desires and national security based on small government focused on their written job - the fed is to provide security to the citizens and services that the private sector would not provide.
But in the end, I'd have my local government as democrats and hope for a balance in DC. If not a balance, I'd pick reps. In theory, that gives us local freedom based on resident desires and national security based on small government focused on their written job - the fed is to provide security to the citizens and services that the private sector would not provide.
2
Death rates also rose dramatically in Russia during the heyday of the Oligarchs, before Putin dealt with them, and probably for similar reasons:
Poor economic prospects, no reliable/affordable healthcare, and no higher education to provide intellectual/spiritual sustenance when the gross materialism of American society, hollow religious beliefs, or the waving of the flag for every pointless war fail to provide sufficient meaning.
This millennium, if we’re lucky, perhaps human societies will finally become fit for human beings.
Poor economic prospects, no reliable/affordable healthcare, and no higher education to provide intellectual/spiritual sustenance when the gross materialism of American society, hollow religious beliefs, or the waving of the flag for every pointless war fail to provide sufficient meaning.
This millennium, if we’re lucky, perhaps human societies will finally become fit for human beings.
7
I have a theory that the number of gadgets, phones, widescreen tvs , tablets etc are contributing to a loss of quality and substance, in interacting and communicating with one another . As a result, those that are single (myself) are finding it harrowing and increasingly difficult, to find quality conversation and community, without alcohol or drugs.
I do not believe that the economic climate is as much to blame than the loss of simple, humane connection between one another. Hence the rush to text , any excuse not to engage others in dialogue. This I find more scary than financial storms on the horizon. At my job, there is a lounge which for years was a hotbed of interaction, with the usual ups and downs of a 65 piece orchestra. Now, when you walk in at least 3/4 of the members are on their phones or computers at any one time. I suspect this is true of any common space, at any job in this present day.
I do not believe that the economic climate is as much to blame than the loss of simple, humane connection between one another. Hence the rush to text , any excuse not to engage others in dialogue. This I find more scary than financial storms on the horizon. At my job, there is a lounge which for years was a hotbed of interaction, with the usual ups and downs of a 65 piece orchestra. Now, when you walk in at least 3/4 of the members are on their phones or computers at any one time. I suspect this is true of any common space, at any job in this present day.
10
My speculation is this: Blacks and Latinos have already developed coping mechanisms for centuries of injustice and despair (out of necessity, unfortunately). Whites, having been overly privileged in our society basically forever, have not developed such coping strategies and support networks when circumstances change, and increasingly turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the decline in wages and status of 21st century dog-eat-dog capitalism.
It's also possible that conservative talk radio and television (widely consumed in the rural areas that are most affected by this trend) are manufacturing much more fear and despair and hopelessness among their listeners/viewers than would occur naturally.
It's also possible that conservative talk radio and television (widely consumed in the rural areas that are most affected by this trend) are manufacturing much more fear and despair and hopelessness among their listeners/viewers than would occur naturally.
26
This is a thoughtful and insightful comment. I do wonder how much is manufactured by conservatives though. Judging by the comments here, the contempt and lack of empathy that coastal leftists have for the white underclass is quite real. As someone who is nearly part of the profiled group, I get the sense that if I eliminated myself, the response would range from academic indifference to vindicated glee.
9
That is simply not true. My take away from the comments is that you are not really reading them.
1
Enough with the thoughtless fiction that all American whites are uniformly "overly privileged." Irish? Polish? French Canadian? All of these "white" ethnicities have experienced genuine prejudice in American history. And newsflash: there are genuinely poor American WASPs. Please do go tell a West-Virginian coal-miner or a northern-Maine farmer all about their privilege. These people aren't reacting to loss; they never had it in the first place.
8
I don't know the cause but isn't the evidence everywhere of this group's inability to deal with modernity? From closed news environments, to gun fetishism, to faith without practice? Their power has declined as unions have declined. No political party focuses on them. They are scared of going to the supermarket; scared of pressing 1 for English and 2 for Spanish; scared of females and female sexuality; and so on. Many live in isolated suburbs and semi-rural environments. Men this age lost the connections to other families that their kids might have provided. How did they get there?
Being stuck in a conservative news bubble, and all those other things i mentioned, are symptoms of their lack of ability to live in the US today.
Being stuck in a conservative news bubble, and all those other things i mentioned, are symptoms of their lack of ability to live in the US today.
5
From the paper: "Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately." Not just men.
13
In a sane political culture these white males would agitate for a better deal from the financial elites--higher wages, better trade treaties, richer social benefits (like they have in Scandinavia) to create a more secure and lower-stress life. They would vote for very progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders, from the left wing of the Democratic Party or from the Green Party or the Democratic Socialist Party.
Instead, they vote for Republicans who make their situation worse. They vote against their own interests, which is baffling.
These white males have been so completely manipulated by the mainstream and right-wing propaganda system in this country that they direct their resentment horizontally (against minorities and immigrants competing for their jobs) instead of vertically (upwards toward the elites who have created the system they toil in). Minority workers and immigrant laborers have very little influence over the American system. But financial elites have nearly total control of it. The latter group--the 1%--is the proper focus of their resentment.
I suggest these white males stop watching their TVs, stop listening to mainstream commercial radio, and go down to a Bernie Sanders meeting. They'll meet people who have figured out what the real progressive solutions are to their problems. We need activism and clearmindedness about how to improve the lot of the bottom 99%. That's what government is for--to promote the general welfare.
Instead, they vote for Republicans who make their situation worse. They vote against their own interests, which is baffling.
These white males have been so completely manipulated by the mainstream and right-wing propaganda system in this country that they direct their resentment horizontally (against minorities and immigrants competing for their jobs) instead of vertically (upwards toward the elites who have created the system they toil in). Minority workers and immigrant laborers have very little influence over the American system. But financial elites have nearly total control of it. The latter group--the 1%--is the proper focus of their resentment.
I suggest these white males stop watching their TVs, stop listening to mainstream commercial radio, and go down to a Bernie Sanders meeting. They'll meet people who have figured out what the real progressive solutions are to their problems. We need activism and clearmindedness about how to improve the lot of the bottom 99%. That's what government is for--to promote the general welfare.
31
Where are you getting "males" from? The study says the effects are felt similarly by men and women.
11
It would be informative for a follow up analysis in Kentucky to understand the impact the new Republican governor, who promised to cancel the expansion of Medicaid, will have on death rates for white and all people in that in that state. It is important for people to understand the real implications of political decisions on restricting access to health care and promoting gun ownership. When following ideology rather fact based learning, I suspect many whites are voting against their own best interests and healthy life.
10
Data on male/female, married/single, employed/unemployed?
2
The paper states that there have been similar effects on men and women.
4
Its quite obvious why middle aged white folks are so unhappy. They have been told for decades that they must make way for other more disadvantaged people --who are everything they are not. Even though they find their lives are quite hard. Every preference program, racial or gender based or behavioral is set up with the premise that whites (males especially) have an advantage that needs discounted in the interests of fairness. The data seem to show that highly educated white people can hold their own in this new world, but this paper shows who is really losing. And Dr Lee is right "it is so sad".
3
Not surprised that affirmative action and PC get blamed for this. Recent surveys show whites think they're the ones who are oppressed (which is ludicrous). It's not so much racially based any more, it's class based. People with less education have fewer options economically with trans-national corporations going who have loyalty only to shareholders going wherever the labor is cheap and regulation is lax. Right to work laws and the decline of unions simply exacerbate the situation.
14
It's far more likely that they are sad because "In the period examined by Dr. Deaton and Dr. Case, the inflation-adjusted income for households headed by a high school graduate fell by 19 percent."
Also, they are in pain a lot of the time.
They (and you) are welcome to keep blaming competition from women and minorities, but the fact is that someone decided their efforts were worth less and less. women and minorities had nothing to do with that. That decision came from the "job creators."
Also, they are in pain a lot of the time.
They (and you) are welcome to keep blaming competition from women and minorities, but the fact is that someone decided their efforts were worth less and less. women and minorities had nothing to do with that. That decision came from the "job creators."
17
The loss of pensions and any sense of financial security has delayed retirement considerably.
Whatever boneheads were around when tech companies first started replacing pensions with 401ks ( a pure boon to corporate profits) knew this would be painful to workers, even high tech workers.
Some folks had to spend their 401ks or stop control biting during the Bust and recession.....while paying for college for their kids.
It's been a HUGE squeeze, the last 7 years owned by the Dems, and many of these people feel forgotten and overlooked while they struggled. tHey have been overlooked and ignored: this the Middle Class Debacle.
Whatever boneheads were around when tech companies first started replacing pensions with 401ks ( a pure boon to corporate profits) knew this would be painful to workers, even high tech workers.
Some folks had to spend their 401ks or stop control biting during the Bust and recession.....while paying for college for their kids.
It's been a HUGE squeeze, the last 7 years owned by the Dems, and many of these people feel forgotten and overlooked while they struggled. tHey have been overlooked and ignored: this the Middle Class Debacle.
5
BUT at least Mr. Obama feels like he has indeed gotten his revenge on the people he always despised while growing up and on whom he blamed for all his father's problems. Read the guy's books.
1
Let's talk about suicide. 80% of all suicides in the western world are men. Men who get divorced have a markedly increased risk of suicide. There is very little help available for men in general, and the societal view of 'Man = bad, woman = good' is exacerbating the problem.
Divorce rates continue to rise. Men get EVERYTHING taken from them in the process - their marriage, their kids, their assets, and their home.
Is it any wonder that these men are killing themselves?
Divorce rates continue to rise. Men get EVERYTHING taken from them in the process - their marriage, their kids, their assets, and their home.
Is it any wonder that these men are killing themselves?
3
I'm shocked, shocked that people are dying around here! Here is a prime example of voting against your own interests. What's shocking about this report is that people are shocked by the report! A stagnant economy along with a mediocre safety-net, a bloated military-industrial complex, continuous war and corrupt a political system means people are being sacrificed on the altar of greedy capitalism. I'm not hopeful this report will change anything about our society. We seem bent on self-destruction.
12
I hope they showed contrition for their white privilege before they blew their brains out.
This is sad. Don't read the comments unless you want to get even sadder. Obtuse, 'told-ya-so' partisan gloating and 'they get what they deserve' gravedancing comes from a place I never could and never will understand.
Compassion isn't a zero-sum thing unless you simply have zero compassion.
This is sad. Don't read the comments unless you want to get even sadder. Obtuse, 'told-ya-so' partisan gloating and 'they get what they deserve' gravedancing comes from a place I never could and never will understand.
Compassion isn't a zero-sum thing unless you simply have zero compassion.
10
Taking my semi-rural Florida community as an example, opportunities for jobs or advancement for people with high school educations or lower have become non-existent. While children are raised with parents who reassure them that education is not necessary or even disloyal (since they did fine), a work ethic and religion that can provide a rationale for menial work and comfort in family also sound preposterous to many. The solution is to self-medicate and be passively entertained until something magically happens by, often short-term or illegal. Addictions, lack of skills and self-confidence, and misplaced pride rot souls, and when hope is gone leaving only accumulating illnesses, climbing suicide rates result.
4
This is "puzzling'? Our society is in an absolute sleepwalk of denial.
This age group is not "boomers"--these are Generation X. They
were born just at/after the time that Reagonomics began the destruction of our
nation. Bad education / trade training, where once it was pretty good, outsourcing of jobs to feed corporate greed, where once a machinist or seamstress could have a modest home and security, environmental degradation
(linked directly to health), abandonment and devastation of whole communities
from economic chaos, garbage media encouraging drugs and hopelessness and
nihilism, ridicule of intellect and high culture, which has been salvation for many
spirits throughout history, shall I go on?
This age group is not "boomers"--these are Generation X. They
were born just at/after the time that Reagonomics began the destruction of our
nation. Bad education / trade training, where once it was pretty good, outsourcing of jobs to feed corporate greed, where once a machinist or seamstress could have a modest home and security, environmental degradation
(linked directly to health), abandonment and devastation of whole communities
from economic chaos, garbage media encouraging drugs and hopelessness and
nihilism, ridicule of intellect and high culture, which has been salvation for many
spirits throughout history, shall I go on?
14
We glory in the competitiveness of our society. The explicit purpose of the relative lack of a safety net (compared to other countries) is to force people to compete rather than sit back and be supported or carried by others. Some of us are makers and some are takers, content to suckle at the teat of Big Government.
Winners win and losers lose, and some losers, those who cannot find or will not look for and accept charity, lose all the way. Except for the socialists, moochers, and bleeding hearts, these values are what we try to live by.
Winners win and losers lose, and some losers, those who cannot find or will not look for and accept charity, lose all the way. Except for the socialists, moochers, and bleeding hearts, these values are what we try to live by.
How nice and Radian of you. It is what it is - all goes and should go to the "WINNER!"
The middle class white guy, the one who used to have a decent job at a manufacturing facility, where the shop was unionized, is the guy today, who does not have that well paying job - the union being long gone - does not have adequate heath care, and for whom the future seems quite bleak. So he is the one who will be depressed and despairing, the one who turns to alcohol and/or drugs or to the final solution, suicide, so as to ease the pain of the broken mind, body and soul. It is death, along any of these routes for deliverance.
I trust that you are not of this group, sdavidc9, and how indeed, fortunate for you!!
The middle class white guy, the one who used to have a decent job at a manufacturing facility, where the shop was unionized, is the guy today, who does not have that well paying job - the union being long gone - does not have adequate heath care, and for whom the future seems quite bleak. So he is the one who will be depressed and despairing, the one who turns to alcohol and/or drugs or to the final solution, suicide, so as to ease the pain of the broken mind, body and soul. It is death, along any of these routes for deliverance.
I trust that you are not of this group, sdavidc9, and how indeed, fortunate for you!!
14
Those are lousy values and they are destroying this country. The U.S. is losing status in every category precisely because too many of us buy into the zero-sum, I Got Mine school of philosophy. Humans formed societies because many can achieve what the individual cannot. Yours is a bankrupt mentality, it demonstrably undermines our ability to address real problems and now we can see that it is killing us.
11
Doesn't surprise me. Being stupid--okay, ignorant--kills. The stress of seeing someone you consider inferior getting ahead you on line (any line) is more than your over-sized, fat-laden heart can handle. Do better, live longer. On the other hand, the sooner you die the less of your social security the rest of us have to pay. It's win-win; you're miserable anyway,
3
And thank you for embodying the stereotype (parody?) many whites in the midwest have of coastal elites: condescending know-it-alls without an ounce of compassion. Why should they trust you when you're openly cheering on their suicides?
7
So the shocking, alarming, discovery is that white middle-aged mortality rates are approaching the mortality rate of middled-aged black people?
2
No, it's that it's going up while every other race/ethnicity is going down. When enough kill themselves that they equal or surpass blacks, will you be happy then? A zero-sum brand of compassion is only possible when there's zero compassion.
3
We rationalize it. We ignore it. But more and more of us succumb to it. As a white 45 to 54 yr old I've come to realize the world we were raised to live and work in disappeared sometime around the turn of the century.
10
It didn't just disappear all at once. It took thirty or more years and had a complex mixture of causes.
7
I observe that the demographic group responsible for almost all mass murders in the U.S. is also uneducated white men -- but usually younger than the middle-aged group in this report. Angry white men lashing out: younger ones at others, older ones at themselves. This is a huge segment of our society in crisis.
10
From the paper: "Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately." Not just men.
6
Here is a listing showing why I think Gina Kolata should have asked the researchers why they did not first study death rate variation among "Middle-Aged White Americans".
From the US Census Bureau 2010 census:
(The white race as viewed by the USCB) includes all who entered: Caucasian or White; European entries, such as Irish, German,
and Polish; Middle Eastern entries, such as Arab, Lebanese, and
Palestinian; and North African entries, such as Algerian, Moroccan,
and Egyptian.
I am sure that death rate increases in each of this groups are identical with those in the other groups and the causes of these increases are of course the same since they all belong to a genetically distinct white race.
Trigger warning: That is not how I think, do you? Does Gina Kolata?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen-USA-SE
PS Thanks to 15 years as a Linköping Red Cross volunteer I actually know people from every group named and they have made those 15 years among the best in my life. Going there now for Träna svenska.
From the US Census Bureau 2010 census:
(The white race as viewed by the USCB) includes all who entered: Caucasian or White; European entries, such as Irish, German,
and Polish; Middle Eastern entries, such as Arab, Lebanese, and
Palestinian; and North African entries, such as Algerian, Moroccan,
and Egyptian.
I am sure that death rate increases in each of this groups are identical with those in the other groups and the causes of these increases are of course the same since they all belong to a genetically distinct white race.
Trigger warning: That is not how I think, do you? Does Gina Kolata?
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen-USA-SE
PS Thanks to 15 years as a Linköping Red Cross volunteer I actually know people from every group named and they have made those 15 years among the best in my life. Going there now for Träna svenska.
This just proves that we need to stop stigmatizing addiction and mental illness, so people can come forward and be treated by professionals who have expertise in these fields. Too many sufferers are ignored, shunned and deserted. If they are treated, then they often are doped up by medical professionals who have limited knowledge about the diseases and make the problems worse.
2
In 2008, shortly before my 50th birthday, I was let go by a company for which I had worked for 18 years. Despite having no college degree, I had moved up through the ranks of middle management and into senior management. My termination was a complete shock - my position (along with many others) was summarily eliminated in the midst of the financial crisis.
The recession was in full force, and it was impossible for me to find a job for two years. I eventually did, and have managed to remain employed, bouncing around from here to there, often being interviewed by people who are as young as my children.
During the past ten years, I have suffered from a rare and very painful affliction of the neurological system. I will spare you my tale of woe, but I take 11 different prescriptions a month, including a couple of painkillers. I am pushing 60 now, and don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep a job - due to my age and physical afflictions.
I am saved only by my wife and children. My wife has gone back to work at a relatively menial job mostly to provide us with health insurance, since I work remotely for a very small company out of state and their health plan does not provide any "in network" doctors where I am. I desperately need insurance because my medical treatments are $36,000 a month.
I read this article and I felt the pain of the people who make up these statistics. I would be lost without my wonderful wife an children (who are grown).
The recession was in full force, and it was impossible for me to find a job for two years. I eventually did, and have managed to remain employed, bouncing around from here to there, often being interviewed by people who are as young as my children.
During the past ten years, I have suffered from a rare and very painful affliction of the neurological system. I will spare you my tale of woe, but I take 11 different prescriptions a month, including a couple of painkillers. I am pushing 60 now, and don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep a job - due to my age and physical afflictions.
I am saved only by my wife and children. My wife has gone back to work at a relatively menial job mostly to provide us with health insurance, since I work remotely for a very small company out of state and their health plan does not provide any "in network" doctors where I am. I desperately need insurance because my medical treatments are $36,000 a month.
I read this article and I felt the pain of the people who make up these statistics. I would be lost without my wonderful wife an children (who are grown).
23
Best of luck to you. You sound like a great guy with a great, supportive family. Things for you shouldn't be this way.
10
Wishing you the best. Glad you have such a wonderful wife and kids.
2
Why bother living a long life in such a world as this?!
4
On the heels of this demographic are their sons (and soon to be their grandsons). Sons of middle aged white males who are now in their 20's are feeling increasingly hopeless and are dying by the exact same means because of the exact same problem.
4
My own age is within the range they examined, near the upper limit. So, this hit me personally.
I'm saddened but not deeply surprised. More and more, I see people my own age who just look worn out - physically, emotionally, socially. Lately, there has been a kind of epidemic here in the city of middle-aged folks using canes to walk. Last summer it seemed like they came out of no where. In the parks, on the sidewalks - people 40, 50 years old leaning on canes. And clearly they had not all sprained their ankles skiing in Aspen.
In a winner-take-all society, there are a few "winners" and lots and lots of "losers." Add to this the absolutely horrendous American diet, the fact that just about everyone these days (and I include myself) is overweight, medical care that is too expensive and too hard to access, the over-reliance on pain medication, and a corrosive and mean social climate - well, you've got these statistics on premature death.
America, we're not doing very well.
I'm saddened but not deeply surprised. More and more, I see people my own age who just look worn out - physically, emotionally, socially. Lately, there has been a kind of epidemic here in the city of middle-aged folks using canes to walk. Last summer it seemed like they came out of no where. In the parks, on the sidewalks - people 40, 50 years old leaning on canes. And clearly they had not all sprained their ankles skiing in Aspen.
In a winner-take-all society, there are a few "winners" and lots and lots of "losers." Add to this the absolutely horrendous American diet, the fact that just about everyone these days (and I include myself) is overweight, medical care that is too expensive and too hard to access, the over-reliance on pain medication, and a corrosive and mean social climate - well, you've got these statistics on premature death.
America, we're not doing very well.
20
I have noticed a lot of middle aged people using canes too!
3
Yes. A lot of it is arthritis due to obesity. Not to judge...I'm fighting the battle of the bulge myself.
2
Australians are experiencing similar situations but little is talked about as the "powers that be" don't want to acknowledge the problems. Sad thing is Midtown, a lot of us who didn't finish high school, struggled working long hours as single parents to give kids a Uni education, while also caring for ill parents for many years, are in same position as you, poor & socially isolated. After years of grandchildren care often 24/7, once kids are at school we are shoved aside, rarely contacted let alone assisted when we cant get jobs or are ill. My daughter with one child, earning $90k pa + 15% superannuation paid to a retirement fund thinks she is doing it tough. I lived with her for 4 yrs childminding while quite sick & in constant pain from serious illness & contributed 80% of my pension to household. When no longer required I was forced out to live in a tiny granny flat costing 55% of my pension. She actually suggested I live in a caravan knowing I have bronchitis half the year. My other child does not even bother to contact me as that ensures she doesn't feel guilty. But, they tell me they love me. Our generation appears to be the last who feel any desire/responsibility to care for or about family. I will suicide when I've had enough pain or am more socially isolated than now. Life has to be about quality not quantity and I am now at the very low end of quality. Thank goodness for a grandchild who thinks the sun shines out of me, but soon even that wont be enough.
5
When the very people who built this country no longer thrive, things do not bode well for the country. These grim statistics will spread up, down, and across society. This is the canary in the coal mine for us all in the underemployed, winner take all, overpopulated, polluted strife ridden 21st century.
13
"When the very people who built this country no longer thrive..."
I'm a southern white person, but really, didn't the slaves build the country? Your premise is wrong, wrong, wrong.
I'm a southern white person, but really, didn't the slaves build the country? Your premise is wrong, wrong, wrong.
5
1000+ comments of partisan, "I'm-not-surprised-told-ya-so" gloating about people - huge numbers of people - killing themselves both fast and slow. I can't help but feel that this is part of the sickness - even when people notice that you want to die, they are more interested in you as an academic abstraction or political leverage than as someone who is actually loved and wanted.
5
Mixed in with the academic and political are many compassionate comments.
5
I think you are correct, actually. I was probably projecting, as I have been struggling emotionally lately and, given my demographic (i.e. adult white straight male, approaching middle age, not married, childless, professionally adrift), feel like the world is telling me I only have myself to blame because, superficially, I have had every advantage. So if people reading this study don't really care if such people eliminate themselves, I feel confirmed in my worst feelings about my own worth.
5
Does obesity have anything to do with the increased mortality rate?
2
It says right in the second paragraph that it does not.
2
The second paragraph has the order of identified causes almost (?) exactly backwards.
Piece says: substance abuse: alcoholic liver disease, and overdoses of heroin and prescription opiods.
Discussion in Deaton and Case article begins with prescription opiod poisoning, mostly by "non-medical users", followed by reference to substituting cheaper heroin for increasingly restricted access to "legal" opiods, followed by a discussion of the "epidemic of pain" (which may actually be due to the increasing sales of prescription opiods), followed by increased alcohol use (questionable, because it relies mainly on liver enzyme test that are not specific to alcohol use) and suicide.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/29/1518393112.full.pdf
There is just no getting around that over-prescription and illegal diversion of FDA-approved opioids is the most likely cause of this effect, which began the very year of the first sales of OxyContin (1996), and continues to this day because the government has been ineffective in its regulation of "legal" opiods.
The casualties appear to be most heavy among a group that medical providers called "drug-seakers". But a lot of the blame needs to go to the manufacturers of these drugs, which they illegally misrepresented.
Piece says: substance abuse: alcoholic liver disease, and overdoses of heroin and prescription opiods.
Discussion in Deaton and Case article begins with prescription opiod poisoning, mostly by "non-medical users", followed by reference to substituting cheaper heroin for increasingly restricted access to "legal" opiods, followed by a discussion of the "epidemic of pain" (which may actually be due to the increasing sales of prescription opiods), followed by increased alcohol use (questionable, because it relies mainly on liver enzyme test that are not specific to alcohol use) and suicide.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/29/1518393112.full.pdf
There is just no getting around that over-prescription and illegal diversion of FDA-approved opioids is the most likely cause of this effect, which began the very year of the first sales of OxyContin (1996), and continues to this day because the government has been ineffective in its regulation of "legal" opiods.
The casualties appear to be most heavy among a group that medical providers called "drug-seakers". But a lot of the blame needs to go to the manufacturers of these drugs, which they illegally misrepresented.
3
This is what happens in a society that values the right to guns over education and healthcare. A society completely overtaken by the corporate and military-industrial complex. A society that relies on cars instead of sidewalks. A society of staring at screens instead of talking to people. I need a drink.
14
Its very sad. Now imagine multiple decades of this for people of color, particularly blacks who only emerged from Jim Crow less than 50 years ago and you get whole communities of people who had to start from a worse position than even poor, uneducated whites. Then white people say its a "cultural" problem in the black community - a "cultural pathology". Add difficulty with the criminal justice system and the picture becomes clearer for blacks and people of color. I doubt they will classify poor whites as having "cultural pathologies" but they have the same result except blacks don't generally resort to suicide. This is sad but I hope it opens white people's eyes and they learn compassion for others and will not be so quick to apply culture, lazy, welfare and other labels. The result of decades of despair from not having skills (uneducated) or jobs in an economy that has transformed is a HUMAN problem and a problem with our politics. The GOP encourages anger and division instead of solutions to deep socio-economic problems.
14
Well stated Kim Holloway!
3
Oh, there is a cultural pathology in the white community -- the self-hatred of many whites, their preference for 'the Other' (at least theoretically, life as actually lived is different) over their ethnic kin, their lack of compassion for less fortunate whites.
Whites have no voice, no political representation as whites. Our culture is appropriated (see the musical 'Hamilton'). Our history erased, our accomplishments belittled. We are discriminated against legally in everything from college admission to government hiring to awarding of contracts. We are being inundated demographically by immigration which bares no resemblance to the country's demography. It is no wonder some whites despair.
3
Pleeze! Blacks experienced what you describe, which is completely inaccurate, for hundreds of years in this country and yet the suicide rate is much lower. "Blacks immigrated to this country to work". LOL! Blacks were forced to work as slaves -- free labor -- while the white slave owners generated wealth that they were able to pass on.
12
Deaton and Case are not the first one to notice this. Matthew Klein at the Bloomberg put out a very well crafted slide show entitled "How American Die" (http://www.bloomberg.com/dataview/2014-04-17/how-americans-die.html) more than a year ago. Although he did not focus on White Americans, his slides #9 and #11 show that "Americans aged 45-54 have made surprisingly little progress in mortality since the late-1990s" and "they have become more likely to commit suicide or die from drugs."
3
Interesting. Aside from the effect of AIDS, which peaked around 1995. It appears death from drugs that has been the biggest contributor to increased mortality in the 45-54 age range. One of the charts suggests a ten fold increased rate of death from drugs since 1968!
Here's the link again:
http://www.bloomberg.com/dataview/2014-04-17/how-americans-die.html
I had to google 'bloomberg', 'how Americans die' to find this, maybe the parens in your link confused my browser.
Here's the link again:
http://www.bloomberg.com/dataview/2014-04-17/how-americans-die.html
I had to google 'bloomberg', 'how Americans die' to find this, maybe the parens in your link confused my browser.
2
Smoking is a likely co-morbidity with alcohol and prescription drug abuse. Also, a useful information source with weekly up dates about managing self destructive behaviors is sponsored by Harvard Medical School -- "The Brief Addiction Science Information Source" (BASIS).
Apparently White Middle Aged Working Class Males would rather kill themselves (directly or indirectly) rather than vote Democratic-Socialist/Bernie Sanders and have full employment at a livable wages.
Whatever rightwing America is paying the likes of Rush Limbaugh, its clearly not enough.
Whatever rightwing America is paying the likes of Rush Limbaugh, its clearly not enough.
18
The hatred spewed in these comments speaks volumes! Little wonder that people who are perceived as ignorant pawns who deserve their fate because it proves that anyone who disagrees with the political ideology of those commenting suffer pain and a desire to escape the acrimony! Reading some of this agenda laden nonsense certainly makes me feel sick to my stomach!
3
Killing the middle class? Started with Reagan.
14
No, it started earlier than that. It accelerated under Reagan, though.
5
The thing I found confusing about this article was that there was no indication of whether or not the death rate was rising for both males and females in this age group, and, if so, whether or not it was rising at the same rate for both sexes. The author distinguished between educational status, age, ethnicity, and country, but never mentioned sex. If women in this group do not have the same rising death rate, what can we learn from that? If they do, some of the factors being suggested in an accompanying article--loss of white male status--would not seem to apply. IMO, the failure to even mention whether or not there is any difference between the sexes in what is happening is a serious oversight.
3
From the paper: "Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately." Gina Kolata should have mentioned this.
3
This is so sad, but not surprising given the very reasons enumerated in the many comments thus far. Yet this same demographic, particularly in the South, continue to vote for politicians who are lobbied by big businesses who took jobs overseas, who want to stop medicare expansion in their states, who want to attack Social Security...but make sure this group has access to all the guns that they want. There have been books and articles about why this demographic tends to continue voting for politicians who have not done anything for them, in fact, vigorously support initiatives to deny them what they actually need: jobs, healthcare,etc.
Unfortutnately this poorly educated demographic cannot see the "light before their eyes." And politicians are well aware of this so they reap the benefits of such ignorance. Meanwhile, as many have pointed out here, the hits will keep on coming until this all becomes an unsustainable situation for our society's future.
Unfortutnately this poorly educated demographic cannot see the "light before their eyes." And politicians are well aware of this so they reap the benefits of such ignorance. Meanwhile, as many have pointed out here, the hits will keep on coming until this all becomes an unsustainable situation for our society's future.
9
Middle-class whites were among the first people to work on computers in the workplace in the early 1980's. Although word processing became user-friendly, the strain it put on people's bodies only became worse with time. Before they needed pain medication, middle-aged whites began going to their doctors for "sports injuries" (a euphemism for time spent on a computer). A cottage industry developed among doctors who do nothing but treat people working on computers. In recent years, the government has tightened controls on the prescription of pain medications. Doctors have lost all authority in the field of palliative care. If they do not comply with the new, overly stringent laws, they risk losing their licenses. The pain patient of today is treated like a criminal. Is it any wonder that middle-aged whites on pain medication today are committing suicide at unprecedented rates? Obviously they are ill and in acute distress. Many are under-medicated. Yet college students smoke openly on every campus as though nicotine was not a carcinogen and pigs fly.
2
I found the comment by Ronald D. Lee, "“Seldom have I felt as affected by a paper,” ... “It seems so sad" quite revealing. Why was he so sad? Because the rising death rates was affecting whites? Of course this is indeed sad. But what about the obvious thing that should make him really sad - the much higher death rate reported among blacks.
3
You can be sad about more than one thing.
9
Good jobs create a lifetime of self respect. No group has been hit harder by the shifting and evolving economy over the decades then blue collar whites with lower educations. These individuals at one time were the lifeblood of a thriving manufacturing economy in the U.S. Whether through globalization, robotics, or the demise of unions, these individuals have been undergoing a relentless battering. It has been one body blow after another, accompanied by neglect. How could anyone who has been studying and witnessing these trends be surprised at the devastating impact to the psyche and health of middle aged white Americans. Loss of self worth and purpose can lead to suicide and drug and alcohol addition. All one really had to do to understand what was going on was to study how economic decay in the inner cities had the exact same effect on black men.
20
Free trade to the rescue! right?
I'm sure the Trans-Pacific Partnership is going to reverse all of these trends - sending thousands of decent wage jobs to middle aged Americans living in Middle America.
I'm sure the Trans-Pacific Partnership is going to reverse all of these trends - sending thousands of decent wage jobs to middle aged Americans living in Middle America.
19
I wonder how the graph on this increase in mortality rates compares to the number of factories outsourced to China (over 40,000 since 2000).
We are a nation run by wealthy right wing psychopaths who couldn't give a rats back for the sake of the country's working class.
These people loathe socialism, but they were more than happy to empower China by sending them tens of thousands of factories, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands since 1980. They did this because it broke the back of American labor. Now we see the other side of that. The wealthy are dancing on the working mans grave out in the confines of the Hamptons, Aspen, and Davos.
Furthermore, our government has traded jobs for geopolitical influence on the backs of the American worker, never the upper classes, since the end of WWII.
If, around 1990, the Islamic jihadist had sharpened their focus to merely attacking America's contemptuous upper classes for their treatment of the working class, the American masses would already be well on their way to conversion to Islam by now.
If we are lucky, Bernie Sanders will be the solution to our problems. Otherwise, things look quite bleak for our society. I can only hope that eventually the chickens come home to roost for those who have inflicted so much discomfort on so many for so long, upon their fellow Americans to boot.
We are a nation run by wealthy right wing psychopaths who couldn't give a rats back for the sake of the country's working class.
These people loathe socialism, but they were more than happy to empower China by sending them tens of thousands of factories, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands since 1980. They did this because it broke the back of American labor. Now we see the other side of that. The wealthy are dancing on the working mans grave out in the confines of the Hamptons, Aspen, and Davos.
Furthermore, our government has traded jobs for geopolitical influence on the backs of the American worker, never the upper classes, since the end of WWII.
If, around 1990, the Islamic jihadist had sharpened their focus to merely attacking America's contemptuous upper classes for their treatment of the working class, the American masses would already be well on their way to conversion to Islam by now.
If we are lucky, Bernie Sanders will be the solution to our problems. Otherwise, things look quite bleak for our society. I can only hope that eventually the chickens come home to roost for those who have inflicted so much discomfort on so many for so long, upon their fellow Americans to boot.
3
I wonder how the graph on this increase in mortality rates compares to the number of factories outsourced to China (over 40,000 since 2000).
We are a nation run by wealthy right wing psychopaths who couldn't give a rats back for the sake of the country's working class.
These people loathe socialism, but they were more than happy to empower China by sending them tens of thousands of factories, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands since 1980. They did this because it broke the back of American labor. Now we see the other side of that. The wealthy are dancing on the working mans grave out in the confines of the Hamptons, Aspen, and Davos.
Furthermore, our government has traded jobs for geopolitical influence on the backs of the American worker, never the upper classes, since the end of WWII.
If, around 1990, the Islamic jihadist had sharpened their focus to merely attacking America's contemptuous upper classes for their treatment of the working class, the American masses would already be well on their way to conversion to Islam by now.
If we are lucky, Bernie Sanders will be the solution to our problems. Otherwise, things look quite bleak for our society. I can only hope that eventually the chickens come home to roost for those who have inflicted so much discomfort on so many for so long, upon their fellow Americans to boot.
We are a nation run by wealthy right wing psychopaths who couldn't give a rats back for the sake of the country's working class.
These people loathe socialism, but they were more than happy to empower China by sending them tens of thousands of factories, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands since 1980. They did this because it broke the back of American labor. Now we see the other side of that. The wealthy are dancing on the working mans grave out in the confines of the Hamptons, Aspen, and Davos.
Furthermore, our government has traded jobs for geopolitical influence on the backs of the American worker, never the upper classes, since the end of WWII.
If, around 1990, the Islamic jihadist had sharpened their focus to merely attacking America's contemptuous upper classes for their treatment of the working class, the American masses would already be well on their way to conversion to Islam by now.
If we are lucky, Bernie Sanders will be the solution to our problems. Otherwise, things look quite bleak for our society. I can only hope that eventually the chickens come home to roost for those who have inflicted so much discomfort on so many for so long, upon their fellow Americans to boot.
15
I started to notice this trend in 2008. Most of them were in the finance industry. Most were whites and middle-aged. I don't know their actual death rates but they were "hopelessly" growing old quickly. During the good times no one said anything because it was about "money." During the bad times, the government came in and bailed them out. It had allowed them to keep their job, but also their bosses to keep their jobs. But here's the punch to their stomach - their bosses aren't their bosses anymore. They are being monitored. That's expected. What wasn't expected was their bosses of 20 years turned their backs on their workers who had worked for them for many years. Work is no longer the American identity, its religion. 90 hour week wasn't enough anymore. The bosses want more and more, as if the financial industry were making amends for past moral lapses. No smile, no thank you, no trust, no friendship (as if there were) and a lot more paper work. This is where the GOP failed their constituency - they have betrayed even the trust of their most loyal workers. Suicide rates also parallel the death rates for white middle-aged males. The death rates rising, sadly because of the deprivation of the emotional identity that were once the biggest source for middle-aged whites - the work environment, professionalism, and collegiality. Bring that back and you will nurture the spirituality of the middle-aged whites. Also take the money factor away. It made it worse in the end health wise.
4
I doubt many of the people working at the levels of highest stress in the financial industry could be described as having "no more than a high school education".
6
Education has always been a factor for sex and race and this is the NYT. My point here is what's driving the "white" factor other than "privilege?" Rates for Drugs, alcohol, and suicides for the whites are also up in relativity with other races and sex, and not just morality, but morbidity (health, divorce, etc). I see it in affluent in mostly white neighborhoods. Heroin is coming back in small, religious, conservative coastal communities in kids who are still in high school. That's probably a part of your "high school education or below" statistics.
2
The number of whites reporting difficulty socializing, shopping, and walking two blocks increased - as well as reports of chronic pain. Obesity can't explain this- else we would see increases in heart disease and diabetes deaths. This honestly sounds like an emerging epidemic of a new disease. Depression or economic pain generally don't limit your ability to walk or talk as described in this article - they would have to be quite severe.. Time to analyze some more mortality rates.
7
"This honestly sounds like an emerging epidemic of a new disease."
What kind of new disease would affect only white Americans 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education?
What kind of new disease would affect only white Americans 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education?
2
Now, the study has to be conducted as to why is that happening..and I am sure!it will be because of the poor diet that these white, less educated ,males had.I wish more people realize-they ARE what they EAT!
2
Let them eat cake, WestchesterMom?
5
Where are you and hundreds of others getting 'males' from? The paper says the effects are similar for men and women. It also lists the causes of death, going out of the way to say that heart disease and diabetes are not among them.
6
Rather ironic that the factors contributing to the increased rate of deaths amongst middle aged whites most likely are: poor education, low pay or unemployment, poor access to health care - all of which are the result of policies and practices by the American governments - local and federal, and corporations, most of which are controlled and operated by ... white men.
19
modestly educated, middle-aged and white... omg, they're describing alcoholics anonymous! although, come to think of it, as people who can see how the story is going to end, aa may run counter to the mortality trend.
Those years have been brutal to poor families: job losses, foreclosures, under employment with attendant debt, divorces that end family ties. These experiences lead to alcohol and drug use, to suicide, and to other rotten health conditions.
9
Except that, as the article points out, the same thing is NOT happening among whites in other countries who have been equally affected by adverse economic conditions nor is it happening among American blacks or Hispanics who have also been hit hard by the economic downtown, often with far more adverse consequences.
2
Now why is this a surprise? Unless you're considered 'diverse' enough to please bosses who grew up in what's become a ridiculously shallow culture, simply looking 50 when you're 50 is enough to get you bounced. So what can a fellow do once the plastic surgery doesn't work as intended, the abs just don't get well defined, and he can no longer manage to keep up with a 24-7-365 (plus one day for leap years) work culture with vigourous gym sessions being expected as a substitute for lunch breaks? He often gets sacked, and has about as much of a chance to find a new job these days as you'd have of getting a genuine gold coin in your pocket change. It doesn't take a genus to figure out where this can - and all too often does - lead.
What this says about the kind of society we've evolved in this country speaks volumes. None of it good.
What this says about the kind of society we've evolved in this country speaks volumes. None of it good.
16
I'm not at all surprised by the rising death rate among middle aged white men and women. For decades white people have been routinely bashed by the mainstream media as just plain evil. White men and women have been unfairly stereotyped as insensitive, homophobic, sexist and racist. Middle aged white baby boomers are also bashed as thieves stealing from our kids future piggy banks. Is it any wonder that so many of us find Donald Trump's maverick campaign for president so appealing??? No one else is coming to our rescue.
3
Yes, it hurts to be stereotyped unfairly. White people are not the only group who are, though; it's been common, and white people have done it, too, to those who are not white. It's surely easier to see the wrongness of it when it's done to you, though. It's not fair to stereotype by age, race, or any other unchangeable factor, nor to vilify large groups by the actions of a few. If we could ALL stop that, it would be to the good of us all.
7
ummm White Americans have created this country on these very foundations. In fact they took PRIDE in this. Chickens have come home to roost! Dare I say?
11
You do realize the mainstream media that you say has been routinely bashing white people, is made up of white people?
7
When this death rate data is tabulated and laid out on a national map, I bet it will resemble the one provided by a recent NY Times article on health care insurance - the lack thereof.
Try this existing map on for size, by way of the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/31/upshot/who-still-doesnt-ha...
Also note how closely it resembles Republican voting patterns.
Will they ever learn.
Or just simply get to the polls ....... literally for their own survival.
Try this existing map on for size, by way of the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/31/upshot/who-still-doesnt-ha...
Also note how closely it resembles Republican voting patterns.
Will they ever learn.
Or just simply get to the polls ....... literally for their own survival.
12
Are these men married or have a significant other?
2
Generally, when you lose your job, the significant other is lost too.
4
Bingo! 1. Women arrange social lives of families. 2. Blue collar men don't believe in marriage, just hooking up with women. They probably had kids the women wanted but they didn't, then abandoned them. Now they are all alone. Their chickens have come home to roost.
That demographic is simply imploding, and it’s not due to financial problems since Whites don't face job discrimination; and make more than Blacks and Hispanics.
Simply put, you can’t lead a meaningful life if your identity is based upon a false sense of racial superiority, discrimination, manipulation, self-righteousness, aggression, lies and paranoia.
Some of the blame should be placed at the feet of Faux News and other right-wing media who offer up daily dosages of “White Man’s Outrage.” They play on the insecurities of this morally bankrupt group, offering them the false hope that if minorities, especially Blacks, would just accept their place, then Whitetopia would be achieved.
Wake up, look inside, and relate to other groups instead of trying to control or destroy them.
Simply put, you can’t lead a meaningful life if your identity is based upon a false sense of racial superiority, discrimination, manipulation, self-righteousness, aggression, lies and paranoia.
Some of the blame should be placed at the feet of Faux News and other right-wing media who offer up daily dosages of “White Man’s Outrage.” They play on the insecurities of this morally bankrupt group, offering them the false hope that if minorities, especially Blacks, would just accept their place, then Whitetopia would be achieved.
Wake up, look inside, and relate to other groups instead of trying to control or destroy them.
19
Just as an effort is being made to bring young women up to par with young men in math and science....there is a need to build self esteem in lower middle class white males to continue with schooling to a college level or to acquire a skill so there are options available when their health fails.
Chronic pain is defeating in all ways. Better mental health and physical support is crucial. However, if there are no safeguards in place...such as questioning by their physicians to monitor for depression then...there are no safety nets for this population.
Chronic pain is defeating in all ways. Better mental health and physical support is crucial. However, if there are no safeguards in place...such as questioning by their physicians to monitor for depression then...there are no safety nets for this population.
8
Stress from trying to live to the middle income that our parents realized, and now living with the cuts in union jobs, outsourcing jobs with the companies charging the same prices made with cut labor rates is destroying middle America, the working class that works for a living , rather than the chosen ones that sit back with inherited riches and just reap the rewards.
Health care insurance that is totally out of price range for so many workers, out range drug prices, utility bills, demands from children to be connected like all their friends to internet and cell phones, how really we are feeling the affects of the American Oligarchi
Health care insurance that is totally out of price range for so many workers, out range drug prices, utility bills, demands from children to be connected like all their friends to internet and cell phones, how really we are feeling the affects of the American Oligarchi
16
Dr. Deaton said. “Only H.I.V./AIDS in contemporary times has done anything like this.” That's simply not true. In about the same period of time that 600,000 people of all ages and genders died of AIDS in the USA many more women, two million women at least - over three times as many as have died of AIDS, have died of just breast cancer alone. Most of those deaths were caused primarily by doctor prescribed carcinogenic birth control pills and hormone "replacement" drugs, which were the most profitable pharmaceuticals for 35 years for the drug industry. Breast cancer is only one of the diseases caused by these drugs. Lung cancer among non-smokers is another, while heart disease and stroke have exploded among women who used to be thought to be almost immune to these diseases. As a result, the life expectancy of low-income white women has been eroding (by about 7 years) since the nineties; with little comment or notice. With the decrease in smoking and more health consciousness the trend should be the opposite.
9
This is beyond sad. Just a quick look at that graph shows that in contrast, the death rate for Canadians in the same age group is dropping (although it's not broken down by race, so not sure how white Canadians fare). However, I can't doubt that drug and alcohol addiction is just as widespread here in Canada among low income whites. The difference may be that, with our public medical system, everyone has equal access to treatment that may save their lives (either in the short term or over many years), no matter what's in their wallet. How much does the financial barrier to care in the U.S. contribute to this segment of the population dying young? How many people without medical insurance can't justify paying out of pocket to see a doctor until it's something "serious," meaning it may already be too late?
18
Several years ago the Vancouver Sun had an expose about Canada's vaunted health care system. In all of Alberta, it said, there was only one (1) MRI machine. Many similar examples were trotted out, eh. Canadians routinely went to American hospitals from Seattle to Buffalo for time-sensitive surgeries, the waiting list was life-threatening in Canada. Indeed, the Prime Minister of Canada went to NY when he needed heart surgery. I've read many such stories about the NHS in England, also. Dirty hospitals with MRSA outbreaks, mixed-gender wards (!) plagued by randy semi-naked patients, and interminable waits. The goal then: to reduce time from diagnosis to treatment of cancer to.... one year. Not a joke. Socialized health care gives new afflatus to the old joke, "Is he dead, or just Canadian?"
I just cannot get around the fact that our middle aged white men's death rate is rising, but not Canada, nor any other first world country.
4
The system is not perfect, but at least it's there. Everyone uses time-sensitive surgeries as an argument against public health care and yes, there may be waiting lists for some of these, but most people might receive these sorts of treatments once or twice in their lifetimes, if at all. (And yes, the wealthy will always go to the private side and buy their way to the top of the list.) What most people of all income levels actually use our health care system for--without hesitation or worry of going into debt to do so--are regular visits to their family doctor or walk-in clinic, reasonably priced prescriptions, specialist appointments when necessary, and maybe a few ER visits. We have a culture of seeking full medical care when necessary and that helps save lives--a patient goes to a walk-in clinic with abdominal pain and the doctor sends her for tests that show the early stages of liver disease; a family doctor who has treated a man for 20 years recognizes that the patient may be depressed and helps him to manage it; a woman who overdoses on pills goes straight to emergency without hesitation and her life is saved.
5
Only the TPP, more immigration, and lower taxes for the rich can solve this problem. This is why Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush have joined hands to save America's Middle Class.
PS: White people are just feeling the displacement blacks have felt over the last forty years, and their getting the same results. Though we should also increase jail terms greatly so this group can now get the full black treatment.
PS: White people are just feeling the displacement blacks have felt over the last forty years, and their getting the same results. Though we should also increase jail terms greatly so this group can now get the full black treatment.
11
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
~Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
~Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
13
That's the Republican plan for dealing with social security and medicare.
6
As an older white male with impeccable references and work history I know the feeling of despair. In the late 70s it was equal employment for women. For the next 10 years mostly women were hired to diversify the workplace. Then came affirmative action along with cultural diversity. That was followed by the youth movement. Now it is diversity in sexual orientation. At some point one gets tired of trying to swim upriver against all these changes. Somehow it became fashionable to hire a woman, a minority, a sexual identity or person with a combination of these characteristics instead of a white male. Eventually, albeit too late for middle-aged white men, it will return to "the best qualified person for the job." Then the highest rates of depression and suicide will return to the norm.
9
White males are not in the minority in job holding. Government power positions and corporate power also are nearly all white and male. Academic positions of power are white and male by large margins. Change in the preferences given white males for generations make it appear that other kinds of people are "encroaching" on territory that "belongs to us", but the "fashion" of other people's having anywhere near equal opportunity is quite new and not the reason for the losses of work and respect that have hit all working people. This article, btw, is not about white males, but women as well; and black suicide rates are still a lot higher than those of whites.
23
When has it ever been "the best qualified person for the job."? Black Americans and women were shut out of the "American dream" by white men, up until 50 years ago.
12
"black suicide rates are still a lot higher than those of whites."
Incorrect. The suicide rate of whites was twice as high in 2000, and now is approaching 3x as high as blacks. White suicides are increasing, black suicides are level or decreasing.
http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2013/04/05/us_homicide__sui...
Incorrect. The suicide rate of whites was twice as high in 2000, and now is approaching 3x as high as blacks. White suicides are increasing, black suicides are level or decreasing.
http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2013/04/05/us_homicide__sui...
3
To those commenting about gender (or lack here of mention), there are numerous other articles explaining both this study and companion studies which tie this to men. A statistic in the also excellent Washington Post article(s): "In January, the CDC reported that an average of six people die every day because of alcohol poisoning and that 76 percent are ages 35 to 64. Three-quarters are men."
Most alarmingly, the Post also notes that prestigious medical journals such as the JAMA rejected this study by a Nobel winner.
Sometimes the urge to be "inclusive" of some leads to exclusion of others. . Perhaps that is the case.
Most alarmingly, the Post also notes that prestigious medical journals such as the JAMA rejected this study by a Nobel winner.
Sometimes the urge to be "inclusive" of some leads to exclusion of others. . Perhaps that is the case.
3
Nevertheless, this article should have clarified what is happening with the death rate for white women in the same age and educational group. Is it also rising at the same rate as for men or more slowly? Is it stable? Or is it continuing to decline as it is for most other groups?
From the paper: "Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately."
2
I read most of the comments and being 50 myself I can echo everyone's voices that american life is a treacherous, painful minefield for anyone not in the top 1%. It takes a very strong, spiritual values-centered, and thoughtful person to be able to cope and persevere in the face of so many growing challenges. Thus humility, prayer, and self-reflection would seem to be a far better and more positive approach to life's tough challenges than alcohol and drugs and suicide. But there's a lot of value in surviving and getting through it all- maybe we have forgotten that critical ingredient so necessary for staying alive and longevity?
13
It's probably a list of factors. Financial stress, over-work and obesity. Americans work harder and longer as standard of living declines. But the leading factor has to be substance abuse. The U.S. is a nation of addicts. Alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, illegal drugs. The pharmaceutical companies are so good at marketing their products that many people are walking around high and don't even know it. It doesn't help that there are four times as many internal combustion engines as just several decades past. They allowed the liquor industries to resume televisions ads. And the industry proved once again that advertising works. They make drinking hard liquor look glamorous, normal, and exciting. When it's actually enormously destructive to the body. Enormous profits resulted as American liquor consumption skyrocketed. Studies prove that 10 per cent of drinkers give the booze companies 90 per cent of their profits. Hope these grim reapers are proud of themselves for killing so many people. And for encouraging young people to swig the hard stuff as their elders die.
3
Substance abuse doesn't generally happen in a vacuum. People indulge in drugs because they're bored, stressed, depressed, etc.
No, the problem began to form when folks putting on bumpers in Detroit in 1950 were making $350 a week while anybody making cars in any other "advanced country" were lucky to make 10% of that Detroit union pay. How long did you think it would be until the vast expanse of world inequality would start to close among industrialized nations? It is now nigh and we have to prepare ourselves better for the new America.
4
Many people prefer to simply opt out of a world without hope for anything besides poverty.
1
Every symptom they cite (suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, difficulty socializing and pain) has its roots in stress. The scientific literature shows direct links between all of them and stress.
Psychological stress affects the body directly. It decreases the immune system, digestive function, cognitive function and central nervous system function. No one wants to feel emotional pain. Those who do not have skills that allow them to manage stress in healthy ways turn to what is available: food, alcohol, and drugs.
Common techniques to reduce stress touted by most stress management practitioners are dose-dependent, you have to do them repeatedly and they are only effective when you do them. They do not change the root cause of stress.
Research is very clear that even people who know how to use dose-dependent techniques like exercise, helping others, going outside, etc. don't do them when they feel too stressed, even when they know it will help. Dieters frequently cite stress as the reason they fall off the wagon. Stress is usually the reason someone who has gone through rehabilitation relapses.
Despite this increase in mortality rates, middle-aged white people are still doing better than some minorities and the main reason is the same--STRESS.
All of my books provide practical techniques that reduce stress at the root cause and which are NOT dose-dependent.
Jeanine Joy
Psychological stress affects the body directly. It decreases the immune system, digestive function, cognitive function and central nervous system function. No one wants to feel emotional pain. Those who do not have skills that allow them to manage stress in healthy ways turn to what is available: food, alcohol, and drugs.
Common techniques to reduce stress touted by most stress management practitioners are dose-dependent, you have to do them repeatedly and they are only effective when you do them. They do not change the root cause of stress.
Research is very clear that even people who know how to use dose-dependent techniques like exercise, helping others, going outside, etc. don't do them when they feel too stressed, even when they know it will help. Dieters frequently cite stress as the reason they fall off the wagon. Stress is usually the reason someone who has gone through rehabilitation relapses.
Despite this increase in mortality rates, middle-aged white people are still doing better than some minorities and the main reason is the same--STRESS.
All of my books provide practical techniques that reduce stress at the root cause and which are NOT dose-dependent.
Jeanine Joy
3
This same beleaguered demographic is remarkably similar to that of Tea Partiers and followers of Trump. Not surprising
15
Indeed, in 1735 comments so far, no one has expressed surprise.
10
It is both enlightening and diappointing that two generations after we started redistributing over $22 trillion to equalize things with the poor that so many still buy into the white privilege fable. This is our first national skid down the anti-achievement row.
It's a parenting thing. Government can never be your parents.
It's a parenting thing. Government can never be your parents.
4
Maybe white people are weaker and can't take the reality that they don't run things anymore.
7
Maybe instead of all the sneers at people who have died in sorrow (of which there are many in this thread), we might face the reality that we didn't know them, and that we don't know what our own fates will be. Sophocles wrote in Oedipus Rex, "Count no man fortunate before his death." Take it to heart, NB.
23
Or take the reality that they must now live the lives they've (their ancestors, their privilege) inflicted on others ? And they can't do it. So, weak? Yes. Suicide is weakness. Drug addition is weakness and sickness. Sickness is, well, sickness.
4
"Maybe white people are weaker"
How are you any different than an Aryan supremacist, other than that you draw the opposite conclusion?
How are you any different than an Aryan supremacist, other than that you draw the opposite conclusion?
3
Who have been more marginalized by "progressive" policies over the past 30 years than white males? Who is less prepared to deal with that marginalization than an economically challenged white male? As the years go by, whose mental health feels the accumulated strain more than a middle aged, economically challenged white male? And this is "startling"?
8
How is moving jobs overseas a progressive policy? It appalls me that people try to make this about conservative/liberal Republican/Democrat.
2
I find the situation both tragic and ironic when researchers "stumbled on their finding by accident". The negative impacts of the past decade and more couldn't possibly go unnoticed forever. Is anyone surprised by Dr. Deaton's and Dr. Case's findings?
The article specifically focuses on the most vulnerable individuals within a previously advantaged labor demographic. Minorities aren't experiencing the same growth in mortality because these groups are already disenfranchised to a measurable degree. The mortality rate therefore won't grow.
The troubling aspect to the finding exceeds generally anticipated statistics though. I believe the trend is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Soon, we'll no longer focus on just the high school educated, disabled, and/or aging. We have an entire generation (increasingly educated) patiently awaiting their turn to advance. Doesn't seem to happen for most.
Millennials (age, education, and ethnicity aside) are and will continue to be worse off than their parents and grandparents. Gen-X-ers might begrudge boomers their longevity but millennials need to seek counselling now. They've gotten a bad shake from all their predecessors.
The article specifically focuses on the most vulnerable individuals within a previously advantaged labor demographic. Minorities aren't experiencing the same growth in mortality because these groups are already disenfranchised to a measurable degree. The mortality rate therefore won't grow.
The troubling aspect to the finding exceeds generally anticipated statistics though. I believe the trend is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Soon, we'll no longer focus on just the high school educated, disabled, and/or aging. We have an entire generation (increasingly educated) patiently awaiting their turn to advance. Doesn't seem to happen for most.
Millennials (age, education, and ethnicity aside) are and will continue to be worse off than their parents and grandparents. Gen-X-ers might begrudge boomers their longevity but millennials need to seek counselling now. They've gotten a bad shake from all their predecessors.
14
You very succinctly see a myriad of things (Intentionally?) done to our country since the Dem Congress came alomng in Jan. 2007. Plug Ted Cruz or Rubio in to the White House and bring back actual planning to get poor workers working again and the Treasury AND the national mood will surprise you. It happened in the 80's, too.
Right, this was an economic paradise before the perfidious Democrats took Congressional control in 2007. This study covers the last 15 years. This is bigger than party, but people aren't comfortable with anything outside of their preconceived political notions.
4
When you don't allow emotional issues, dysfunction and trauma to come to the surface in order to transform and release, you will have to manage it chemically later on. 60% of americans are on 2 or more prescriptions in order to "manage" their emotional issues. At the same time spending for mental health has declined. We warehouse our mentally ill population in prison. Looks like a "catch 22" with big pharma and the prison matrix winning.
14
Indeed, big Pharma needs to be reigned in
6
This is a silent genocide by the ruling elite via directing resources and laws to siphon wealth, security and dignity from the general population via:
1. Rigged trade agreements that destroy jobs and wages
2. Massive healthcare costs that are twice those of the rest of the world
3. Broken education markets that have inflated education costs
4. A banking and credit system that is usurious and destructive
5. A national security state that wastes trillions on wars and equipment
6. A lack of investment that broadly benefits the citizenry
...
In other words we have murder and tyranny by the powerful via a unique form of American totalitarianism.
1. Rigged trade agreements that destroy jobs and wages
2. Massive healthcare costs that are twice those of the rest of the world
3. Broken education markets that have inflated education costs
4. A banking and credit system that is usurious and destructive
5. A national security state that wastes trillions on wars and equipment
6. A lack of investment that broadly benefits the citizenry
...
In other words we have murder and tyranny by the powerful via a unique form of American totalitarianism.
39
CR will SEE that investment in employee-rich businesses once Obamacare and other redistributions are removed. The rich actually love this country and will take a risk once they know the Prez isn't devoted to destroying the people and their jobs.
But would CR invest money in a business today knowing that socialists want to take any profits for that enterprise just to buy votes with while never helping business survive?
We'll have to tame the regulations monster too - just like Reagan the Employer did to create 15 to 30 million jobs.
But would CR invest money in a business today knowing that socialists want to take any profits for that enterprise just to buy votes with while never helping business survive?
We'll have to tame the regulations monster too - just like Reagan the Employer did to create 15 to 30 million jobs.
2
The health costs are roughly 4 times other "civilized" cultures, with worse outcomes.
10
A wonder, then, that there was so much investment in employee-rich businesses during the postwar era, from 1945-1980, when income tax rates on top earners were at least twice what they are now, ranging from 70%-94%, and capital gains tax rates were anywhere from 25%-35%, compared to 15% today. A wonder, too, that the middle class flourished during those years.
13
Within the suicide number, how many are gun deaths? Does increased access to guns among white middle aged males, or ownership of multiple guns, correlate with increased risk of suicide and domestic violence death? Is there a 'smoking gun' health issue?
12
The last thing we need is gun grabbing, that plays perfectly into the globalist hands.
1
Most, yes, yes
As a rural healthcare provider, here's what I see:
The economy is busted, so one way of survival is to become disabled and seek disability payments. In areas where this culture has continued for more than one generation, most seem to see it as the *only* way to survive.
In order to secure disability payments, you must convince yr provider & others that you are in pain. (Or that your pain is incurable/unmanageable.) For self respect, you must also convince *yourself* that your pain is unmanageable) & therefore permanent disability is justified.
Your healthcare provider will likely try to treat you with opioids & these will lead to depression & addiction.
If you can't afford opioid co-payments, you'll resort to alcohol or street narcotics, both bringing more depression & real risk of fatal overdose.
Keys to fix this:
Anyone who is disabled needs medical and or mental health support and should have it.
Disability should NOT be linked to payments! There must be no incentive to remain disabled. We need to look at most disabilities as a temporary situation, not a permanent lifestyle. I guess this means we maybe need to provide govt-financed jobs to all disabled, on the lines of the WPA? (Note: I am disabled and I work full time and always have.)
We need to fix the economy. There need to be jobs, however humble, for all. I totally think this is possible.
We need to train a lot more healthcare providers in compassionate pain management and mental health support.
The economy is busted, so one way of survival is to become disabled and seek disability payments. In areas where this culture has continued for more than one generation, most seem to see it as the *only* way to survive.
In order to secure disability payments, you must convince yr provider & others that you are in pain. (Or that your pain is incurable/unmanageable.) For self respect, you must also convince *yourself* that your pain is unmanageable) & therefore permanent disability is justified.
Your healthcare provider will likely try to treat you with opioids & these will lead to depression & addiction.
If you can't afford opioid co-payments, you'll resort to alcohol or street narcotics, both bringing more depression & real risk of fatal overdose.
Keys to fix this:
Anyone who is disabled needs medical and or mental health support and should have it.
Disability should NOT be linked to payments! There must be no incentive to remain disabled. We need to look at most disabilities as a temporary situation, not a permanent lifestyle. I guess this means we maybe need to provide govt-financed jobs to all disabled, on the lines of the WPA? (Note: I am disabled and I work full time and always have.)
We need to fix the economy. There need to be jobs, however humble, for all. I totally think this is possible.
We need to train a lot more healthcare providers in compassionate pain management and mental health support.
23
What I see, working for a non-profit organization, is adults receiving SSI which makes them eligible for Medicaid. Since there was no expansion of Medicaid in Texas, that is one of the few ways to get health insurance if you are low-income between 18 and 65. Also, the great majority of the people I speak with in that situation are, in reality, unemployable. In Texas, the maximum one can receive from SSI is $730 a month. For those living in Houston, at least, they're lucky to have $100 left after paying for rent. I don't know of anyone who thinks that's a good deal, but it is survival. Also in Texas, cases are reviewed every so often and SSA may decide they are no longer disabled and, therefore, not eligible for SSI any longer.
9
This is the face of despair. This is what you get when too few have too much - and the rest begin to see the American Dream for what has become - a big lie.
30
It would be interesting to see this mapped state by state.
17
The reasons for this increase in mortality among the middle class are complex. The authors point to increases in suicides and drug/alcohol abuse as a key factor. I'm certain of one thing--the problem is unlikely to be fixed by democrats pointing fingers at republican policies and vice versa. The root of the problem can be found in the jaw-dropping rates of adverse childhood experiences. If you are unaware of the research, go to www.acestudy.org and see for yourself. When children (those age 18 and under) are exposed to six or more of the 10 types of abuse/neglect identified by the researchers, the lifetime odds of suicide increase by a factor of between 31-50 times that of children raised with no adverse childhood experiences. The CDC has confirmed the shocking frequency of these experiences and the ace studies authors have connected the dots. Adverse Childhood Experiences result in attachment/bonding difficulties which lead to social/interpersonal conflict, emotional distress which leads to excessive drug/alcohol use which lead to physical illness, social alienation/isolation, mental illness, marginalization and early death. Do you really think the problem of child abuse is going to be fixed by finger-pointing among those on the political left and right? Think again.
4
Where in the article does it say that it's the middle class reflected in these numbers? Seems to me that if middle class were actually part of the equation, then the numbers would be much smaller. You're reaching and over-thinking the issue. It's pretty simple. Most of these people, I would bet, had been facing a pretty grim future, to say the least. Adverse Childhood Experiences wouldn't suddenly explain such a marked increase in these numbers. There's a whole forest behind those trees.
9
Why do so many of these comments focus on men so specifically? The column and the paper are about both men and women.
17
Seems perfectly obvious that if you stop treating people like human beings, turn everything into a number and throw people in the rubbish heap they are going to become depressed, addicted, overweight/unhealthy, etc. Now who is going to have the answer to change the course of this neo-liberal dystopia? Hillary, Bernie, Piketty/Krugman?
8
I scoff at your description of this scourge as "neoliberal." It is SOLEY the fault of rancid conservatives who've aided and abetted the 1%. Dream on, bbulen65. dream on...
9
There was no billionaire class prior to neoliberal deregulation policies beginning in the 70s
1
You are incorrect; in today's $$, Rockefellar; Carnegie, et al. would have been considered such. The trust-buster Roosevelt is to thank for regulation policies. Need I say more. Don't be so myopic, bb.
3
When we lost extended families with multiple workers, rotating over time, with the younger becoming old and still having a place among those they had raised, with those laid off or injured or sick cared for without recrimination, the seeds of this were sewn. We could buy the myth of the necessary "independence" of every person, the "self-reliance" of money enough to handle anything that might come, only as long as our national prosperity and employment policies made that possible. People living in countries in which that myth never stood a chance know better, as we once did. Until we can love each other again, or at least tolerate each other without vilification, we're going to be in deep, deep trouble. Divided we fall.
10
People 'love each other' when they feel secure. Unions and governmental health care such as in Canada and the UK make a BIG difference.
5
I agree with you completely, Sheryll. It will take both our solidarity with each other and our working to provide a means to the common good to find our way out of this mess.
4
These data remind me of the rapid increase in mortality rates in Russia following the collapse of the USSR. The causes may be the same: economic changes that result in a declining standard of living and alcohol abuse
12
In retrospect, this should not be surprising. This group of white, middle-class, uneducated or poorly educated Americans is suffering a huge hangover from their parents' generation. Their parents were uneducated, but were still able to get well-paying factory jobs that required minimum skills, had good pay & benefits, and plenty of time off to enjoy those benefits on a uniform/predictable work week. Being white also helped get them hired due to significant remaining prejudice against minorities (and women).
They tried to follow their parent's lifestyle and got trapped in a world that changed on them. The remaining factories no longer pay well, service jobs have unpredictable work times, nobody gets decent benefits, and they look around them and see they are no longer "privileged," as everyone is part of their club now. It is actually a downward move to the lower middle class not a rising of others to their former level. What could be more depressing?
They listened to their parents who told them education was for losers so take the easy route and they are bound in many cases to small towns with no opportunity. Now they feel they are too old to go back to school and trapped because they have only lived in a single small world. Sounds like a prescription for drink/drugs, depression, and suicide. Sadly, I don't think there is a solution, so maybe our focus should be on how to make sure it doesn't happen to the next generation, too!
They tried to follow their parent's lifestyle and got trapped in a world that changed on them. The remaining factories no longer pay well, service jobs have unpredictable work times, nobody gets decent benefits, and they look around them and see they are no longer "privileged," as everyone is part of their club now. It is actually a downward move to the lower middle class not a rising of others to their former level. What could be more depressing?
They listened to their parents who told them education was for losers so take the easy route and they are bound in many cases to small towns with no opportunity. Now they feel they are too old to go back to school and trapped because they have only lived in a single small world. Sounds like a prescription for drink/drugs, depression, and suicide. Sadly, I don't think there is a solution, so maybe our focus should be on how to make sure it doesn't happen to the next generation, too!
18
You speak of a climate ripe for a union movement. It is remarkable, reading the comments, to not see the word 'union' (except in mine). Has the scary nature of the concept of workers getting together to pressure their profit-making bosses to share the profits spread from the Republican care-less bosses so far outward -- like ink -- that everybody daren't say the -- word?
10
Many Americans have been socially indoctrinated since the Reagan administration and the American conservative movement to despise labor unions. After all, conservatives believe that free markets solve all economic problems. Unless that changes you won't see a significant push for more unions.
13
I see it in comment threads on newspaper sites whenever there is a story about unions. People complain that union members have better benefit packages than they do. Rather than think "I'd like to have those benefits, I should demand more of my employer," they say "I don't get those benefits, so they shouldn't either."
6
The huge number of comments from people who can easily relate these dry demographic figures to real lives are a credit to the astute man-and-wife team of economists who made sense of them. Unfortunately that is not the case with the sociologist who spotted something "awry in American households"--nor to the Times editor who picked this foolish academic's blame-the-victim remark as your Quotation of the Day.
When the structure of society starts to crumble, people are swept away with it, which is also what happened when the Soviet Union came apart. (The solvent there was vodka not opoids.) Do you wonder why the Russians accept Putin's authoritarian version of stability? In America, the social contract -- "work hard, play by the rules"-- has been trashed, and people know it. Do you wonder why so many Americans who feel betrayed are looking toward Donald Trump, a very different type of celebrity demagogue who plays to our national myth of winner-take-all individualism?--and never mind whether "You're fired!" destroys your community or yourself.
When the structure of society starts to crumble, people are swept away with it, which is also what happened when the Soviet Union came apart. (The solvent there was vodka not opoids.) Do you wonder why the Russians accept Putin's authoritarian version of stability? In America, the social contract -- "work hard, play by the rules"-- has been trashed, and people know it. Do you wonder why so many Americans who feel betrayed are looking toward Donald Trump, a very different type of celebrity demagogue who plays to our national myth of winner-take-all individualism?--and never mind whether "You're fired!" destroys your community or yourself.
20
After we had our first child, I really wanted a second. My husband and I are well-educated and at the time, felt relatively secure in our positions in our thirties. However, now that I am in my mid-forties and about to put our son through college I am so thankful that we did not have any more children. My husband has managed to maintain his employment as a software engineer and I am a teacher but even we do not feel secure in our futures. The best we can hope for is to provide for our son and remain solvent but any hopes for a happy retirement are now fraught with worry and fear. Please readers, vote for Bernie Sanders. He is the only, the only candidate that actually represents our (99.9%) views and desires as citizens. I am so tired of the constant grind of worry. I would love to have a guaranteed retirement account and a single-payer health care system and not have to brace ourselves for what is coming. This article does not surprise me at all. It is a sad indictment of the nonsense the Republicans continue to spout and their supporters lap up without critically analyzing how low the standard of living and quality of life has become for ordinary Americans. We just have to make it 5.5 more years until our son is launched. Hopefully we will make it.
31
The only reason these scientists are "shocked" by these findings is that they live in an Ivory Tower. I was not surprised because I live in society and I see reality, and don't merely rely on biased media reports and faulty sociology studies to understand the World.
In addition, these deaths are the natural consequence of the democratic party agenda, which blames "white males" for all of the wrongs of society. Democrats destroy the social ties that hold people together, and then ignore these deaths because they care only about "oppressed groups" like gender identity, gay rights, the black community.
What do you expect from people who say that only "black lives matter?"
In addition, these deaths are the natural consequence of the democratic party agenda, which blames "white males" for all of the wrongs of society. Democrats destroy the social ties that hold people together, and then ignore these deaths because they care only about "oppressed groups" like gender identity, gay rights, the black community.
What do you expect from people who say that only "black lives matter?"
2
White males created this society for their own benefit. They wrote the policies that oppressed black Americans and women. Why wouldn't they be blamed?
6
@surgres-
Surely you realize the majority of Democrats are caucasian. Do you see the pretzel logic in claiming the same people who "care only about oppressed groups" "destroy the social ties that hold people together"?
The Democratic party is one of inclusion.
Surely you realize the majority of Democrats are caucasian. Do you see the pretzel logic in claiming the same people who "care only about oppressed groups" "destroy the social ties that hold people together"?
The Democratic party is one of inclusion.
Hi – I offer this theory. Maybe if we offered paid maternity leave and provided more protections and support that allowed women to procreate with confidence in their 20s, their most fertile years, then they would marry and take on some of these men in their 20s. If the men didn’t quite have themselves together just yet it would be okay because young women would be confident that they could maintain their wages and provide for their child’s care. Then the men would have newfound focus and meaning in their lives in their 20s, a partner to problem solve with and hopefully over time get it together and figure out how to navigate this new world all the while comforted and supported by a woman and his children. Where women do well, the larger community does well. Maybe the feminization of the workforce is not the problem, maybe it’s the terrible child-leave and childcare policies available to white women (and all of us women really) that are killing these middle-aged white men.
2
So, women should be "taking on" young men to raise, along with real children? No thank you. When I got married I married a grown-up and I advise every other young woman to do the same.
15
My wife took 6 months of paid maternity leave from her corporate job in New Jersey in 1983. I believe only 2 states offer such largesse.
6
This does not surprise me at all. It's all related. Our lifestyle, food choices, lack of exercise, lack of family support, obesity, etc fuels poor health, poor mental health and depression. Plus you add obesity to lack of exercise, and you have the perfect prescription for pain and sufferering equals pain RX abuse.
AT 65, I mourn the lack of eligible men not only in my age bracket but from 45 up. I would not even consider a man over 60 because they are in terrible shape, not to mention one who is older. These men are on their last legs and are not good candidates as a partner: emotionally, physically, or sexually. In my workplace, most of the men look to be pregnant so I imagine they are all on meds for Type II diabetes and blood pressure.
Sad, but they are going the way of the dinosaur. Why is anyone surprised??? Add that to the release this week that Black women are succombing to breast cancer at a high rate. And no it's not because we are prejudiced, its because their obesity rate is off the charts.
Wise up people. This is not rocket science. We are stupid, lazy, and eating ourselves to death.
AT 65, I mourn the lack of eligible men not only in my age bracket but from 45 up. I would not even consider a man over 60 because they are in terrible shape, not to mention one who is older. These men are on their last legs and are not good candidates as a partner: emotionally, physically, or sexually. In my workplace, most of the men look to be pregnant so I imagine they are all on meds for Type II diabetes and blood pressure.
Sad, but they are going the way of the dinosaur. Why is anyone surprised??? Add that to the release this week that Black women are succombing to breast cancer at a high rate. And no it's not because we are prejudiced, its because their obesity rate is off the charts.
Wise up people. This is not rocket science. We are stupid, lazy, and eating ourselves to death.
6
I would like to see a correlation study with weight gain. The alarming obesity rate of this demographic leads not just to heart disease and diabetes but also to joint pain - hence the overuse of opiates. I had a personal experience of this with a loved one. Here's what happened: Stress over financial situation as well as access to excess amounts of unhealthy, processed food lead to overeating. Weight gain lead to joint pain. Joint pain lead to opiate addiction. Increasing dependence on opiates lead to alcohol use to boost the "high" when more opiates could not be obtained from pain doctors. Death comes from overdose and/or alcohol related liver disease. It's all tied together. Weight gain/depression/alcohol and drug use. We should focus on exercise programs and healthy eating. We've got to get the epidemic of obesity under control in this country or this situation is only going to get worse. More than two thirds of us overweight or obese. More than 1 in 12 preschoolers are considered obese. Why are more people not alarmed by that?!
16
It's true the American diet is horrible, but that is not unique to whites, whereas the rising death rates are unique to whites.
2
Interesting that so many commenters mention "middle-aged white males." The word "male" does not appear in the article at all. We women are hurting, too.
29
(and we males feel invisible...sorry about that...)
6
Most comments have focused on the emotional pain caused by the loss of status and jobs, appropriately enough, but it seems to me that the simple fact of rampant obesity might be catching up with white Americans in middle age. If someone has been obese since childhood or young adulthood, as so many of us are these days, by age 50 that person has been carrying around all that weight for thirty years or more. The article mentions chronic back pain, sciatica, etc. medicated by alcohol and opiates. (We don't like to feel pain, and we do love our pills in this country.) That might contribute to depression and hopelessness. Maybe getting away from our screens and getting more active could go a long way toward changing these statistics.
But, of course, safer neighborhoods, good job prospects, and better education often need to come first. Otherwise, why not just get in the fast-food drive thru line, if there's no hope of your prospects changing anyway? I think it's time for fewer studies and more leadership in this country. People are obviously hurting. It's a shame that we seem to need statistics to tell us that.
But, of course, safer neighborhoods, good job prospects, and better education often need to come first. Otherwise, why not just get in the fast-food drive thru line, if there's no hope of your prospects changing anyway? I think it's time for fewer studies and more leadership in this country. People are obviously hurting. It's a shame that we seem to need statistics to tell us that.
7
This is a deeply sad, and not surprising statistic. Harper's or The Atlantic did a grim piece years ago on the social costs and incredible stress of long term unemployment on middle-aged men.
For years, Republicans fought Obama tooth and nail on sensible, shovel ready projects that would have moved the most vulnerable in their thousands back to work and restored a sense of hope to their lives. Any failure of people to get decent jobs, is a failure of the individual, not of a system that automates or off shores those jobs, without providing anything in their place. The solution to the problem of despair and suicide is obvious.
We might never get to be Denmark, or Canada, but we could learn a few things about creating a better quality of life from our friends with benefits. The Pope's visit moved millions, religious and not, to a sense of yearning.
If our country had a national book club, Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning should be one of the one's at the top of the list. Or Kidder's Strength in What Remains. Human beings with a sense of purpose and community can survive the darkest times. We can do better than this.
For years, Republicans fought Obama tooth and nail on sensible, shovel ready projects that would have moved the most vulnerable in their thousands back to work and restored a sense of hope to their lives. Any failure of people to get decent jobs, is a failure of the individual, not of a system that automates or off shores those jobs, without providing anything in their place. The solution to the problem of despair and suicide is obvious.
We might never get to be Denmark, or Canada, but we could learn a few things about creating a better quality of life from our friends with benefits. The Pope's visit moved millions, religious and not, to a sense of yearning.
If our country had a national book club, Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning should be one of the one's at the top of the list. Or Kidder's Strength in What Remains. Human beings with a sense of purpose and community can survive the darkest times. We can do better than this.
15
"Republicans fought Obama tooth and nail on sensible, shovel ready projects that would have moved the most vulnerable in their thousands back to work and restored a sense of hope to their lives."
The GOP fought Obama because he wanted all infrastructure repair projects to be limited to union workers who would kickback most of their union dues to the democrats. Why would the GOP allow 10 - 15% of all infrastructure spending to go directly to the democrats?
The GOP fought Obama because he wanted all infrastructure repair projects to be limited to union workers who would kickback most of their union dues to the democrats. Why would the GOP allow 10 - 15% of all infrastructure spending to go directly to the democrats?
5
@Charles W.: It's those evil unions that keep people employed, you know.
How about the GOP not hurting the 85%-90% of non-union folks who would've been employed had the infrastructure bills been put through?
What about putting aside political tribalism and getting things done?
How about the GOP not hurting the 85%-90% of non-union folks who would've been employed had the infrastructure bills been put through?
What about putting aside political tribalism and getting things done?
12
Even Urhle himself later admitted that there were no shovel-ready jobs (that met his political strictures.)
If this could have been done without capitalists benefitting, I actually think he'd have gone for it. But his goals have NEVER included helping the poor worker to become independent.
If this could have been done without capitalists benefitting, I actually think he'd have gone for it. But his goals have NEVER included helping the poor worker to become independent.
1
Why does this surprise people? Middle age people are experiencing more divorce, job loss, loss of home to foreclosure. In a growing economy, their pay is flat and their benefits costs are increasing, making it very difficult (along with college tuition costs) to save for retirement. Our health care system has bad outcomes and those without insurance suffer with chronic illnesses. Mental health issues are stigmatized and services are in short supply. Americans are taught to solve their own problems, even problems that few are capable of solving on their own. We have a consumption oriented culture in which material goods and recreation have replaced real purpose in life. People have weaker religious ties, in part because religious organizations have a do what I say, not what I do philosophy. People are exposed to toxic chemicals that have unknown impact on them - from which they cannot protect themselves. And especially for men, their role in society has rapidly changed - with this represented that now women are seldom the brunt of jokes at their expense, but dumb Dads are a popular target. When society doesn't show respect to you, most people start to lose respect for themselves. And when self worth is measured by power, money and material processions, those without them because the reward system is rigged turn their anger on themselves. Think about the mass murderers and murder-suicides and the cases of suicide by police - people need help and aren't getting it.
8
This is a tragedy, indeed, and no doubt it speaks loudly, as other readers have mentioned, about the economic straits in which these men find themselves. Could it also have to do with the changing times to which they have a harder time adapting, not just economically, but sociologically? Growing up without an education often means growing up with a narrower mind-set, which can make adaptation more stressful.
It strikes me as noteworthy that the Mexican males suffered significantly less from early demise. Could it be that they grow up being accustomed to having to adapt to whatever circumstances have to offer them? I moved to Mexico eight years ago, and it strikes me that people here are amazingly resilient when misfortune strikes them, as they have lowered expectations to begin with.
I cannot say that I advocate that Americans should lower their expectations, but
rather that they should demand more of the socioeconomic structure, instead of allowing a vast part of the population to become so distraught that they harm themselves as a way of coping. And that means, demanding more of the 1% as well as teaching more self-reliance to the upcoming generation, who will be growing up poorer and in an environmentally impaired world in which they will need to adapt to unimaginable circumstances.
It strikes me as noteworthy that the Mexican males suffered significantly less from early demise. Could it be that they grow up being accustomed to having to adapt to whatever circumstances have to offer them? I moved to Mexico eight years ago, and it strikes me that people here are amazingly resilient when misfortune strikes them, as they have lowered expectations to begin with.
I cannot say that I advocate that Americans should lower their expectations, but
rather that they should demand more of the socioeconomic structure, instead of allowing a vast part of the population to become so distraught that they harm themselves as a way of coping. And that means, demanding more of the 1% as well as teaching more self-reliance to the upcoming generation, who will be growing up poorer and in an environmentally impaired world in which they will need to adapt to unimaginable circumstances.
13
Any guesses on whether President Obama will put together a quick Rose Garden speech to address this issue? At least half of the deaths are old white men better known as Public Enemy #1 in the Progressive Playbook. These are the early results of his Zero Sum game view of America.There might be some mild fist bumps inside but no speech outside.
4
Why don't you blame the Rentier class that, coincidentally, is predominantly WHITE MALE that has shipped jobs overseas to cut labor costs AND busted unions, which provided jobs for the white male underclass.
17
Based on the time window of the study (particularly with the sharp uprise in the late '90s), and the specified symptoms and causes of death, and some insider-knowledge, one particular demographic group jumped out at me: former service members. They would not account for the entire curve, but I'd be extremely curious to see a new curve based the same data set, with the additional qualifier of service members (regardless of entry date or career highlights) that have left the military without full retirement.
7
Perhaps living one's life on Facebook and trying to keep up with the Joneses has something to do with it, too. "Social" networks are actually more promoting isolation than helping it. Meeting places like libraries are getting harder and harder to find. Hispanics are more insulated from this, they still live in healthy social communities and they are not abandoning their social networks as easily as white males.
10
This age cohort includes many who participated in America's wars - starting with Vietnam and continuing through Desert Storm, et al. We know that current vets of Iraq and Afghanistan have high suicide rates, and we know that veterans of Vietnam had/have high rates of alcohol, substance abuse and homelessness. Did the economists include military service/nonmilitary service as a variable?
11
We have become a society whose members are more and more isolated from one another. More and more of our "empty nesters" and elderly people are living alone. Humans are by nature social creatures who need to interact with others. We need the help and support of those we love especially as we age. There was a time when several generations lived under one roof. Then it became nearby. Now it is across the country. We all seem too busy or engrossed in our electronic toys to maintain real contact with one another. Depression, pain, and suicide seem like inevitable consequences in such a world as we live in today.
13
It seems odd to me that all of these researchers and doctors are shocked by this study and I wonder why. All of us- educated and uneducated- are hanging by a thread in this economy. There is no such thing as job stability anymore, no security, nothing to be taken forgranted. I have a Master's, so I'm lucky in that I am employable and currently employed. But I'll be in debt for the rest of my life, because of unregulated tuition costs. Is it really right for us to be the only remaining developed nation with no regard for the education and health of its population? We can have a million studies but when is something going to be done to actually HELP people? I frankly don't know why anyone would have kids now. This world and particularly the U.S. is only set up for the very wealthy. The rest of us are just scrappers, trying to get by.
25
I work with this population daily.
I want to echo what I find to be true from this article: This group tends to have less education and tends to struggle with chronic pain, whether it be diagnosed as sciatica, or some other malady.
I would add that they tend to be a disillusioned bunch. Weary of the president, angry at the changes happening in our country, and seem to have their hearts fixated on a way of life which no longer exists. They often turn this frustration and their place in a changing country on others and in on themselves. Meth. Prescription pain killers (most). Alcohol. I'm seeing a huge uptick in females (actually more these past 2 years) with the same problem.
The solution? Only slow, patient, and continued investment in our middle class and a shift in cultural values toward education and quality of life for all will help this. Anything else is a bandaid.
I want to echo what I find to be true from this article: This group tends to have less education and tends to struggle with chronic pain, whether it be diagnosed as sciatica, or some other malady.
I would add that they tend to be a disillusioned bunch. Weary of the president, angry at the changes happening in our country, and seem to have their hearts fixated on a way of life which no longer exists. They often turn this frustration and their place in a changing country on others and in on themselves. Meth. Prescription pain killers (most). Alcohol. I'm seeing a huge uptick in females (actually more these past 2 years) with the same problem.
The solution? Only slow, patient, and continued investment in our middle class and a shift in cultural values toward education and quality of life for all will help this. Anything else is a bandaid.
14
I am not going to go through 1500 comments, but it is clear that the white male is being marginalized and even ridiculed on every media level you can imagine. And media is all-pervasive in our society- symbolism and media representations become reality. Some white males simply give up.
6
That is true. Have you noticed how you are still better off than Black and Hispanic males? How do you think they feel?
11
@Elizabeth: How do you think they feel?
Less suicidal?
Less suicidal?
6
Maybe they have fewer illusions on how things really are?
2
Like many commenters, I think globalization and off-shoring of factory jobs are a major contributor to this sad outcome. But I wouldn't overlook that whites face state sponsored and mandated discrimination at many levels, especially in employment and university admissions. Most affluent and highly educated whites are not much adversely affected by "affirmative action"-- but those competing at the lower ends of school and labor markets certainly are.
6
White women are the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action but of course that goes against your little agenda!
4
This country was created with a political, economic and social structure based on white supremacy and racial division. White Americans had Affirmative Action in jobs, education, access to credit, land purchasing and home ownership and business formation from the time they landed in this country until the late 1960s. Now you are seething in resentment because some small measure has been made to correct the injustices of the past.
The height of irony is that you as a white person feel discriminated against because other Americans are being afforded some measure of opportunity denied to them for centuries. You actually feel the natural order of things is white Americans to have more opportunities and economic advantages simply because they are white.
The height of irony is that you as a white person feel discriminated against because other Americans are being afforded some measure of opportunity denied to them for centuries. You actually feel the natural order of things is white Americans to have more opportunities and economic advantages simply because they are white.
10
While the findings presented in this article do strike me as incredibly sad, I am unsettled by the final line--
“Seldom have I felt as affected by a paper,” he said. “It seems so sad.”
I think this was my unconscious reaction to this paper. However, after I something in the final line struck me as wrong, I was compelled to analyze the effect this study is having on many of us.
I realized that these findings are a real life example of "tragedy" in the true literary tradition- the slow and seemingly predestined fall of a once great power, usually proceeded. We have seen the classic accompanying hubris of the white middle class, and then the slow decline.
I don't mean to minimize how truly sad this is. However, there is a reason that we are responding to this article in the way that we are. Would people have the same reaction if the article were about a similar rise in suicide in a different demographic, say poor blacks? Probably not.
In no way does any group of people deserve to experience tragedy like this. However, the surprise that is at the root of this study comes from a place of white privilege. Pride cometh before the fall.
“Seldom have I felt as affected by a paper,” he said. “It seems so sad.”
I think this was my unconscious reaction to this paper. However, after I something in the final line struck me as wrong, I was compelled to analyze the effect this study is having on many of us.
I realized that these findings are a real life example of "tragedy" in the true literary tradition- the slow and seemingly predestined fall of a once great power, usually proceeded. We have seen the classic accompanying hubris of the white middle class, and then the slow decline.
I don't mean to minimize how truly sad this is. However, there is a reason that we are responding to this article in the way that we are. Would people have the same reaction if the article were about a similar rise in suicide in a different demographic, say poor blacks? Probably not.
In no way does any group of people deserve to experience tragedy like this. However, the surprise that is at the root of this study comes from a place of white privilege. Pride cometh before the fall.
11
None of this shocks me. People with jobs do not realize how bad it is for those without jobs. My husband cannot find a job for the life of him. He's over 50 and age discrimination is alive and well. TWO men in our circle of friends have committed suicide. The financial burdens for them and my husband are unbearable. It's taking everything not to let this fate happen to my husband. But despair is everywhere. And we are losing financially. We are no longer middle class. We are only a few years away from losing everything. My husband is a veteran too.
26
When I think of that scenario, one possibility is: relocating to a cheaper locale, esp. Florida. Lots of work, strong growth, no income tax, and if ya get sued you can still keep your house, amazingly. (Texas, the only other state with such a loophole, is doing away with it.) Flat terrain = affordable home prices.
What got me thru some bouts of unemployment was substitute teaching in Salinas at $105 a day in 2001, and in nearby Greenfield for $135 a day. You only need a college degree to do it, and the positive feedback is stimulating. Check the school systems in your area.
What got me thru some bouts of unemployment was substitute teaching in Salinas at $105 a day in 2001, and in nearby Greenfield for $135 a day. You only need a college degree to do it, and the positive feedback is stimulating. Check the school systems in your area.
3
What a surprise eh, 'Merica, to find that your greedy lunge for More has left anyone behind who is not predatorial that way- the bloated priviledge of those who are up for the game of stepping over and on their fellows to get ahead is shameful.
2
So, if someone is in that age group and has more than a high school education they are automatically operating in a "predatorial" fashion. Give me a break.
Flagburner, the study shows an uptick in the last 15 years. It's not like we were egalitarian for the previous 200.
I suspect NAFTA's decimation of the US Manufacturing industry has much to do with these findings. Sadly, President Obama's about to finish the job with the TPP with little apparent resistance from his party or supporters.
Those convinced Republicans & Fox News are solely to blame for the country's ills might cast a critical eye on what "their side" is doing every now & then. Might've helped stop NAFTA, Part 2.
Those convinced Republicans & Fox News are solely to blame for the country's ills might cast a critical eye on what "their side" is doing every now & then. Might've helped stop NAFTA, Part 2.
12
Inevitable result of the War on White People waged by the Democrats for a decade
3
You know, a lot of us Democrats ARE white people, and I assure you we are not waging war on ourselves.
5
Actually, many of us progressives have spoken out against TPP.
3
Treat yourself to a few episodes of the Honeymooners and you'll notice that Ralph and Fred let off steam at 'the lodge.' I believe that these organizations provided a social outlet for middle class men that has not been replicated in our web-based culture. Men need friends but with with homophobia widespread, where and how can men outside the golf club set socialize?
9
When the analysis of this compelling study breaks out the segments that have skewed the results, it will be interesting to see how two population segments that have gained wide media coverage are represented:
a ) military veterans who have faced barrier to entry after barrier to entry in accessing medical and psychiatric care at the VA hospitals, and
b ) states such as Texas which rejected expansion of federally funded Medicaid coverage of lower socioeconomic citizens.
For Texas, this is part of the legacy of former Governor Rick Perry, noteworthy for receiving massive financial support from the late Bob Perry, his "oops" in GOP presidential debates, and his rejection by the Texas A & M vet school admissions committee.
There is, of course, a massive overlap between military veterans and lower socioeconomic citizens.
a ) military veterans who have faced barrier to entry after barrier to entry in accessing medical and psychiatric care at the VA hospitals, and
b ) states such as Texas which rejected expansion of federally funded Medicaid coverage of lower socioeconomic citizens.
For Texas, this is part of the legacy of former Governor Rick Perry, noteworthy for receiving massive financial support from the late Bob Perry, his "oops" in GOP presidential debates, and his rejection by the Texas A & M vet school admissions committee.
There is, of course, a massive overlap between military veterans and lower socioeconomic citizens.
5
Academic systems, employment quotas, pop culture; everything has been elaborately re-structured by "Social Justice Warrior" Progressives to disadvantage this group in every arena and demonize White skin as tainted and inherently wrong, in pop culture.
None of this has been accidental, from "Kill all white men!" Feminist memes, an exclusive focus on Euro-American imperialism in history while ignoring the military pursuits of other peoples and cultures from World history, to painting non-White/European-American, illegal alien workers as somehow superior to poor, White workers.
Who is surprised? Poor, white men, in particular, are the current whipping child for "Progressive" America. Blame them for this new trend of poor, Middle aged White people hating themselves and wanting to die. They're probably quite pleased with this evil development, too.
None of this has been accidental, from "Kill all white men!" Feminist memes, an exclusive focus on Euro-American imperialism in history while ignoring the military pursuits of other peoples and cultures from World history, to painting non-White/European-American, illegal alien workers as somehow superior to poor, White workers.
Who is surprised? Poor, white men, in particular, are the current whipping child for "Progressive" America. Blame them for this new trend of poor, Middle aged White people hating themselves and wanting to die. They're probably quite pleased with this evil development, too.
6
Oh my god. Where, outside of a few universities to social justice warriors have so much power that they keep the white man down? I've never seen so much whining with so little reason for it as I see from the white males in this thread.
6
Professor Lee summed it up pretty well - "It seems so sad". My heart sunk when I read how the researchers eventually reached the conclusion that after so much pain and despair, these individuals reached out the only thing the American culture has to offer - guns, drugs and alcohol.
Thanks NRA for putting so many lethal weapons in the hands of the vulnerable.
Thanks Merck, Glaxo, Novartis and Pfizer for making pain killers the gateway to addiction and suicide.
And finally, a big thank you to those who feel affordable healthcare is a communist conspiracy.
What do all these groups have in common? Greed. It pains me still to think that the people who have created such an environment, who prize the car they drive over the wellbeing of others were at some point innocent little kids. What failure in society created such monsters. Then again, I should be posting this comment in the Wall Street Journal, not the Times.
Thanks NRA for putting so many lethal weapons in the hands of the vulnerable.
Thanks Merck, Glaxo, Novartis and Pfizer for making pain killers the gateway to addiction and suicide.
And finally, a big thank you to those who feel affordable healthcare is a communist conspiracy.
What do all these groups have in common? Greed. It pains me still to think that the people who have created such an environment, who prize the car they drive over the wellbeing of others were at some point innocent little kids. What failure in society created such monsters. Then again, I should be posting this comment in the Wall Street Journal, not the Times.
20
So much negativity!
You take all the fun out of my life and make me so sad... The only consolation I have is that if I drop dead I won't count in that statistic, since I am already out of that age group, i.e. past my expiration date, so to speak.
On second thought, I won't even count as a statistic anymore! Tell me now, what else do I have to look forward to now, if not 'guns, drugs and alcohol'.....
Women?
You take all the fun out of my life and make me so sad... The only consolation I have is that if I drop dead I won't count in that statistic, since I am already out of that age group, i.e. past my expiration date, so to speak.
On second thought, I won't even count as a statistic anymore! Tell me now, what else do I have to look forward to now, if not 'guns, drugs and alcohol'.....
Women?
2
Not with that attitude, JJ...
2
You got a point there, jb.
:-))
:-))
"Privatization" is another factor in transforming many decent paying, public sector jobs that a family could live on into a couple of well-paying owner/manager jobs and many low, subsistence, serf level jobs: AKA the private prison industry, military contracting for basic services, etc.
13
I wonder to what extent childlessness (trending very high among whites lately) might correlate with mortality.
People I know/knew who died in middle age happen to have been childless. Substance abuse and suicide have figured into their deaths, too. Naturally (I'm white, and so are most of my friends), many of the people I know who HAVEN'T died in middle age are childless, too.
People I know/knew who died in middle age happen to have been childless. Substance abuse and suicide have figured into their deaths, too. Naturally (I'm white, and so are most of my friends), many of the people I know who HAVEN'T died in middle age are childless, too.
4
Prediction: The Republicans and Fox News will twist this report to show how taxing white workers to support Romney's 47% (the "takers") improves the lot of the lazy at the expense of hard-working (white) Americans.
4
Prediction: Romney's 47% is several points higher now, and steadily increasing. Good news for Trump.
3
A key issue here (and I've worked with Angus), is that being white and having a high school diploma or less in that age range is a sign that something is wrong. Most whites in that age range have more than a high school diploma, and many have a four year degree. 100 years ago, it was common to not finish high school or to top out with a high school diploma, and so having the diploma was a sign that you were "selected" into a higher status group. Now it evidences negative selection, because the majority get more than a high school diploma. Put another way, having just a high school diploma signals that you are NOT high status.
5
You're incorrect. Forty percent of white Americans have earned a bachelor's degree, That is not "most".
2
That does not appear to be correct. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "From 1990 to 2014, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who had attained a bachelor's or higher degree increased for Whites (from 26 to 41 percent)". In other words, for the leading edge of the 45 to 54 year old age group, only 26% of whites received a degree; even as recently as 2014, we're only seeing 41% of 25- to 29-year-old whites getting a bachelor's or higher degree. Meanwhile, from the NCHEMS Information Center we can learn that in 2011 37.1% of Americans 45 to 54 had an associates degree or higher. Even accounting for the fact that a significantly lower (but greater than zero) percentage of black and Hispanic Americans received associates degrees, it seems quite unlikely one could make a valid claim that "most whites in that age range have more than a high school diploma."
2
This is indeed very sad, but what in the world should we expect?
This is the result of a series of blows to the American worker: the Reagan (cut backs in government investments and attacks on unions), Clinton (ship all good-paying jobs overseas), and most recently Bush (put all available funds into war on the MIddle East while cutting taxes) presidencies.
If by chance you escaped those years, you were then hit by 2008 from which 99% of us still haven't recovered. No wonder middle America is in pain.
Is it any wonder Bernie Sanders has so many supporters here? He's the only one who is actually addressing the deep cause of this - the loss of the nation's good-paying jobs.
This is the result of a series of blows to the American worker: the Reagan (cut backs in government investments and attacks on unions), Clinton (ship all good-paying jobs overseas), and most recently Bush (put all available funds into war on the MIddle East while cutting taxes) presidencies.
If by chance you escaped those years, you were then hit by 2008 from which 99% of us still haven't recovered. No wonder middle America is in pain.
Is it any wonder Bernie Sanders has so many supporters here? He's the only one who is actually addressing the deep cause of this - the loss of the nation's good-paying jobs.
18
I wonder if this is what happens when;
You work really, really hard to get ahead
Carry the tax load
Fret over your kids and try to be good parents
Have no say in the politics of the nation
Don't receive social benefits and entitlements
I guess when middle class whites finally become the minority they will start to feel better.
You work really, really hard to get ahead
Carry the tax load
Fret over your kids and try to be good parents
Have no say in the politics of the nation
Don't receive social benefits and entitlements
I guess when middle class whites finally become the minority they will start to feel better.
2
Anyone who "has no say in the politics of the nation" is their own worst enemy. Those shiftless folks let the GOP have its biggest victory since 1932 (!) just 12 months ago. Likely they'll help the GOP win 12 months from now, again.
8
The comments are fascinating! Each writer interprets this study through his or her personal filter of political beliefs and personal values. Blame Reagan, blame Bush, blame Obama, blame big pharma, blame doctors, blame health insurance carriers ... blame the victims, blame the NRA, etc., etc.
I haven't yet seen a single comment about blaming the media, though. I can't help wondering if one small -- maybe tiny -- part of the problem is the constant onslaught of bad news and fear-mongering that streams daily from hundreds of different broadcast and online sources. If you listen to the radio, watch TV news, and stay on the Internet for hours at a time, you'll quickly be overwhelmed by the cacophony of angry, strident voices, telling you the world is collapsing and nothing is as good as it used to be. It doesn't take too long for those voices (whether they're Rush Limbaugh or NPR) to start taking up residence in your head.
Stepping away from all that, and stepping outside into the world (even if it's just sitting on a park bench) can do wonders for a person's mental health.
I haven't yet seen a single comment about blaming the media, though. I can't help wondering if one small -- maybe tiny -- part of the problem is the constant onslaught of bad news and fear-mongering that streams daily from hundreds of different broadcast and online sources. If you listen to the radio, watch TV news, and stay on the Internet for hours at a time, you'll quickly be overwhelmed by the cacophony of angry, strident voices, telling you the world is collapsing and nothing is as good as it used to be. It doesn't take too long for those voices (whether they're Rush Limbaugh or NPR) to start taking up residence in your head.
Stepping away from all that, and stepping outside into the world (even if it's just sitting on a park bench) can do wonders for a person's mental health.
20
I posted a comment citing George Gilder's book, "Life After Television." It may bob to the surface after the tide goes out.
You make a good point, but I think what commenters here are trying to get at are the root causes of these alarming numbers. These kinds of major changes to health statistics do not come out of a vacuum. And they do not happen over night.
I think what we are seeing are the long term results of political decisions going back, yes, to Reagan who started the process of undermining the middle class in this country, which was -- or used to be -- supported by affordable education and good-paying union jobs. Those jobs have since moved overseas thanks, yes, to Clinton.
Their decisions have had a long-term impact on American workers, particularly the former white middle class. We are seeing the results now.
I think what we are seeing are the long term results of political decisions going back, yes, to Reagan who started the process of undermining the middle class in this country, which was -- or used to be -- supported by affordable education and good-paying union jobs. Those jobs have since moved overseas thanks, yes, to Clinton.
Their decisions have had a long-term impact on American workers, particularly the former white middle class. We are seeing the results now.
6
If one racial or ethnic group are killing themselves off at an alarmingly rapid rate then yes, something is wrong.
There is probably no more miserable position to be in than to be a poor, White person in 2015 America. You are told you are "privileged" by arrogant, isolated activists who tend to be quite well-to-do, even as you fail to find work and are limited in public sympathy for it. You are being rapidly replaced by illegal immigrants who work for less pay, while qualifying for higher, public benefits. No one is throwing a benefit dinner for you or raising money for a "poor, white man" college fund.
Yes, that should alarm you.
There is probably no more miserable position to be in than to be a poor, White person in 2015 America. You are told you are "privileged" by arrogant, isolated activists who tend to be quite well-to-do, even as you fail to find work and are limited in public sympathy for it. You are being rapidly replaced by illegal immigrants who work for less pay, while qualifying for higher, public benefits. No one is throwing a benefit dinner for you or raising money for a "poor, white man" college fund.
Yes, that should alarm you.
4
Why the huge difference in numbers and trend lines between middle- aged whites and middle-aged Hispanics? An article exploring that would be of interest.
2
I assume it is because of better family structures and self-selection through immigration (legal and otherwise) to get harder and smarter workers.
3
Hispanics are overwhelmingly Catholic, and devout. They know the strictures against suicide, and against abortion and adultery too.
3
I see a lot of middle-aged people in my neighborhood who are lonely and depressed. They feel alienated and turn to alcohol in the local bars. Honestly, I was recently thinking that if you are a single adult over 40, one of the few places where you are socially welcome is a bar. Even churches and temples are a little wary and suspicious of older single people. They think you must be an oddball or a freak. You don't fit into their demographic boxes. We are so focused on the young that we cut everyone else adrift. You walk into a bar, the bartender is happy to see you if you have money to buy a drink. And there it begins.
12
The only surprise is that anyone is surprised.
8
Part of this issue is diet and the kind of food that is affordable. The standard American diet produces debilitating levels of inflammation.
8
Duh! Health insurance has so many exclusions and copays, the average American can't get proper treatment. The Blue Cross and the rest managed to have seeing, hearing, eating (dental), and the brain (mental health) stripped from human biology. A living tooth with a crown has to last five years or dental plans will not cover repairs....a living tooth held captive by a piece of porcelain. Only an insurer could come up with that. Look for them to pull the same scam with braces on your limbs.
So, health insurance won't let you get healthy. All a person can do is numb it with pain killers. They use Rx until they insurance will not cover them or they do not work. Then you hit the streets for stronger pain killers, from Vicodin to heroin. Or you use a liquid anesthetic, alcohol. People stay numb until the internal parts give out from substance abuse. And insurers collect premiums for not helping us get our health back. Pretty dumb reasoning. Dead people cannot pay back debts........or insurance premiums.
So, health insurance won't let you get healthy. All a person can do is numb it with pain killers. They use Rx until they insurance will not cover them or they do not work. Then you hit the streets for stronger pain killers, from Vicodin to heroin. Or you use a liquid anesthetic, alcohol. People stay numb until the internal parts give out from substance abuse. And insurers collect premiums for not helping us get our health back. Pretty dumb reasoning. Dead people cannot pay back debts........or insurance premiums.
11
It is likely the same angst that is driving the suicide and drug use up is the same driver leading to Trump's popularity in this same demographic. Trump or die!
2
Trump's our light at the end of the tunnel. You have nothing to fear but Democrat-mongered fear itself. Go boldly where no political hack has gone before!
2
That light, Charles, is a train.
7
Inequality kills.
12
I wonder if the decline of community-building activities such as church going is a factor here? I go to church every Sunday and know that in our Episcopal community we pay close attention to the elderly and those who have struggles. I always wonder what people do who don't have communities around them of people who are morally committed to their welfare. The burden is too heavy for families alone to carry--you need a much larger group to support your emotional and practical needs. The irony here is that the demographic of white people with high mortality are supposedly the more socially conservative church- going population. I wish someone would study the impact on mortality of people with church communities. I was single for most of my adult life and always went to church, not so much because I'm so religious ( though I do think God is to be found in community) but because I knew I needed a group of friends who would help me in times of trouble, as I was willing to help them. What takes the place of church communities today in people's lives?
13
You've hit the nail on the head!
Other countries are even more secular than the United States and are not showing the same trend.
4
The older members of our nation's most neglected generation, Gen X, are starting to crumble.
May the tide turn in time to keep the rest of us from such despair.
May the tide turn in time to keep the rest of us from such despair.
6
The cultural divisions that have been stirred up by the Republicans have resulted in folks like these voting against their own self-interests. It is sad.
8
So we find we have put an inordinate amount of young black men behind bars for the last 30 years to protect us from their drug depravities, but then find that whites are abusing drugs and killing themselves with prescription, corporately managed opiates. And who profits? For-profit prisons and Big Pharma. a nice mess we've gotten ourselves into.
15
Could this be due to the cumulative effects of over-prescription of opiods? All the trend lines -- even suicide -- speak to heavy substance abuse.
2
Its really sad to hear many men of the white race are dying at the age where wisdom, physical & economic strength should have came together.
One of the causes mentioned is mental stress caused by economic hardship. Yet this group are the most reliable Republican voters, even though that party does not represent their economic interests.
What is driving them to ignore their reality so much that they will put corporate stooges in charge of their economic destiny. every one should worry about this, because unhappy middle aged guys with NRA membership can start a war all by them selves.
One of the causes mentioned is mental stress caused by economic hardship. Yet this group are the most reliable Republican voters, even though that party does not represent their economic interests.
What is driving them to ignore their reality so much that they will put corporate stooges in charge of their economic destiny. every one should worry about this, because unhappy middle aged guys with NRA membership can start a war all by them selves.
8
Look at a wage chart--its been downhill since Clinton. Both parties are to blame.
3
Hopefully someone's looking at the outrageous and unaffordable, to many, cost of health care in the U.S. I suspect not only are many without any coverage, along with that could come, depression, alcohol abuse, etc. Worth thinking about. And worth doing something about. We, indeed, are fortunate here. We don't have a "medical industrial complex". Just not for profit health insurance, which we do pay for, by the way.
6
Part of the blame for the increase in middle aged deaths might be the government's zeal (back in the 1980s and 1990s) of criminalizing drug abuse in teenagers thus making their entire lives an uphill battle to simply provide themselves with the necessities of life. Imagine making a mistake as a teenager and never being forgiven for it. Trying to scrape out a life when all doors are closed to you must be very debilitating. Death may be looked on as the only escape left.
7
This study shows a result that seems to be inevitable in our society. Think about it, the percent of the population with college degrees has held steady at the 25% level. The majority of our citizens do not have college educations. The good jobs that were previously available to those with lesser levels of education have evaporated. Yet we live in a consumer society that advertises constantly that we "deserve" all manner of goods and services, most of which are completely unnecessary to a contented life. When people buy into the advertising, but cannot afford the things they have been led to believe represent a good life, how surprising is it that people become depressed and unhappy? For many of us, it is not until we are older and realize that we don't need so much stuff to live fulfilling lives that we reach a happier state in life.
4
In another year, I will be age 80. I have lived in the best of times (1950s -1970s) when opportunities seemed infinite in the USA, particularly in the D.C. area where excellent schooling and jobs were abundant. Reading this report, however, is saddening and frustrating. Ever since the days of Reagan and the so called Republican Revolution, life has slowly but surely gone downhill for Middle Class America unless one had a public sector job with great benefits and secure retirement.
Whether you like it or not, Bernie Sanders is spot on in his messaging while the drivel coming out the Republican candidates offers little hope for a prosperous future for the majority of us. This year, two children of close friends who are well off, committed suicide in their forties due to the effects of drugs and alcohol, leaving behind a grieving wife and children. It seems our country is suffering the same effects of post-Soviet Russia. By financing wars and stationing our military all over the globe, we are leaving behind an impoverished and increasingly mentally disabled populace behind in the homeland. The Decline of America is so similar to the Decline of Rome. It's so sad to witness it in our lifetime.
Whether you like it or not, Bernie Sanders is spot on in his messaging while the drivel coming out the Republican candidates offers little hope for a prosperous future for the majority of us. This year, two children of close friends who are well off, committed suicide in their forties due to the effects of drugs and alcohol, leaving behind a grieving wife and children. It seems our country is suffering the same effects of post-Soviet Russia. By financing wars and stationing our military all over the globe, we are leaving behind an impoverished and increasingly mentally disabled populace behind in the homeland. The Decline of America is so similar to the Decline of Rome. It's so sad to witness it in our lifetime.
34
Imo this is being caused by excessive medical "treatment", motivated by the Medical Industry and Pharmaceutical companies.
Those with most access to the "miracles of modern medicine" have fallen prey to them.
This included prescription pills, whose use doubles every 6 years, partly due to massive advertising that is illegal in every other nation.
The prescriptions of the most popular psychotropic ones directly parallels the increase in dementia and other conditions.
But it is not just the reliance on pills. whose side effects are seldom understood by doctors, but also unnecessary and harmful "routine" tests and the many useless and dangerous procedures they lead to.
And don't think there is any "medical research" that will right these wrongs.
Whenever legitimate studies are done with inescapable conclusions, they are ignored by The Medical Establishment.
Those in less affluent categories ironically are fortunate they can't be talked into these death traps as easily as the majority (white) population.
Those with most access to the "miracles of modern medicine" have fallen prey to them.
This included prescription pills, whose use doubles every 6 years, partly due to massive advertising that is illegal in every other nation.
The prescriptions of the most popular psychotropic ones directly parallels the increase in dementia and other conditions.
But it is not just the reliance on pills. whose side effects are seldom understood by doctors, but also unnecessary and harmful "routine" tests and the many useless and dangerous procedures they lead to.
And don't think there is any "medical research" that will right these wrongs.
Whenever legitimate studies are done with inescapable conclusions, they are ignored by The Medical Establishment.
Those in less affluent categories ironically are fortunate they can't be talked into these death traps as easily as the majority (white) population.
2
Although I believe Big Pharma can be held accountable for doing a tremendous amount of damage, it still doesn't make sense that the rising death rate is found only among a certain demographic--white adults 45 to 54 with no more than a high school education--when all demographics, especially the elderly, have been impacted by the actions of the pharmaceutical companies.
1
It's Big Pharma or Big Food or the Big Bad GOP? Not the choices of the individuals in this group?
1
This country isn't very kind to the ignorant or the foolish. Unfortunately that describes many of the middle aged white people this article is about.
5
#Class matters
3
White privilege, anybody?
7
Doesn't surprise me. Being stupid--okay, ignorant--kills. The stress of seeing someone you consider inferior getting ahead you on line (any line) is more than your over-sized, fat-laden heart can handle. Do better, live longer. On the other hand, the sooner you die the less of your social security the rest of us have to pay. It's win-win; you're miserable anyway,
2
As Bob Newhart advised "Stop it!" Stop the drugs, complaints, junk food.
1
It's the ECONOMY, folks! The real issues are the use of H-1Bs to displace older professional STEM workers, the rise of the "precariat"and the gig economy that no longer provides benefits, increasingly unaffordable healthcare, and steady to declining wages/salaries across much of the middle class.
I expect to see suicide rates skyrocket as the baby boomers realize that there are only two alternatives--work until you drop, or stay alive until the nursing home kills you.
I expect to see suicide rates skyrocket as the baby boomers realize that there are only two alternatives--work until you drop, or stay alive until the nursing home kills you.
17
If you make it to the nursing home that is, past hospitals where 100,000 malpractice deaths occur yearly, and greedy relatives, all the little foxes, who may exploit assisted-suicide laws to your signal detriment, grandpa.
1
STEM workers have more than a high school education. The youngest of the baby boomers (those born in 1964) are already 51 and so are only part of the a group that spans the ages of 45 to 54. The oldest are in their late 60s and are therefore among the groups for which the death rate is still continuing to decline.
Watching Fox News raises your blood pressure.
9
I might add the negative effects of excessive political correctness.
It can't help when long standing social and political mores including the definition of marriage and the democratic process are demolished and
torn down for no good reason other than to promote a supposed "equality"
that is really nothing more than special treatment for a small and select group with a lot of money and political influence.
You'd get sick and die quicker too if you saw your world and your values falling apart and being replaced with reality TV caricatures of humanity.
It is clearly discrimination against older white people particularly men.
But since old white men aren't very politically correct and gee they have it coming to them don't they it must be OK. If that's what you think you're full of male cow manure. And the democratic process in the United States has been hijacked by an overbearing and excessively activist Supreme Court. And who if anybody do they answer to? That sure doesn't sound like democracy to me.
It can't help when long standing social and political mores including the definition of marriage and the democratic process are demolished and
torn down for no good reason other than to promote a supposed "equality"
that is really nothing more than special treatment for a small and select group with a lot of money and political influence.
You'd get sick and die quicker too if you saw your world and your values falling apart and being replaced with reality TV caricatures of humanity.
It is clearly discrimination against older white people particularly men.
But since old white men aren't very politically correct and gee they have it coming to them don't they it must be OK. If that's what you think you're full of male cow manure. And the democratic process in the United States has been hijacked by an overbearing and excessively activist Supreme Court. And who if anybody do they answer to? That sure doesn't sound like democracy to me.
2
I thought ObamaCare was going to fix all this?
1
This is all sadly, sadly true. I used to write pieces on how the wisdom and experience of older people would always be welcome in businesses. Yeah. Pablum, like a lot of other thing 30-and-40-somethings write about a world that only exists in their interview notes. It's painful being old, and that means all kinds of pain -- financial, emotional, psychological, personal -- but also the worst kind of pain: physical pain. And the medical community has very few tools to deal with that.
Saddest of all is that all these people who've written in to comment on this subject have no other outlet but to vent to a comments section alongside a New York Times article. It may be therapeutic, but it accomplishes pretty much nothing.
Saddest of all is that all these people who've written in to comment on this subject have no other outlet but to vent to a comments section alongside a New York Times article. It may be therapeutic, but it accomplishes pretty much nothing.
8
The book Boom. Bust. Exodus by Chad Broughton goes a long way in explaining what has happened to the rural working class who work in manufacturing. Imagine putting in 18 years toward a pension and having your factory moved to Mexico and you get nothing.
12
Dr. Ronald D. Lee is quoted as saying: “SELDOM have I felt as affected by a paper,” he said. “It seems so sad.”
Considering the fact that this same article says even with the increased death rates of whites, blacks are still dying at a rate about 25% higher than whites, Dr. Lee's comments reflect the type of unconscious bias that I am willing to bet he and other researchers have complained about in the past. Assuming Dr. Lee has been aware of this discrepancy between the death rates of blacks and the existing lower rates for whites and yet it is this increasing rates for whites that has affected him so much then I can only draw one conclusion. Dr. Lee is most likely a white male close to the age under discussion. The article sort of hit very close to home I am guessing.
Considering the fact that this same article says even with the increased death rates of whites, blacks are still dying at a rate about 25% higher than whites, Dr. Lee's comments reflect the type of unconscious bias that I am willing to bet he and other researchers have complained about in the past. Assuming Dr. Lee has been aware of this discrepancy between the death rates of blacks and the existing lower rates for whites and yet it is this increasing rates for whites that has affected him so much then I can only draw one conclusion. Dr. Lee is most likely a white male close to the age under discussion. The article sort of hit very close to home I am guessing.
8
Right. I was surprised, like you.
Black middle aged men are dying in grater numbers than white middle aged men but, has somebody looked about significant causes of premature death of black men? This also is sad. And why do asian men of the same age not die in the same proportion? Is it culture? Way of life? Stronger family ties? Genetics?Religion?
Black middle aged men are dying in grater numbers than white middle aged men but, has somebody looked about significant causes of premature death of black men? This also is sad. And why do asian men of the same age not die in the same proportion? Is it culture? Way of life? Stronger family ties? Genetics?Religion?
5
In the festering toadish mind of Newt Gingrich this is "American Exceptionalism." I think it was a chapter in one of Bill Bennett's tomes.
6
Pray tell, 2/3 of the deaths by guns in the USA are by suicide, and the USA has 50% more guns than any other country in the world per capita. Without the plethora of guns IMHO the suicide component would go down (there is research to back this up) and the USA would follow the pattern of other countries. If you study illegal drugs in conjunction with guns you will find they are often co-morbidities.
4
No matter what the subject is, the US can never "follow the pattern of other countries." They lack a US Constitution, and all the misery and blessings that entails, and none of the "enlightened" Euro countries have our huge population, and litigious nature. So it's Apples vs Oranges.
This is the problem: advertising run amuck showing people sitting around drinking soda, eating junk food and watching (American) football shows with even more advertising of junk food and people sitting in cars eating. PC attitudes which makes it impossible to call people dumb, fat and unduly religious...problems are now 'issues' and 'losers' should get another chance. No! Get rid of advertising: read 'Against Nature' on Amazon
2
So, let's see, people who are not 45 to 54 don't sit around drinking soda, eating junk food, etc., etc. People who are 45 to 54 but have more than a high school education don't sit around drinking soda, eating junk food, etc., etc. People who are 45 to 54 but black don't sit around--oh, you know the rest. Yes, that last group still has a higher death rate than whites of the same age, but it is nevertheless declining while the white rate is rising. I think you need a better explanation.
1
This story has disappeared from the front page of the digital Times, and is also nowhere to be found in the US or Politics sections. Instead, it's in Health.
Please put in the US or Politics sections where people will see it. It's too important.
Please put in the US or Politics sections where people will see it. It's too important.
18
No Kidding? Our parents are old and infirm and saved nothing, our kids are getting fleeced at college for unprecedented levels of tuition. Taxes are going up along with everything else, illnesses are mounting, there are no jobs other than what we have managed to hold on to and the pay is stagnant.<br/>If the stress doesn't do you in, going into that long goodnight at least means you don't have to worry about it all anymore.<br/>For most of us, the American dream we all subscribed to as kids is becoming a nightmare where very few have done well at all our expense. As a Republican and a Vet, I have been slow to wake up to this, but wake up I have.
24
Educated in the existentialist philosophies of the 1950's-1960's, I believe that suicide is a personal right. As one who has unwittingly survived two suicide attempts (crashing my car on a mountain road, hanging), I do not deny that there are situations of life that are not worth living. Human existence is biological and temporal and neither sacred nor eternal. I am of the philosophy (belief, etc.) that life should be worth living and absent of constant pain, mentally or physically. As they said in the 60's, God is Dead.
2
Many of the comments refer to the high death rates of white middle class males as we assume male death rates are much higher than female death rates in this demographic, but the study does not differentiate between genders. It would be interesting to know what differences exist.
8
Ironic. Undereducated middle-aged/older white men, particularly in rural areas, are the group that probably has lost the most as a result of the selfish "me first-I'm the winner" society brought to us by the Reagan Revolution. Yet they are the very group that remains the strongest in support of those same policies. A serious disconnect.
27
"me first-I'm the winner" society brought to us by the Reagan Revolution
There you go again." Fact is, "Bonfire of the Vanities", and Masters of the Universe, and the movie "Wall Street", were all about the go-go Clinton years. Remember? Democrat elites try to pretend otherwise when yawping about "income inequality," in their new garb of campaign hair shirts.
There you go again." Fact is, "Bonfire of the Vanities", and Masters of the Universe, and the movie "Wall Street", were all about the go-go Clinton years. Remember? Democrat elites try to pretend otherwise when yawping about "income inequality," in their new garb of campaign hair shirts.
1
Maybe drugs as the proximate cause but there is a deeper reason, namely, the destruction of the American middle class, formerly mostly white. This destruction has been the deliberate policy of American business and political elites.
7
I find it strange that in the report that "class" the one word that would have great explanatory power, but is also banned in American public discourse, is not used. This can be framed as an health problem, a public policy problem, but it is too dangerous to frame it as a "class" problem" because social classes don't exist in America.
15
I can't help but be reminded of an old NY Times article "Deep in the Russian Soul, a Lethal Darkness."
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/08/weekinreview/deep-in-the-russian-soul-...
Putin turned things around in Russia where the population is now rising. Maybe Bernie Sanders can reverse the trend in the U.S., which is likely to worsen.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/08/weekinreview/deep-in-the-russian-soul-...
Putin turned things around in Russia where the population is now rising. Maybe Bernie Sanders can reverse the trend in the U.S., which is likely to worsen.
7
" WE are not owed anything. If WE want to make it different, WE need to make it different. This study could and should be a call to resolve, to invention and to community."
WE, in a democracy, do believe we are owed some measure of comfort and dignity. WE in this country have these ideas from 2 mythical documents- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (There are also some other "mythical" documents" that predate the 2 mentioned). WE are the community, the American people, and when the financial crisis hit, WE did have a call to resolve from many quarters ( our President, for one, a leader in our community), our other community leaders in Congress didn't think we needed to spend much to encourage invention and support certain members of our community. WE certainly jumped in to help the upper echelon of our community, but we failed so many people who are members of our community.
Soldriver, you have a very simplistic view of what has been happening in our community these past years. If a person lives in a thriving area he/ she can get a job or create a business. But when whole areas are stagnant or hit by financial disasters, its quite a different situation. That's when WE, the large community is needed with resolve and invention (these involve money).
WE, in a democracy, do believe we are owed some measure of comfort and dignity. WE in this country have these ideas from 2 mythical documents- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (There are also some other "mythical" documents" that predate the 2 mentioned). WE are the community, the American people, and when the financial crisis hit, WE did have a call to resolve from many quarters ( our President, for one, a leader in our community), our other community leaders in Congress didn't think we needed to spend much to encourage invention and support certain members of our community. WE certainly jumped in to help the upper echelon of our community, but we failed so many people who are members of our community.
Soldriver, you have a very simplistic view of what has been happening in our community these past years. If a person lives in a thriving area he/ she can get a job or create a business. But when whole areas are stagnant or hit by financial disasters, its quite a different situation. That's when WE, the large community is needed with resolve and invention (these involve money).
2
Are we harvesting the fruits of laissez-faire capitalism? It certainly seems so.
9
The ideas of standing on your own, proving your self-worth with no avenue to do so are being constantly drummed into Americans. Getting rich by hard work in society where the opportunity to get a living wage job is more and more difficult. Getting rich has become an American obsession as though nothing else in life matters. And then getting any help from the society is results in being called " a taker, or moocher."
Our economy is focused on limiting jobs to increase profits even exporting the jobs. Our economy has decoupled from our society. So how do Americans prosper and participate in our crumbling society. We're outsiders. And when you feel acutely isolated you turn to things that make you feel better like drugs and alcohol but they don't kill you. As an old movie says, "They kill horses don't they?" When you feel you have no future and you no self worth then what is living about?
As an economy we are a success, but we have a broken social contract and it is producing results. It's no longer "we the people" it's us and them. We shouldn't be surprised when we succeed in what we have set out to do.
Our economy is focused on limiting jobs to increase profits even exporting the jobs. Our economy has decoupled from our society. So how do Americans prosper and participate in our crumbling society. We're outsiders. And when you feel acutely isolated you turn to things that make you feel better like drugs and alcohol but they don't kill you. As an old movie says, "They kill horses don't they?" When you feel you have no future and you no self worth then what is living about?
As an economy we are a success, but we have a broken social contract and it is producing results. It's no longer "we the people" it's us and them. We shouldn't be surprised when we succeed in what we have set out to do.
12
And now the icing on the cake... Attack the social security disability program, as consevatives in congress advocate. Nice. "Kick 'em when they're down"
12
I've been on SSDI since 2002, own 2 handguns, and am a rabid conservative. Been down so long it looks like up to me, cursed at birth with the wrong gender, the wrong skin, and born in New Jersey, "the unkindest cut of all." Get out your handkerchiefs.
Reading the comments here has illuminated the political divide in our nation more so than any causation. Where is the truth? I doubt we will collectively recognize it or change for the better until we become more unified as a people. E pluribus unum.
5
This is “crushing disappointment with life” made manifest. Complete and utter despair is what comes through. And I think we can categorize many if not most of the drug and alcohol deaths as suicides as well. We need to understand why, why people have surrendered to death at a time in their lives when they should have so many more good years to live. This is sad.
12
It doesn't take a special study to see the obvious. "It's the economy, stupid. "
Menial jobs that don't pay the bills, and the new, "Gig" economy, pushing work to low pay 1099 status are what's doing it.
Menial jobs that don't pay the bills, and the new, "Gig" economy, pushing work to low pay 1099 status are what's doing it.
10
Except the "gig" economy is a bit of a myth. Actually, fewer people are working in that fashion than 20 years ago. Where there has been increase in contract work is at higher income levels like offered by software development and other professional work.
@David McNeely - Interesting claim. Can you provide a link that supports it? I'm really curious.
2
It is ironic to get this grim analysis - that the middle class culture is not working out too well - from an aristocrat (Dr. Deaton) located at one of the richest ivory towers on the planet. Not to take anything away from this illustrious professor, but we might as well get used to the rich discussing the tragic fate of the underclass.
17
All the comments picked by the NYT are describing the effects of income inequality; an economic pathology promoted by the Republicons for the last 35 years. The stories reflect what we know from the history of the Great Depression, without the opiates availability. I have a dream.....that the people wake up and vote for Bernie Sanders.
8
I noticed this research defines "Middle Age" as 45 to 54 years of age. This seems a very limited definition. Wikipedia reports that the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Discorders" used to define middle age as 40- 60 years of age, but have revised that upward to 45 to 65 years of age. Wikipedia also cites the US Census as defining middle age as 45 to 64 and psychiatrist Erik Erikson defined it as 40 to 65. So, why does this research limit middle age to just the nine years between 45 and 54? How should we refer to the years between 54 and the retirement year 65?
1
The study found that 45-55 was the age range afflicted as described. It did not say that ages outside that range were not middle age.
4
As the US declines towards third world status by virtually every quality of life metric, the disappearance of the private sector middle class accelerates. What used to constitute a comfortable middle-class standard now requires a six figure income for a single person The trend line is not reassuring..
10
Wait, are you suggesting that White lives matter? No? Judging from some of the rather callous remarks, it suggests that white lives don't matter. Could one suggest that the tireless effort to eviscerate white males is starting to take its toll. affirmative action is alive and well in most sectors of the economy, extending well beyond black and white. As a public company, I am compelled by politicians and left leaning media types to have employment ranks that reflect more of an idea and less of reality of demographics. The fact remains that it's easier for a while female to get a job than a while male, give the bias for gender diversity. And I dare suggest that unwavering immigration of politically protected minorities seem to take great pleasure in targeting this segment. I think as one reads this, it is easy to see why middle age white males don't really care about certain lives...
6
Keep in mind that it can only be "easier for a while female to get a job than a while male" so long as there are ALREADY more white males in the field than there are white females. Wait? What? If you have 100 people working for you and 75 of them are women, then you no longer have gender diversity, isn't that correct? Maybe even when you have 60 women. Now, unless you're in a field that most men have no interest in (oh, say, you're providing certified nursing assistants who take temporary assignments and who are really, really badly paid for doing hard work--and, yes, I know there are some men who are CNAs), you are not going to have worry about "politicians and left leaning media types" compelling you to hire more women, are you?
2
As an American of Mexican decent, married to a white man, I would like to say that it is even more sad that black middle aged people are dying at a higher rate. It bothers me to read that it's so "sad" that white people are dying more. Why are there not alarm bells for the black Americans? I too suffer with depression so I understand the pain of these "white" americans. Is it possibly a result of their naïveté that they could provide for themselves with no high level education? I also wonder if there is a correlation between these individuals and their religiosity.
6
Another legacy of the policies that began with Reaganomics- cut cut cut government spending, cut cut cut taxes, so the government "for" the people cannot fund the services, beginning with education and continuing through affordable healthcare, that ordinary Americans need.
9
"Middle-aged blacks still have a higher mortality rate than whites — 581 per 100,000, compared with 415 for whites — but the gap is closing..."
Something I observed (unscientifically I must say) a long time ago is that almost all the social ills in the United States are first manifested in the black community: teen age pregnancy, out of wedlock child births, high unemployment, homelessness, drug abuse etc. Blacks are like the canary in the coal mine reflecting where society is headed and when these social ills first show up, the attitude of the larger society is to ignore them. After all, it is "their" problem. It is only when these start showing up in the larger white society that alarm bells begin to sound. Very often, by then it is too late to solve the problem. Perhaps when we begin to appreciate the wisdom behind the notion that "I am my brother's keeper", then and only then would we start nipping these societal ills in the bud and at a time when it is not too late to do so.
Something I observed (unscientifically I must say) a long time ago is that almost all the social ills in the United States are first manifested in the black community: teen age pregnancy, out of wedlock child births, high unemployment, homelessness, drug abuse etc. Blacks are like the canary in the coal mine reflecting where society is headed and when these social ills first show up, the attitude of the larger society is to ignore them. After all, it is "their" problem. It is only when these start showing up in the larger white society that alarm bells begin to sound. Very often, by then it is too late to solve the problem. Perhaps when we begin to appreciate the wisdom behind the notion that "I am my brother's keeper", then and only then would we start nipping these societal ills in the bud and at a time when it is not too late to do so.
15
Welcome to the world of black people and especially black men - young and old. Persistent discrimination in jobs, housing, health care, housing, justice system.....
In the black communities they medicate through drugs, join gangs, etc. etc. Violence is turned on themselves. It is suicide by another means because of utter hopelessness. Of course there are many who believe that the race card is played too often or the victim card without having a clue what it is like to be daily subjected to discrimination.
So the blinders are being ripped off as to who does drugs, who is an addict, etc. and the naval gazing is soliciting compassion and outrage because the people profiled look like many of the readers and commentators here.
This is not an overnight phenomenon. But our institutionalized racism and stereotyping has always given us comfort that it is "those other people" who do drugs, who seem weak, who have no morals, who have no values, who have no discipline, who don't want to work etc. etc.
If only we can pause long enough to really believe and live the mantra - the milk of human kindness - for ALL.
In the black communities they medicate through drugs, join gangs, etc. etc. Violence is turned on themselves. It is suicide by another means because of utter hopelessness. Of course there are many who believe that the race card is played too often or the victim card without having a clue what it is like to be daily subjected to discrimination.
So the blinders are being ripped off as to who does drugs, who is an addict, etc. and the naval gazing is soliciting compassion and outrage because the people profiled look like many of the readers and commentators here.
This is not an overnight phenomenon. But our institutionalized racism and stereotyping has always given us comfort that it is "those other people" who do drugs, who seem weak, who have no morals, who have no values, who have no discipline, who don't want to work etc. etc.
If only we can pause long enough to really believe and live the mantra - the milk of human kindness - for ALL.
17
The Washington Post story on this study compared the trends with our peer nations and found we're alone. Of course, the peers we were being compared to have single-payer healthcare for all citizens, family leave, higher "happiness" quotients, and overall, just stronger safety nets for their citizens.
As a 58-year-old white woman (professional) who lost my job in 2008 (after 26 years with the same newspaper), and who has had spotty employment since, I can definitely understand the despair and loss of hope. I have it myself.
I am not surprised by the data uncovered in this study. But hey, we're exceptional, right!
As a 58-year-old white woman (professional) who lost my job in 2008 (after 26 years with the same newspaper), and who has had spotty employment since, I can definitely understand the despair and loss of hope. I have it myself.
I am not surprised by the data uncovered in this study. But hey, we're exceptional, right!
20
It's probably a combination of the "me me me" mentality coming home to roost. They were thinking: I want instant gratification - I won't put in a few years of ramen noodles and hunker down - even at a community college - I want my blue collar job with money to buy beer and cigarettes at 18 years old. Or, I want to get married and have a baby immediately so I don't have to "work". I had multiple partners and children, or if I did get married, I got divorced and moved on, leaving my children in the dust.
Combine that background with loss of job opportunities, and there are no supportive partners/spouses, and you have alienated your children and grandchildren by middle age.
This is reaping the fruits of their labors in the past. It is not surprising to me.
Combine that background with loss of job opportunities, and there are no supportive partners/spouses, and you have alienated your children and grandchildren by middle age.
This is reaping the fruits of their labors in the past. It is not surprising to me.
3
I was born and raised in an Asian country, where blue collar workers were economically and socially lowly valued. As a child of a hardworking high school-educated, oil-tanker driver, I admired America where blue collar workers could lead a decent life. Sadly that America has long gone.
16
My interpretation is that we are seeing racial progress, but in the wrong way. Uneducated whites are now doing as badly as blacks, equality in poverty, and this leads to higher death rates. We should be trying to elevate everyone to a reasonable middle class life, but instead we are pushing people to the bottom, regardless of race.
9
The American mortality rate falls during the Clinton years, in line with the general trend in the industrialized world. The big rise coincides with W's administration, its foreign wars, and the resulting middle class squeeze, including stagnant wages, rising health care costs, and the 2008 financial and housing crises. It should come as no surprise that many seeking an escape from increasing stress damaged their health by self-medicating through alcohol or food or took their own lives.
6
A deterioration of the health of white laborers, the majority constituents of the the middle class, coinciding with the collapse of economic security of the middle class. That's about as surprising as fording an arctic river and discovering that the water is cold.
11
I have two sisters and two brothers. I am in my early sixties the rest in early to late fifties. One sister like me is well educated and has a high income. Both of us are doing fine . The others are low income,low education attainment, smoke, have a drinking problem and are addicted or have been on oxicodone . They all have had bad backs and or joint pain. We are Caucasian. This study to me has the ring of truth.
16
This is not an ideological issue to be laid at the feet of any party although it continues to alarm me that I see increasing percentages of comments the are focused on divisiveness and class envy. These comments just noise that work against those that may have informed commentary. This is a significant problem and of course it will travel with this age class as they age so it is beneficial to society to figure this out rather than ranting.
2
Charles Murray's recent book, as well as a politically complementary book by Robert Putnam, show the depths of the alienation of this demographic group. Imaging the fate that awaits the children of this generation, and in turn, the burdens that will spill over to the rest of us.
5
Most of the comments are centered in the lack of future for these people and the lack of resources, but the Hispanic population is economically very similar and they are not very different in alcohol and/or drug consumption as a group. I think that the main reason this is happening is related to the lack of social life that you can see in most people of this group. That doesn't allow them to have a network of people who make them feel that somebody is caring for them and can easily bring depression.
7
Our drugs are taken to ease the pain of the stress of life. The stress is real and that is what must be addressed. The addiction must be treated as a symptom, not a crime, and the causes must be addressed throughout society, not just by those struggling to overcome addiction. I'm not optimistic that our society will find a way out of the stress imposed on everyone.
3
"Kill your television!", as George Gilder advised. Stress levels will plummet, like improving a child's metabolism by removing sugar.
3
The Reagan Democrats--white, lightly educated, profoundly homophobic--slit their own throats, but they still have their gods and their guns.
9
The bad news is, we've destroyed the middle class. The good news is, we've provided them with unlimited access to guns...
7
So it appears that what's been doing so much damage to minority groups for decades is now also afflicting lower educated whites - not good news for the Republican base, or the NRA.
9
Or those who rely on the taxes from those middle class whites to fund the Democrats' Permanent Underclass. And that's the unkindest cut of all!
3
I suspect that this cohort may feel somewhat marginalized even oppressed. Maybe that their voice is not being heard and their needs are not on the agendas of policymakers...welcome to the America of just about everyone else.
On another note, I am blown away by that last sentence. As a person who has worked in public policy for a number of years I have read SO MANY economic studies that as a black woman have affected me so deeply that they have kept me up at night. To the point where I've refused to participate in meetings that discuss "new studies" just to self preserve as my coworkers looked on at me as though I should just get over it. Now I get it, it's hard to get over it when those statistics are about you!
On another note, I am blown away by that last sentence. As a person who has worked in public policy for a number of years I have read SO MANY economic studies that as a black woman have affected me so deeply that they have kept me up at night. To the point where I've refused to participate in meetings that discuss "new studies" just to self preserve as my coworkers looked on at me as though I should just get over it. Now I get it, it's hard to get over it when those statistics are about you!
8
Is there really any surprise in these results? For this group of men the American dream has not been realized. Their prosperity is less than their parents. They have been labeled redundant. Their employment opportunities limited. Their beliefs marginalized. What do they do? They escape into booze, guns, painkillers and this is the outcome. American Exceptionalism!
6
This article states specifically, "Mortality rates for whites, 45-54, with no more than a High School Education, increased by a 134 deaths per 100,000 people, from 1999 to 2014." This is described as a startling finding.
But it seems an exaggeration to say that 1 death per 1,000 is startling.
But it seems an exaggeration to say that 1 death per 1,000 is startling.
1
This seems to be resulting in our need for all of the freebies that the Democrats offer us.
2
I'm curious to know how weight/obesity factors into the equation with chronic pain. I believe that there is a correlation between chronic pain and lack of energy to obesity. While I don't think this is the only factor, I feel it's one that should be looked at.
4
Republicans may want to think twice about their attitude towards Hispanic voters after more white voters kill themselves. This is also an effect of the shrinking middle class caused mostly by outsourcing jobs. No jobs, no life as conservatives pull the social safety net under their feet.
Generation X must respond with their votes before they enter the dreadful middle age when workers get laid off to maximize corporations' profits.
Generation X must respond with their votes before they enter the dreadful middle age when workers get laid off to maximize corporations' profits.
4
I am 60 and living in NJ. I have three beloved people who are dealing with cancer. They are in their 50's. I'm surprised cancer was not mentioned? I am a survivor of Breast cancer myself. We all live healthy lives; no smokers, no obesity.
6
When I was in college in the mid-70s, Suicide was a leading topic. A popular book on campus was "The Savage God," by A. Alvarez. Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf and Papa Hemingway were inspiring to some. I remember how shocked I was when one of "The Band" killed himself, at the peak of their success. And then there was Jim and Janis and Jimi, ca. 1969. A 2nd cousin I'd never met put a shotgun on his mouth one morning, age 29. His younger son, age 5, found him, when he and his mom returned home. Why?
As Hamlet said, approx.: "I could my quietus make with a bare bodkin... yet the Creator has fix'd his canon against self-slaughter, and what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause." It's ironic that Robin Williams portrayed the husband of the suicide, his wife, in the movie "What Dreams May Come."
As Hamlet said, approx.: "I could my quietus make with a bare bodkin... yet the Creator has fix'd his canon against self-slaughter, and what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause." It's ironic that Robin Williams portrayed the husband of the suicide, his wife, in the movie "What Dreams May Come."
3
Most retired workers escaped the chronic economic stagnation this country has been having recently since 2008.. Younger workers never knew the good times, but middle class white workers had it and lost it. MIddle class non white workers never really had it since they were down the economic totem pole re whites to begin with.
As the article said, substance abuse, alcohol, suicide etc. is now the obvious result for these people.
As the article said, substance abuse, alcohol, suicide etc. is now the obvious result for these people.
5
I am a 50+ white male, still employed in a technology field. Every quarter my company filters by age and by pay, and draws the line as to who stays and who goes. The fact that I’m still here makes me an anomaly, actually what one of my H1-B peers now calls “a reason for 3 – 4 Indians to be optimistic”.
Unless you are one of the executive management class who is doing it to others, it will be done to you – employment curtailed well before retirement age, with little opportunity for meaningful wages in whatever you do next. Life becomes very hard when confronted with a 15 year early, forced retirement. Members of your family – parents and children – who may depend on you will find their lives drastically changed as well.
Globalization is a great thing for the moneyed class in this country, and it’s a great thing for the 3rd world citizens whose lives are being improved. White and 50+ in this country, not so much.
Unless you are one of the executive management class who is doing it to others, it will be done to you – employment curtailed well before retirement age, with little opportunity for meaningful wages in whatever you do next. Life becomes very hard when confronted with a 15 year early, forced retirement. Members of your family – parents and children – who may depend on you will find their lives drastically changed as well.
Globalization is a great thing for the moneyed class in this country, and it’s a great thing for the 3rd world citizens whose lives are being improved. White and 50+ in this country, not so much.
18
But, presumably, if you are employed in a technology field, neither you nor those co-workers who have so unfortunately been "filtered" out, fit the part of the demographic that is "with no more than a high school education."
1
Wasteland of the not-so-free...
1
Out here there's an epidemic of suicides among white men of this age in rural areas like the Western Slope. They don't believe in talking much, so they suffer in silence. But it's still seen as shameful, so what gets reported is agricultural mishaps, falls while hiking, overexertion in the outdoors, and of course gun-cleaning.
4
Drugs and alcohol are taking it's toll on our people. From the young to the elderly. Rehab is expensive and not long enough to really help people. We have a horrible epidemic and it's only getting worse. Blame it on whatever, but it's drug's and booze mainly.
2
More long-term effects of the 2000 presidential election. Oops, S-election.
4
Does this relate to 9/11--happening in 2001 an affecting the nation so drastically in so many ways up to now. Destabilizing the society? With election of Obama in 08 we have had 7 years of race wars. What about that? White people are now the despised group and if you are uneducated and poor and white and miidle-aged--that is a horrible combination right now. All we hear is Black Lives Matter--they do--but white lives matter as well, but that you will never hear because it's "racist."
4
Clearly poor white people in this country could use a little love. The constant hostility they receive from groups like BLM only make them feel more ashamed, worthless and rejected.
3
But that fails to account for the whites' behavior in lily-white states like Vermont, and Utah, and Idaho, and elsewhere, where BLM or anything non-white hardly holds sway. Recompute.
5
You do know, don't you, that BLM isn't saying that white lives don't matter? It's simply saying that, yes, black lives do matter. Or do you disagree that black lives matter?
1
It's odd that those doing the study don't understand why the suicide rates are going up. Unemployment numbers are
generated by the Bureau of Labor and it tends to be under inflated. So, they (for example) we have a 5% UI rate when in truth it may be double that. I understand people don't see that or want to. Goodness knows the government won't want to publish more accurate data.
Even those with good grades from a top ten school are having a lot of trouble finding work. Most are overseas or projects are done by non-Americans in the U.S.
What do we get? From those who have been in pain, they may become addicted. Heroin is cheaper that many pain pills (in the black market). I saw what I hope was a reliable study about this recently.
What's left to live for? It's a sad state of affairs (AC) but "they" got us where they want us - dysfunctional. Look at the GOP line up to see what idiots we've become. Suicide rates will continue to climb in this spiraling down society. The paradigm has been changing for the last 20-30 years.
generated by the Bureau of Labor and it tends to be under inflated. So, they (for example) we have a 5% UI rate when in truth it may be double that. I understand people don't see that or want to. Goodness knows the government won't want to publish more accurate data.
Even those with good grades from a top ten school are having a lot of trouble finding work. Most are overseas or projects are done by non-Americans in the U.S.
What do we get? From those who have been in pain, they may become addicted. Heroin is cheaper that many pain pills (in the black market). I saw what I hope was a reliable study about this recently.
What's left to live for? It's a sad state of affairs (AC) but "they" got us where they want us - dysfunctional. Look at the GOP line up to see what idiots we've become. Suicide rates will continue to climb in this spiraling down society. The paradigm has been changing for the last 20-30 years.
4
An important article and a disturbing study. Does this have to do with economic changes what have hit working (and some middle class) people of all races so hard. and to the NYT - Black lives matter, and LGBT rights are important, but your coverage is dispropotionality skewed to coverage of these issues and there is not enough coverage of how the economy is affecting the middle and working classes.
3
Well, well, well...when these problems of unemployment, addiction, depression and neglect or harassment from the system existed in Black communities how many Whities called it "cultural problem or cultural pathology...even racial pathology"? Now when the White man is in hot water there are wonderfully "more sympathetic" research. How much research money got allocated to Black and Brown men and women...many poor, struggling, working long and hard without reprieve...and getting very little of the American dream (even something modest as a decent middle class life with a college degree)? There are lot of middle class legal immigrants struggling too...and in silence or invisibility (maybe both). Some of them got seduced into staying in the US, some got lied to by employers who used them or exploited them for twenty or thirty years, and then threw them aside. I hate to say its karma...as many of you white folks were not very nice nice to women of color even with a Ph.D. Even my nice educated husband could not protect me or defend me from Anglocentricism, ethnocentricism, racism and outright cruelty with arrogance in so many places. Even this article has some arrogance in it.
Many greedy Whites are screwing White people. like they screwed Black and Brown people for centuries through slavery, racism, colonialism and exploitative mercantilism. White race has been a selfish cruel race for a long time.
Many greedy Whites are screwing White people. like they screwed Black and Brown people for centuries through slavery, racism, colonialism and exploitative mercantilism. White race has been a selfish cruel race for a long time.
5
Uh oh, that means a gigantic loss of tax revenue from the most productive demographic!
3
It's interesting that advocates of physician-assisted suicide insist that we don't need to worry about people requesting death because of financial worries and other non-medical issues yet many of the commenters note the importance of these issues in people taking their own lives. Either it's a non-issue or a major one; it can't be both.
1
I think younger people would tell you it's time to take "college-educated" out of these reports. It's not just non-college folks who are suffering, they will tell you. The college-educated young people in this country are suffering from too few jobs that pay too little to buy homes or start families -- much less become self-sufficient. Their despair is already under way, and their burden is bigger -- since they have college loans in the tens of thousands that will never be repaid, which will ruin their credit and force many into a lifetime of poverty. The promise of a college education as a lifeline in this sinking economy might still ring true for some over 40, but not for those under 30.
12
I can't understand this at all. Our President has turned the economy around and opened up healthcare for everybody. Our deficit is shrinking and unemployment is very low. We have legalized gay marriage and when folks are in financial trouble they can easily get food stamps.
What am I missing?
What am I missing?
1
Dont forget that easy access to guns is a leading cause of suicide. Just look at the idiot from yesterdays article who wants to open carry his handgun into his daughters school.
Experience a moment of distress? Feeling down? You have an off switch right next to you.
White middle aged males are the ones clamoring for gun rights. Enjoy them.
Experience a moment of distress? Feeling down? You have an off switch right next to you.
White middle aged males are the ones clamoring for gun rights. Enjoy them.
2
This is the penultimate symptom of a dying culture.
4
Maybe more incentives for staying healthy,instead of more incentives to see doctors,like Obamacare provides,would do a lot to make people's lives better.
1
Perhaps the hard decline sets in when it finally dawns on those who think that political association with their 0,1% sponsors of lunacy is the road to success when they eventually find, regardless of all the faithful voting and slogan shouting and gun totting, they are still the disgusting unwashed for their masters, with only bills to pay and no way to do so.
That's a tad rough, but when you live by myth and avoid thinking for yourself, you set yourself up for major disappointments having zero chance of redress, and for bewildered wonder at how it all went south. Reality always provides a wake-up call, and it is most alarming when it comes too late in life to do anything about it. Frankly, it might be enough for some to discover their Red state has been subsidized all these years by Blue states, and they were the ones on the dole all this time.
Oops, I'm being rough again. (OK, so schadenfreude is ugly. It's still fun.)
That's a tad rough, but when you live by myth and avoid thinking for yourself, you set yourself up for major disappointments having zero chance of redress, and for bewildered wonder at how it all went south. Reality always provides a wake-up call, and it is most alarming when it comes too late in life to do anything about it. Frankly, it might be enough for some to discover their Red state has been subsidized all these years by Blue states, and they were the ones on the dole all this time.
Oops, I'm being rough again. (OK, so schadenfreude is ugly. It's still fun.)
4
"Don't mourn, organize." Joe Hill
6
No mention of obesity in this article? Seems sort of naive to not consider the obesity epidemic as having some impact on mortality rates. The mid-90's seems to be about right when considering the time that many people upgraded from ordinary "fat" to "supersized".
3
"Atlas Shrugged" was fiction. This article is about the real effect upon people when corporate titans pursue their self interest at the expense of employees and the country as a whole. Not so heroic, is it?
9
I find it odd that a number of commentators are referring to middle aged white males. This article does not refer to gender -- this applies to middle aged whites: male and female. I would certainly agree; employment prospects in this country for anyone who is middle aged are dismal, healthcare is unaffordable, pensions are nonexistent, and banks don't pay interest anymore. So few people can afford to live at all in this country.
9
Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.
--Fyodor Dostoevsky
--Fyodor Dostoevsky
11
I have read every NYT picks comment and have seen referenced over and over again the sad plight of uneducated middle aged white males. I had to go back and read the article again because I didn't remember any reference at all to gender in the article. I was right. There is none.
Now I wish there had been some analysis along gender lines but it strikes me as very odd that readers seem to be seeing 'white males' when they are actually reading about 'white people.' I really don't know what to make of this.
Now I wish there had been some analysis along gender lines but it strikes me as very odd that readers seem to be seeing 'white males' when they are actually reading about 'white people.' I really don't know what to make of this.
11
I think a good part of this is the result of liberals denigrating white males as the cause of all the problems in this country and the democrat party doing nothing for this demographic but only for minorities, the young, and women who they believe they can make dependent on them. Working class males were raised to make it without relying on government and now that they can't keep things going they are suffering. Sad indeed. It's time this group had some sympathy and understanding and not constant derision.
4
The people who are dying seem to fit the Tea Party demographic: 1) white; 2) uneducated or under-educated. The substance abuse and suicide Deaton and Case uncovered as the cause of all these deaths could be a reaction to the fact that these people feel they have not gotten a fair shake in society, the immigrants have the jobs, the techies have the jobs, no one respects my religion, etc. etc. etc.
Sen. Lindsey Graham inadvertently touched on this study a few years ago, when he said the Republican Party should stop catering to its right-wing Tea Party contingent if it wants to continue to exist because "we're running out of angry white guys."
Are they ever...
Sen. Lindsey Graham inadvertently touched on this study a few years ago, when he said the Republican Party should stop catering to its right-wing Tea Party contingent if it wants to continue to exist because "we're running out of angry white guys."
Are they ever...
3
One class we haven't "protected" is middle-aged, poorly educated whites.
7
WE USED TO. They were called "unions."
And you have the union-busters to thank for that.
And you have the union-busters to thank for that.
8
This article reads like a capsule version of Dreamland, the incredible story of Oxycontin and Black tar heroin. I am 58 and I remember the America the first chapter reports: A town with factories, jobs, pride, culture and a future. Few were very rich but all had a stake in the economic well being of the town.
That America was packed up and sold.
This is sad and unlikely to change without a crisis unimaginable now.
Read Dreamland,it is a fascinating look at the opiate world.
That America was packed up and sold.
This is sad and unlikely to change without a crisis unimaginable now.
Read Dreamland,it is a fascinating look at the opiate world.
11
Do not worry. As soon as Donald, Marco, Ben, Jeb, and Chris get ahold of these statistics, they will unleash the rhetoric that has made them presidential timber and demolish these obviously distorted findings. Then we can return to the real America, where all our problems stem from minorities looking for goodies and electing liberals to dole them out. The America that will be restored to greatness by slashing all that welfare spending and electing more red-blooded Americans dedicated to ensuring government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. Why, just ask Mitt Romney. He was long ago on to those 47 percent of Americans who are little better than welfare queens. It's an outlook that allowed him to buy his wife two Cadillacs.
4
I sadly note that, although the article prominently and repeatedly described findings about "middle aged whites," without restriction to gender, the majority of the comments bemoan the plight of "middle aged white MALES." As though that's what the article was about.
This knee-jerk unconscious refocusing, pushing women to the background as less than fully human, is internalized sexism, and it's clearly present in largely-liberal populations like NYT comment writers, as well as the rest of the world. This is not to condemn. I did it too when I first read the headline. Just like fighting internalized racism, fighting internalized sexism is an ongoing process.
This knee-jerk unconscious refocusing, pushing women to the background as less than fully human, is internalized sexism, and it's clearly present in largely-liberal populations like NYT comment writers, as well as the rest of the world. This is not to condemn. I did it too when I first read the headline. Just like fighting internalized racism, fighting internalized sexism is an ongoing process.
5
sad, but probably GOP folks who have had just about enough of this political craps from DEMs. They see all the free handouts that americans are getting and the national debt now at 20 TRILLION and simply couldn't take it.
White people are also not having enough babies in America to replace themselves. And the whites still having babies come from the very bottom of the socioecomic educational demographic geographic heap living off of welfare in single parent homes in the South, rural Central and Moutain West and urban ethnic neighborhoods. The American white population is shrinking and aging. Is that good, bad or neutral news?
If white people had to live life while black African American in a nation born in enslavement and nurtured in discrimination as a despised physically identifiable minority then they would truly know stress and adversity. But what is their excuse?
If white people had to live life while black African American in a nation born in enslavement and nurtured in discrimination as a despised physically identifiable minority then they would truly know stress and adversity. But what is their excuse?
3
"f white people had to live life while black African American in a nation born in enslavement and nurtured in discrimination as a despised physically identifiable minority then they would truly know stress and adversity."
If white people can't survive this economic turmoil what makes you think they could survive the Middle Passage, slavery, the Jim Crow era, or a crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged black America?
If white people can't survive this economic turmoil what makes you think they could survive the Middle Passage, slavery, the Jim Crow era, or a crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged black America?
2
And we wonder why the Tea Party; candidates like Carson, Trump, Fiorina, Cruz, Rubio, et. al.; Fox News; and rolling back gains made by minorities and women are so powerful. We have neglected a large segment of our population. Instead of creating programs targeted to all Americans, we have made some of our citizens feel they are unimportant and that there is no help for them. Rather than taking responsibility for the devastation caused by outsourcing and income inequality, we have said: "It is your fault, get training, and suck it up."
5
But we are suppose to believe that we're all living longer as justification for raising the social security age, insuring that fewer people ever collect their diminishing social security benefits.
3
Many years ago there was a study on gemfibrizol that demonstrated an increase death rate from suicides and accidents that offset a decrease in cardiovascular mortality. What is the use of statins in this population? What is the underlying reason for this increase? We treat a lot of people in this age group with medications for hypertension and heart disease. What is the end result?
1
We have a choice to reverse this decades-long descent into our American nightmare: either the political revolution championed by Bernie Sanders, and increasingly by Hillary Clinton, or actual revolution. The days of Oligarchy are one way or another numbered.
1
So we see that the demonization of "old white men" is bearing fruit. Congratulations everyone.
2
The article makes no mention of gender.
3
An article in the NYT a year or so ago surveyed many persons on what age they hoped to live to, considering the advances in medical science, gerontology, etc. Most folks did not want to live past age 85, as I recall, they feared they'd be too debilitated, and dependent. Hence the rise of assisted suicide in 5 states now. The article is in the NYT archive.
Take a good look at the age range being described here - 45-54. The youngest Boomers are now 51, so what this is actually looking at is the transition from the Boomers to Gen X. So what we are actually seeing here is that the whiny, coddled spoiled brats of Gen X are starting to reach middle age, and can't cope. They've spent their entire lives being told "You're special! Everyone gets an A! All you have to do is show up and you'll be paid like CEO's!" But now, they're reaching the age where reality is starting to hit them upside the head with a 2x4. Everyone DOESN'T get an A in life; they're never going to get that million-dollar salary they felt entitled to; various body parts are starting to hurt for no good reason; and worst of all, Mommy and Daddy aren't able to fix it anymore. It's their first encounter with adversity, and they can't handle it. So they check out.
1
Methadone poisoning is now pretty much epidemic now. There are classier (and safer) drugs, but not everyone can afford them.
2
When, after being surplused from decent jobs, the only jobs available were low paying, physically demanding ones, is it any wonder so many in these people are in unrelenting emotional and physical pain? Without hope, and only pain relievers as solace, what temptation to escape. I know people like this and I fear for them every day.
11
The middle aged today are more childish than the kids they spawned. Ever hear one of those McMommies in the grocery stores talking to their kids? "No Briana. "Mommy has taught you not to do that. You will have a "time out," if you disobey." A full gospel and the kid is two years old?
These are also the middle aged who didn't age out of their parents homes until they were middle aged. That means they delayed having any real adult responsibilities for far too long. Most of us were taught responsibility and right from wrong by the time we were five years old. But, which McMiddle Agers have the time? And, they are always too too tired. From what?
Having to load a dishwasher, super sized washer or dryer? Programming the thermostat to function with their cell phones?
If they'd get off those cell phones and stop their incessant yapping, they'd learn that silence has its virtues. Not the least of which is to provide a sense of peace and quiet.
These are also the middle aged who didn't age out of their parents homes until they were middle aged. That means they delayed having any real adult responsibilities for far too long. Most of us were taught responsibility and right from wrong by the time we were five years old. But, which McMiddle Agers have the time? And, they are always too too tired. From what?
Having to load a dishwasher, super sized washer or dryer? Programming the thermostat to function with their cell phones?
If they'd get off those cell phones and stop their incessant yapping, they'd learn that silence has its virtues. Not the least of which is to provide a sense of peace and quiet.
' And, they are always too too tired. From what? '
some of them are tired from working a few part-time jobs, while also helping their aging parents, and perhaps still trying to assist their adult children. Or the adult children are still living at home because THEY can't find much more then temp or 2 part-time jobs or a minimum wage full time job.
some of them are tired from working a few part-time jobs, while also helping their aging parents, and perhaps still trying to assist their adult children. Or the adult children are still living at home because THEY can't find much more then temp or 2 part-time jobs or a minimum wage full time job.
2
The wages of capitalism are death.
6
And so are the wages of every other system. We all have an appointment in Samarra. Who knew?
I am not at all surprised that middle aged white americans are committing suicide in large numbers. The stress level we all feel these days is unsustainable. Businesses are making huge profits - at the expense of workers who are expendable. Business schools have forgotten that people are human beings, not machines, and that we have needs that are different from machines. European countries have for the most part got another perspective and we have much to learn from them!!!
7
Unfortunately the very people who should read this article - middle-aged white men with low education - will most likely not. As a result, they will probably continue to vote against their self-interest as they fall prey to right-wing polemics that whip up lots of emotional sentiment while driving policies that only worsen the situation for themselves.
9
Middle aged white Americans with high school education or less? A large proportion of this demographic has to be Veterans - perhaps the trends we're seeing in the general population at least partly explains the rising Veteran suicide rate. Another NY times article about suicides in rural places also points out how Vets are more likely to live in rural areas and own firearms. Pieces of the puzzle it seems.
2
I agree that the deck is stacked against the middle class, but, we, also, have become a society that believed that we would always have a good job and a good retirement. We didn't save. We spent our money on luxuries that people coming out of the 30's would have deemed absolutely foolish. We bought into eating a very poor diet. We traded the security of having land for fruit trees, a garden and chickens, for designer clothing, vacations and granite counter tops.
1
I find the comments every bit as interesting as the article. I can hear and feel the strain is some of the comments. I suspect much of what is going on is our disconnect with others and lack of caring. We have become a fairly self-reliant and self-absorbed society imprisoned behind our own doors. Most of us can survive physically without close human contact, friends and family. However, it makes our emotional survival strained<br/>I have lived in the same house for over twenty years. After two decades, I would not know the woman who lives next door to me if I met her face to face. She drives her car into the garage, the door shuts and she never comes out of the house. My neighbor across the street has lived there for a couple years; same reality. I have no idea what either one even looks like. I am out in the yard several times a week and it seems they go out of their way to make sure not to make eye contact or cast a friendly wave.<br/>We need human connection beyond our jobs and to come out from behind our doors. I don't believe the contact needs to be formal and planned. It can simply be striking up a conversation with people at the grocery store, people walking by, or the waiter or waitress and the local cafe. It is the simple act of extending yourself to others forming bonds that strengthen over time.<br/>Without these bonds, we simply do not have much to live for.
40
Thank you for your comment, Greg. Your submission, and many others here, have been featured in our follow-up story about this comments section.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/health/readers-react-to-rising-death-rates-of-middle-aged-white-americans.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/health/readers-react-to-rising-death-rates-of-middle-aged-white-americans.html
4
@ Bassey Etim-Bassey, thank you for seeing to it that the follow-up story was created. I have filed a comment here that includes the URL to the follow-up story noting that the most important comment is yours in that rare category NYT Replies.
Thanks
Larry
Now I will go to that story.
Thanks
Larry
Now I will go to that story.
Those who govern truly need to value life more than money and power.
6
It's all part of the cycle. De facto age discrimination, where the focus in civil rights remains race, not economic class (with some good reasons, but out in the hinterlands, races mix). The end of lifetime welfare, with a shift to disability claims, wherein NOS pain is a qualifier for treatment with opiates esp. for manual laborers. Then, a shift to heroin, in an era of drug legalization where wealthy investors are backing pot and making millions and society says drugs are OK while alcohol appears mandatory in media. Offshoring of jobs and profits. CEOs paid at 150 times a laborer. The end of coal. And, as a feminist pointed out, the rise of two income families just to survive as wages did not also rise. I'm as conservative on many things as anyone, but Sanders is right and Hillary has been wrong on so many of these things-WalMart board, NAFTA, etc. So, it's not just a one party problem. And the blue cities laugh, without asking where have all the middle class gone. The Hunger Games is real. If anyone dare say alcohol is wrong, they are attacked in social media as a prude. If they don't support drug legalization and release of drug dealers, they are shamed as heartless. Yet in flyover country, substance abuse is an epidemic. No jobs, no hope. It's the ghetto, whether it's a Midwestern town, an Indian reservation, or an inner city. And there's no hope when you are laid off at age 45 to be replaced by a 20 year old.
6
The paranoia and stress that lead these middle age men to go into gun stores to purchase these weapons of mass destruction leads to spiritual death. Think of how much better off these men would feel if they spent that time nurturing kids, doing yoga,walking in the park, reading a good book,having a good conversation with a loving woman. This idea that a man in say Wyoming or remote area in Pennsylvanis or Arizona is so much at risk from minority men that he spends his hard earned money and his energy preparing for this onslaught is a killer. Paranoia and hatred of minorities kill.
Since the Pew Survey shows 30% of Americans professing no Religious affiliation, suicide is more easily accepted.
I campaigned for Democratic presidential candidates in that neighborhood twice. The image of all the "Bush for President" signs still haunts me.
(Correction)
(Correction)
1
This is part of the Bush-Cheney death-effect caused by their zealous militarism. It joins with the brave maimed and killed Americans, and Innocents overseas.
Worst president (in name - Bush, and fact-Cheney) - ever.
Worst president (in name - Bush, and fact-Cheney) - ever.
3
We could solve several problems by returning farming to smaller, non-corporatized farms and raise healthy food - chickens that eat insects as intended, cows that eat grass as intended, pigs that eat all kinds of things besides soybeans. It could employ more people. Let's return to small, local businesses. Multi-national corporations are killing us. They are represented by the Grocery Manufacturers of America. Food should be grown--not manufactured. Eat manufactured food at your own risk!
4
Not a big surprise, what has happened is that the economic prospects for the middle class, specifically white, blue collar people, have been depressed by 'globalization', people have given up hope, and the result is what you see. It is telling that in the study, the death rate for non white middle age people has not changed, because the effects of economic disparity and lack of hope were always there.
One of the things that has always led this country forward is hope, that times would get better for ourselves and our kids, and less and less people believe that. The kids of the very well off, who generally are also well educated, look forward to a future where they will have a significant piece of the pie, a growing one more than likely, but everyone else realizes they are back to a fight for survival.
It would be interesting to do a study of the people who die early, and what their voting records are like. It is likely many of these people vote for the tea party and the hard right, who in many ways are responsible for their economic plight. I guess what happened is they realize that no one cares about them, and they end up like this.
One of the things that has always led this country forward is hope, that times would get better for ourselves and our kids, and less and less people believe that. The kids of the very well off, who generally are also well educated, look forward to a future where they will have a significant piece of the pie, a growing one more than likely, but everyone else realizes they are back to a fight for survival.
It would be interesting to do a study of the people who die early, and what their voting records are like. It is likely many of these people vote for the tea party and the hard right, who in many ways are responsible for their economic plight. I guess what happened is they realize that no one cares about them, and they end up like this.
1
I tend to believe that this phenomenon has something to do with the dissolution of an organic social culture in favor for an "every person for themselves" ethic where we live in a vacuum but for the time we get out to clobber one another for resources in a free market system to prove our worth. The prize, in substitution of real relationships and human connections, is having more junk and better junk than our neighbors. Junk that someone else is exploited in its making I would add.
6
One thing that would decrease the amount of opioids prescribed is physical therapy. A friend had very painful spinal stenosis to such a degree he could barely move. Several rounds of physical therapy later he was playing golf again. I developed a limp from SI joint problems causing one leg to be functionally shorter than the other. It wa very painful. After finding a physical therapist who understood SI joint problems I can walk normally now. For some reason many doctors don't seem to recommend physical therapy and insurance companies try to limit the number of visits. Physical therapy allows patients to heal in a healthy way instead of just masking the pain with opioids. It might not work in some cases but why not try that first? That might reduce the number of people plagued with addiction.
4
Everyone in America should see the new Michael Moore film. wheretoinvadenext.com
Americans have historically been crippled by the myth of the individual. The grotesque reality revealed in these statistics reflects the consequences of powerlessness. On August 5th, 1981, Ronald Reagan declared war on America's working class. Without the power of collective bargaining the individual worker's leverage does not exist. The epidemic of addiction and early death is the endgame.
Wake up folks because this only gets worse unless we intently challenge the status quo. Feel the Bern!!!
Americans have historically been crippled by the myth of the individual. The grotesque reality revealed in these statistics reflects the consequences of powerlessness. On August 5th, 1981, Ronald Reagan declared war on America's working class. Without the power of collective bargaining the individual worker's leverage does not exist. The epidemic of addiction and early death is the endgame.
Wake up folks because this only gets worse unless we intently challenge the status quo. Feel the Bern!!!
9
Perhaps if these people would stop voting against their own self-interest, their financial and emotional situations might improve.
4
The increasing mortality trend, the immediate causes of which are obviously due to what people do when they feel powerless and hopeless, began in the mid-90s, which was the era of NAFTA and the dot.com bubble.
The jobs that were available to non-college-educated whites were being outsourced at increasing rates, manufacturing jobs were all but vanishing. And the trend continues, now with service sectors.
Meanwhile, rates of return on investments were going up, due to both the increasing profits of multinational companies who either outsourced their labor or used the prospect of doing so as leverage, and to the dot.com bubble, where it was increasingly possible to get rich quick, often simply by playing the speculative market regardless of fundamentals.
Traditional businesses, with lower rates of return for their investors, could not compete. In order to be competitive, most had to find ways to cut costs. A giant proportion of what they did was to cut wages, cut pension contributions, cut health insurance contributions, turn employees into contractors, renege on traditional practices of rewarding longevity and loyalty (consider IBM's transformation from a company that committed to lifetime employment to a company that treated workers as disposable widgets), and so on.
Decreasing wages, decreasing job security, decreasing prospects for security in old age, and employers who increasing treat them as budget line-items rather than people. That's my diagnosis.
The jobs that were available to non-college-educated whites were being outsourced at increasing rates, manufacturing jobs were all but vanishing. And the trend continues, now with service sectors.
Meanwhile, rates of return on investments were going up, due to both the increasing profits of multinational companies who either outsourced their labor or used the prospect of doing so as leverage, and to the dot.com bubble, where it was increasingly possible to get rich quick, often simply by playing the speculative market regardless of fundamentals.
Traditional businesses, with lower rates of return for their investors, could not compete. In order to be competitive, most had to find ways to cut costs. A giant proportion of what they did was to cut wages, cut pension contributions, cut health insurance contributions, turn employees into contractors, renege on traditional practices of rewarding longevity and loyalty (consider IBM's transformation from a company that committed to lifetime employment to a company that treated workers as disposable widgets), and so on.
Decreasing wages, decreasing job security, decreasing prospects for security in old age, and employers who increasing treat them as budget line-items rather than people. That's my diagnosis.
4
I wonder how much of the increase in mortality rates is due to increases in body weight, and its related negative health effects. People who in years past may have died in their 60s are now dying a decade earlier.
2
Last night watched “Billy Elliot, the Musical,” which I had recorded from PBS. To my surprise, the plight of the miners was made even more vivid (if memory serves) than in the original movie. Event thought the play celebrates the escape of the one, it makes vivid the despair and the hopelessness of the many. Perhaps the cohort described by the researchers in this study are descending into the depths with those miners at the end, their bright lights shining at us going out, leaving the stage in darkness.
1
Big pharma advertises ad nauseum in this country. Take a pill for this or that is their M.O. Constant television ads. Even two or three page ads in magazines I have purchased. No wonder people get addicted to opioids. Big pharma should be BANNED from advertising. This country and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow big pharma to advertise their poisons. Big pharma is as bad as the Mexican drug cartels and yet they are given a pass. Marijuana is still illegal in this country for the most part and does little or no damage to ANYONE and is found to help cancer patients and glaucoma patients. Go figure. And the smarmy politicians have the gall to lie about it and call it "gateway drug." A gateway to what?????????
5
From a Public Health perspective it would be interesting to know how this group committed suicide. And it will be interesting to monitor the suicide rates on college campuses who have allowed students to have guns. Individuals who commit suicide, according to experts, make a rash decision in a very short time. Guns in the home, and I predict on campuses, facilitate their irrational decision.
2
There have always been those who seek comfort from the poppy, and there always will be. Prescription opioids are terribly easy to abuse, though, and the recent tightening of those prescriptions at the behest of the DEA has driven many to heroin.
Let people smoke opium, the old fashioned way. Yes, it's addictive, but it's far less destructive than the mess we've got. It's nearly impossible to overdose, the amount needed by a user doesn't escalate forever the way derivatives like heroin do, it's cheaper, and a habit is survivable.
Let people smoke opium, the old fashioned way. Yes, it's addictive, but it's far less destructive than the mess we've got. It's nearly impossible to overdose, the amount needed by a user doesn't escalate forever the way derivatives like heroin do, it's cheaper, and a habit is survivable.
3
The college educated and the rest of us who are barely surviving are not far behind as casualties of Greed.
8
There are two basic forces in life – true love: compassion, caring, honesty, and all the good and genius traits we treasure in life; and the love of money: greed, selfishness and the false self-esteem it nurtures. Today, money is winning, particularly in much of Generation X, who have never faced hardship, one of the teachers of love, as the caring Greatest Generation did. So Gen X, in striving to protect its riches, including those trillions they are inheriting from the boomer generation, is doing all it can to keep; “their” money away from the rest of society. So we see a House of Representatives in chaos as the Tea Party strives for control, and a business world that sends our jobs to China to increase profits that go to the top and stockholders Not to those who do most of the work), cuts benefits, and weakens unions.
Only love should rule and until it does, we will see more of this. Love can be taught, its learning motivated. But it needs help. Without love at its core, no human system has, nor will, survive.
Only love should rule and until it does, we will see more of this. Love can be taught, its learning motivated. But it needs help. Without love at its core, no human system has, nor will, survive.
3
Living death is creeping into the college educated ranks. This research does not count the immobile depressed people neglecting their health and never leaving a room. I see these invisible 50 somethings. A slow decline toward early death. Passive suicide.
Fired at 53 (it is a firing software program people see Carli's HR), saving depleted by health insurance and care costs, everything around them crumbling from bridges to roads to failing nuclear power plants. It's not privileged expectations; it's real. No planning, studying, working hard helped.
Fired at 53 (it is a firing software program people see Carli's HR), saving depleted by health insurance and care costs, everything around them crumbling from bridges to roads to failing nuclear power plants. It's not privileged expectations; it's real. No planning, studying, working hard helped.
6
A rise in middle-age white mortality is really quite similar to what happened in Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In both cases a vulnerable population was hit with social disorder, loss of security and a feeling of quiet desperation. There is also a sense of loss of self-worth when all the pundits are screaming "get more education." People turn to self-medication under those circumstances. But, above all, stress kills and we need to recognize that.
3
Death by suffocation from the baby-boomers and the X-gen. Never in history a generation was crushed under two paradigms, one by entitlement of the elderly and the apathy of the young. Death by overwork and underachievement. Great expectations and low rewards kills.
I had a difficult passage in my fifties. Suicide was rarely a serious consideration but I felt my share of despair. Dyslexia prevented me from getting a college degree. There was a humiliating end to a long career, a challenging relationship with a depressive and an angry daughter born out of wedlock, given to adoption, who shows up to get her revenge. All this and a financial struggle. I developed a career as an artist. I maintain art saved my life, gave it purpose even though the financial rewards are modest. It was also a business that can't be outsourced or taken over by a corporation. A lot of my fellow boomers never had a Plan B or C, which in a dynamic society like ours, you need. And some of them self-destructed. Having a skill can save you. In my 60's now, I am grateful that I survived hard times and and established a personally rewarding career.
5
Thank you for sharing your story. We need to hear more about real struggle, challenge, self-care and re-discovery.
This article caught my eye - partly because I'm 47 ... as I was looking over the comments I noticed a couple of trends I thought were interesting.
1) there are many comments describing possible reasons for increased mortality in men in this age group but few (if any) on women. I didn't see that the Times article discussed sex differences so I went back to the original study ... it's not discussed there either: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/29/1518393112.abstract
2) as quite a few pointed out, my generation is not the boomer generation. I have no doubt loss of jobs, healthcare, financial security, etc are a factor for some; however, in my opinion there is at least as much lack of boomer work ethic as there is presence of it in my age group.
3) Overall, the comments here seem to be quite sympathetic and understanding of what a sense of "hopelessness" can do to the psyche ... wouldn't it be wonderful if we could hear the same level of understanding for other "at risk" populations in the news; for example, young black men or native Americans.
1) there are many comments describing possible reasons for increased mortality in men in this age group but few (if any) on women. I didn't see that the Times article discussed sex differences so I went back to the original study ... it's not discussed there either: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/10/29/1518393112.abstract
2) as quite a few pointed out, my generation is not the boomer generation. I have no doubt loss of jobs, healthcare, financial security, etc are a factor for some; however, in my opinion there is at least as much lack of boomer work ethic as there is presence of it in my age group.
3) Overall, the comments here seem to be quite sympathetic and understanding of what a sense of "hopelessness" can do to the psyche ... wouldn't it be wonderful if we could hear the same level of understanding for other "at risk" populations in the news; for example, young black men or native Americans.
3
These are tough times for anyone to get old in. I fit this demographic but I'm doing well as I listened back in the 1970's to the financial planners who said "There will be two types of people in the future, those who planned for retirement and those who didn't.". As for those who wish for the "good old days" America is and always has been a dog eat dog capitalist society and the lessons of the Great Depression resulted in what little safety net we have now. Maybe it's time to reevaluate as frankly I'd like to see every displaced worker receive free training and education to keep themselves employed.
Additionally, I'd like to see a government which places it's citizens ahead of the illegal aliens who are taking many of the jobs (like carpenters, plumbers, etc.) that these displaced citizens lost to lower paid foreigners often working "under the table" and paying no taxes yet receiving the benefits of our government.
Additionally, I'd like to see a government which places it's citizens ahead of the illegal aliens who are taking many of the jobs (like carpenters, plumbers, etc.) that these displaced citizens lost to lower paid foreigners often working "under the table" and paying no taxes yet receiving the benefits of our government.
2
Russia has this same issue (middle aged and older folks killing themselves via drugs or alcohol) because they've lost all hope because of the crush of there society and government discarding them, and a lack of a social safety net.
I encourage everyone to read the article 'The Dying Russians' by Masha Gessen, and you'll see much of the malaise the Russians are suffering from, are also widespread in the US, including a lack of middle wage jobs with benefits, our educational system being systematically destroyed by right wingers, unable to make ends meet, the lack of upward mobility, and just the stink of life is freaking unfair in both Russia and the United States, unless you're filthy rich.
I encourage everyone to read the article 'The Dying Russians' by Masha Gessen, and you'll see much of the malaise the Russians are suffering from, are also widespread in the US, including a lack of middle wage jobs with benefits, our educational system being systematically destroyed by right wingers, unable to make ends meet, the lack of upward mobility, and just the stink of life is freaking unfair in both Russia and the United States, unless you're filthy rich.
1
(1) Progressive reforms are desperately needed (e.g. minimum wage hike, guaranteed sick and vacation leave, etc.) to restore some dignity and hope to people who for whatever reason find themselves looking up from the bottom of the social ladder. A recent study observed a clear inverse link between generosity of unemployment benefits and suicide rates during recessions: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/19/unemployment-benefits-suicide_n...
(2) Unfettered access to guns and skyrocketing sales have no doubt enabled the suicide surge. Time to amend the constitution if thats what it would take to severely limit lethal weapon sales.
(2) Unfettered access to guns and skyrocketing sales have no doubt enabled the suicide surge. Time to amend the constitution if thats what it would take to severely limit lethal weapon sales.
3
Well over 1000 persons have jumped to a watery grave from the Golden Gate Bridge; not a gun in sight. Ten times that many have overdosed in just a few years; no gun needed. I say your agenda is showing.
A couple of thoughts. Many commenters point the finger at policies since 1980, since "St. Reagan." But those policies affected everyone. The public mental institutions turned out white, black, Hispanic. The social safety net eroded for all Americans, not just whites. And the increase in death rate is exactly among the Republican base. Those angry white men whose votes instituted the policies and whose loud voices support the NRA and all manner of anti-progressive social institutions. These men could benefit from unions, for instance. It looks like they stand squarely behind a type of society in which they cannot thrive.
3
Quick analysis: What has been going on in America over the last 35 years?
(1) A massive loss of manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere transformed many communities into wastelands. Today, most of us only see these depressing burned-out communities when speeding past on the interstate.
(2) Republican "free market" policy has controlled public policy-making between 1980 to now. (One exception Obama Care) Remember Reagan's "the government is the problem." Remember his cheery "morning in America" and his claim that "the free market will lift all boats"?
Now we know that policy sank millions of boats. Now we are finding the bodies that washed up on the shore. Most of us didn't see the tragedy unfolding because we have been speeding past those shores on the interstate.
What we learned: We needed Bernie Sanders' type solutions in 1980. Well, as they say, better late than never.
What we should do now: Support Bernie Sanders type candidates, register to vote and make sure you vote. Why? The billionaires that make money from the "free market" con game are spending lots of money to suppress voting and mislead the voters who do make it to the polls.
(1) A massive loss of manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere transformed many communities into wastelands. Today, most of us only see these depressing burned-out communities when speeding past on the interstate.
(2) Republican "free market" policy has controlled public policy-making between 1980 to now. (One exception Obama Care) Remember Reagan's "the government is the problem." Remember his cheery "morning in America" and his claim that "the free market will lift all boats"?
Now we know that policy sank millions of boats. Now we are finding the bodies that washed up on the shore. Most of us didn't see the tragedy unfolding because we have been speeding past those shores on the interstate.
What we learned: We needed Bernie Sanders' type solutions in 1980. Well, as they say, better late than never.
What we should do now: Support Bernie Sanders type candidates, register to vote and make sure you vote. Why? The billionaires that make money from the "free market" con game are spending lots of money to suppress voting and mislead the voters who do make it to the polls.
6
It is the social system here, the food system, the healthcare system, for one emergency checkup if you are not covered by insurance, or partially covered, you will have a huge bill in the mail. Secondly with all the prices rising and the pay not moving of course the middle class is going to poverty, what do you expect. Thirdly Spanish society is closer to family, they stay together when they need each other, whereas white society (no offense to whites, for i am white) just says not my problem, or what can i do, but realistically even if we can't do anything moral and emotional support counts. Then we have the food system where all we do is eat out processed food, we don't think about the consequences, though these may be unseen food plays a major role in our behavior....
1
As I read the comments and the article I can't help but think if we ( each person ) had easy access to healthcare without having to worry about how to pay for it this wouldn't be such a problem. Also companies would not be laying off so many because they can't afford to pay for the employees' health care.
10
So very fight club :P
1
The HIV/AIDS epidemic seems like an odd basis for comparison. Surely what's happening here is more akin to the drop in life expectancy after the fall of the Soviet Union.
2
Chickens of communism coming home to roost. When greed and profit take precedence over the collective good will of the society, then this is the result. America is the richest country in the world that has the best medical care facilities, but you have to be insured in order to be taken care of and at the end of the day it is the insurance company that decides who gets the treatment and who does not. Similarly, you have to spend a fortune to have a college degree and you cannot do that with out getting yourself bogged down in a cycle of grueling debt. The next ten years of a graduate are spent paying off the debt. What an irony. Is this the pursuit of happiness or what? Is this the kind of America that the forefathers wanted? Stop spending money on expensive fighter jets that will never be used; stop nation building projects that are always doomed to fail; stop giving bail outs to pot bellied bank managers, and use the money instead to create more jobs, more social security, free education and medical care. Just look at the other side of Atlantic and there you have Sweden, a country no less innovative and prosperous than the Americans, but the people live a stress free life there.
3
What did you think income inequality meant?
Bernie Sanders is the sole candidate who truly addresses this issue, the central problem of our time.
Bernie Sanders is the sole candidate who truly addresses this issue, the central problem of our time.
4
Without an industrial or an agricultural economy there are fewer places in the economy for less-educated, and now increasingly more educated, workers. How will we react to less and less work when our society places so much emphasis on being economically self-sufficient. We feel that we become useless and have no meaning.
3
depression is the main cause of drug abuse and alcoholic . Depression can cause heart attack and diabetes . . we have to llok for means to avoid people are getting clinically depressed
1
And the only politician speaking to this reality is Donald Trump. Certainly not Hillary who has no insight into the killing stress this nation has inflicted on white males; certainly not the Obama administration which wouldn't recognize this as a problem if it fell on its head; or even care.
1
You may be sure, Tom, that others besides white males have known stress.
3
This seems to me completely self-evident. Whites occupy the political, cultural and financial upper ranks in US society. They are the top dogs. It makes nothing but sense that for them the stakes are a lot higher - the difference in large and small success (achievement) in life is a lot smaller for blacks and hispanics - they occupy a much smaller achievement band in the lower half of society. Whites however can range all the way from dirt poor and desperate to being mansion zillionaires. Hence the perceived personal failure when you don't succeed as a white is substantially more stigatized and one of guilt and personal failure. Once you fail in the cutthroat ruthless US society, knowing you "could have been a millionaire" you find yourself in a world of existential and psychological pain.
What to do when you are in a miserable apartment eating canned tomatoes, all alone, or even worse, with an old ugly wife? Suicide or euthanasia by selfmedication sounds like a rational course of action.
What to do when you are in a miserable apartment eating canned tomatoes, all alone, or even worse, with an old ugly wife? Suicide or euthanasia by selfmedication sounds like a rational course of action.
2
I blame this 100% on the Bush Cheney GOP regime.
Obama has only been in office for 7 years, not nearly enough time to solve the problems of white males.
Obama has only been in office for 7 years, not nearly enough time to solve the problems of white males.
3
I have read a handful of comments relating to this article as a middle aged white "male" issue. But the article presents no distinction with the data around gender. Hard to believe it would be the same. What does it mean if it is the same? I wonder.
1
Americans have been taught to believe that a pill will fix most anything. Clearly it does not.
2
The title of this report implies this is a middle age problem, but the CDC reports that people age 18-24 who are white or American Indian are at significantly higher risk of suicide.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/racial_and_gender_2009_2013.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/racial_and_gender_2009_2013.htm
2
Since I own my own business, I cannot be considered in what I am about to say. The decline of using entrance testing for job applicants has created a biased way of hiring persons. College degree requirments cuts out many people whom would perform better than their "Higher Educated" counterpart but cannot even be considered for the position because of this stipulation. This bias came into effect when such groups as LULAC and AFLCIO pushed to deem pre-testing of applicants as "racially or culturally biased." Then it was fueled by the "Higher learning" industry. And it is just that, an industry. it will do anything to propel itself to greater heights. One of the things it uses is the thought that a person who has a degree is better suited for position simply because they had the money, time and opportunity to achieve getting a watered down degree. Balderdash!!
There, I have said it. The practice of HR personnel of hiring only degreed persons for a position has to be reconsidered. Have you ever talked to some of these people with degrees? They have the vocabulary of a fifth grader, the communication and computer skills of a third grader. They have no business be considered over the person more qualified, smarter, and just plain better suited for that position.
What we have here is College degree BIAS, backed by the Industry of Higher Learning. This industry has become part of the BIG MONEY problem in our country. NCAA football?
There, I have said it. The practice of HR personnel of hiring only degreed persons for a position has to be reconsidered. Have you ever talked to some of these people with degrees? They have the vocabulary of a fifth grader, the communication and computer skills of a third grader. They have no business be considered over the person more qualified, smarter, and just plain better suited for that position.
What we have here is College degree BIAS, backed by the Industry of Higher Learning. This industry has become part of the BIG MONEY problem in our country. NCAA football?
1
At age 52, I can look back to people of my age when I was a kid and see a very different scenario. The working class was coming up on their pensions right about now. The kids were grown. The house was paid off. The steel union had made sure no one had to worry about retirement/health care. The fish called, the deer, too. It wasn't glamorous, but it was secure.
Now, the middle-aged who come into my office to pay taxes are worn down and stressed. There are no fruits of their labor to pick, just bombshells of bills and surprise property tax hikes. Forget a vacation. Forget retirement!
Just working for the .5%.
Now, the middle-aged who come into my office to pay taxes are worn down and stressed. There are no fruits of their labor to pick, just bombshells of bills and surprise property tax hikes. Forget a vacation. Forget retirement!
Just working for the .5%.
20
For years, NY Times columnists such as Friedman and Brooks have extolled the virtues of globalization. Brooks frequently praises global Capitalism for raising the living standards of people overseas. That may be true, but a price has been paid for improving the economic fortunes of millions abroad. And the price has been paid by the sad individuals described in this article, as well as others.
The bill has come due now. Once thriving mill towns are now decaying ruins filled with hopelessness and despair. Thanks to the excellent work of Dr. Case and Dr. Deaton, we now know the cost.
The bill has come due now. Once thriving mill towns are now decaying ruins filled with hopelessness and despair. Thanks to the excellent work of Dr. Case and Dr. Deaton, we now know the cost.
8
Also, what is the link between the issues in this study vs the types, availability of medical services and care in the US and the other countries depicted in the study.
2
According to some of the readers of the NYT and the general liberal progressive theology, middle-aged white Americans are responsible for all the evil in the United States and most of the evil throughout the world. Of course this responsibility could not exist without showing some signs of distress within that group. These signs are manifested in acts of suicide and substance abuse, just proving the theology.
2
Not middle aged white Americans, the white 1% who refuse to pay their fair share leaving the burden on white middle class Americans. This scenario is perpetrated and supported by the Republican party most notably during this election cycle: more and larger tax breaks for the rich which will create more jobs for the middle class. It's been done before and it didn't work then ( remember the trickle down theory?) And it won't work now. The middle class needs a champion and no one on the Republican dias fits the bill.
3
For a half century, every other group in America has been buttressed by an array of programs aimed at redressing their perceived status as an aggrieved minority, and celebrated in progressive circles for any and all assaults mounted against the perceived privilege of straight white males -- blacks, Hispanics, women, Asians, gays, transgenders, religious minorities and so on. As each of those groups were artificially elevated by various forms of social engineering, the same group always has had to pay the freight.
So, why do these results surprise anyone?
So, why do these results surprise anyone?
3
I suppose the real question is how far will we as a people will let this go before we decide we're no longer a decent society. Humanity, throughout recorded history does not have a good record with regard for caring for the less Democracy, in theory, could provide a government that provides reasonable care for all while still rewarding luck, intelligence (subdivision of luck), and extraordinary initiative. A democracy in name only, subverted by a few evil rich people, will never rise to the challenge. If Murdoch, the Kochs, and a few others of their ilk haven't already gained enough control it may not be too late to save what's left of the New Deal and move closer to a truly decent society.
4
The unemployment rate is at least twice the official statistics. People with less education have less information and help in managing pain, as a result of both ignorance and a counter-productive "health care" system. Indian farmers are the only group I can think of with similar rates of suicide, and their plight is purely economic.
The least useful, financially speaking, in a modern society bear the brunt of the griefs that are inevitable with an egregious rate of change. Yet the word from the most useful, financially speaking, is innovate, i.e. change.
Demands for change by passionate innovators are not just absurd; they amount to a criminally neglectful (and short sighted) immorality. Passion unleavened by a search for equanimity in regard to society as a whole is likewise an irresponsible use of a lucky freedom. It may even be a tolling of the bell for a species about to be extinguished by its own moronically chosen rate of innovation.
Demands for change by passionate innovators are not just absurd; they amount to a criminally neglectful (and short sighted) immorality. Passion unleavened by a search for equanimity in regard to society as a whole is likewise an irresponsible use of a lucky freedom. It may even be a tolling of the bell for a species about to be extinguished by its own moronically chosen rate of innovation.
1
I wonder if we are not going to see a further decline in mortality among middle-aged, white men and women, without or WITH college degrees and even more access and dependence on substances to abuse - illicit, prescription and "social/recreational."
Classrooms, hospitals and prisons have something in common and even their various types of protection fail against a society that waits, outside.
Classrooms, hospitals and prisons have something in common and even their various types of protection fail against a society that waits, outside.
1
If self-worth through a good paying job and lifestyle is a factor here (as many suggest), its going to get very rough in the not too far future. Unless our governments and communities recognize this and prepare for it.
A way of technology sophistication is working its way big time into our worlds - so much so that (according to one study) just on where we are today in terms of sophistication, we have the potential to completely eliminate labor from around 50% of jobs we have with huge consequences for employment.
And the earth will be getting hotter. Meanwhile the billionaires will be enjoying their space travel.
A way of technology sophistication is working its way big time into our worlds - so much so that (according to one study) just on where we are today in terms of sophistication, we have the potential to completely eliminate labor from around 50% of jobs we have with huge consequences for employment.
And the earth will be getting hotter. Meanwhile the billionaires will be enjoying their space travel.
1
Let's put in the mix of reasons for these terrible statistics: the lack of community in white America. Not only is it lost from the loss of jobs as others have pointed out, but it is also lost as adult children are so stretched and stressed that they have little emotional energy to support their aging family members. The nuclear family (long dead in my opinion) lives on with few options of reaching out to others for support. An increasingly secular society removes faith communities from that mix as it so often was in the past.
I observe communities of color much more active in their embrace of elders and members of their families who have fallen on hard times; much more willing to share resources and take each other in as they age or become disabled. With no safety net, older white Americans are truly left behind unless you are wealthy. God help us all.
I observe communities of color much more active in their embrace of elders and members of their families who have fallen on hard times; much more willing to share resources and take each other in as they age or become disabled. With no safety net, older white Americans are truly left behind unless you are wealthy. God help us all.
4
These are some of the most profound, heart rendering and no bars held, realistic comments I have ever read in the NYT. The readers of this paper are an interesting bunch, full of varied depth and perception not seen else where.
I thank each and every one of you for sharing your thoughts on this tragic subject and the other daily news stories we encounter daily. Keep up the connecting dialogue, it's very often better than the story itself.
I thank each and every one of you for sharing your thoughts on this tragic subject and the other daily news stories we encounter daily. Keep up the connecting dialogue, it's very often better than the story itself.
3
Dear NYT - the article which you provide a link to is written by Dr Case and Dr Deaton. In that order.
Any particular reason you are putting Dr Deaton first when you list them together in this article?
Any particular reason you are putting Dr Deaton first when you list them together in this article?
this information is interesting but not really significant.
you only have to objectively analyze the current situation in the world and the US to see what is happening.
Living standards in the US are generally declining except for the well-to-do, better-educated strata.
For everybody else, the stress is increasing, hence the addictions to opioids and alcohol.
you can philosphize about the solutions to this non-existent "problem" but when all the talk has subsided, it will have fixed itself. One thing's for sure, there will be no "solution."
you only have to objectively analyze the current situation in the world and the US to see what is happening.
Living standards in the US are generally declining except for the well-to-do, better-educated strata.
For everybody else, the stress is increasing, hence the addictions to opioids and alcohol.
you can philosphize about the solutions to this non-existent "problem" but when all the talk has subsided, it will have fixed itself. One thing's for sure, there will be no "solution."
This demographic is one of many that would be most helped by the policies promulgated by Sanders and the rest of the progressives in this country (if you can ignore the intra-bickering). It's also, I believe, the demo least likely to support such policies.
Irony.
Irony.
"...something awry..."?
What? These academics are surprised? As a research forester economist who 'dabbled' in sociology over the years, ENNUI or alienation or boredom with life has been well documented--it is real and dangerous.
Nor is it 'brain surgery ala Carson" to witness the decades of economic and social change that marginalize practically everyone who doesnt have inherited wealth or staggering money and other 'earned' benefits like buying your own congressman. We have founded a new religion based on the false ideology of the free market which is no more 'free' that the slaves that most folks in the US have become. The 13th and 14th Amendments not withstanding.
People are too often ignorant and there are plenty of stupid folks too--and I say this will compassion and humility. We dont get to choose our IQs.
But this fact of an astoundingly corrupt society run for the benefit of a few is Not NEWS to these folks. No or lousy health care, no or meagre salaries/wages, decaying infrastructure and neighborhoods, Post K-12 education only the rich can afford, cheap distractions like alcohol, so-called sports teams loved by their fans while their pockets are picked to build lavish stadiums for billionaire owners.
Any questions?!
What? These academics are surprised? As a research forester economist who 'dabbled' in sociology over the years, ENNUI or alienation or boredom with life has been well documented--it is real and dangerous.
Nor is it 'brain surgery ala Carson" to witness the decades of economic and social change that marginalize practically everyone who doesnt have inherited wealth or staggering money and other 'earned' benefits like buying your own congressman. We have founded a new religion based on the false ideology of the free market which is no more 'free' that the slaves that most folks in the US have become. The 13th and 14th Amendments not withstanding.
People are too often ignorant and there are plenty of stupid folks too--and I say this will compassion and humility. We dont get to choose our IQs.
But this fact of an astoundingly corrupt society run for the benefit of a few is Not NEWS to these folks. No or lousy health care, no or meagre salaries/wages, decaying infrastructure and neighborhoods, Post K-12 education only the rich can afford, cheap distractions like alcohol, so-called sports teams loved by their fans while their pockets are picked to build lavish stadiums for billionaire owners.
Any questions?!
2
I wonder how easy access to guns fits into this picture? Depressed, abusing drugs or alcohol--and a gun is right there...
1
Two points:
We should rethink government policies that OUTsource jobs held by Americans, to foreign workers overseas ("free trade" NAFTA, TPP). AND, just as important, rethink our government's policies that INsource jobs held by Americans, to cheaper foreign workers by allowing millions and millions of legal and illegal, skilled and unskilled immigrants into the U.S. every year . Our middle class workers have been forced to compete with Third World workers, overseas and here in the U.S., for 40 years.
Good short analysis:
http://www.progressivesforimmigrationreform.org/the-second-great-wave-of...
Also, we should rethink our "everyone must go to college" mantra, and a bias against blue-collar work (mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc.). We talked our son out of pursuing an IT career, as he would have to compete for low wages and job opportunities with millions of H-1B immigrants. (ask the Disney IT workers how that works!) He is now a successful, well-paid diesel mechanic and gets unsolicited job offers on a regular basis. FYI: There is a huge shortage of truck drivers, a good paying steady job. A CDL license is required; not college.
We should rethink government policies that OUTsource jobs held by Americans, to foreign workers overseas ("free trade" NAFTA, TPP). AND, just as important, rethink our government's policies that INsource jobs held by Americans, to cheaper foreign workers by allowing millions and millions of legal and illegal, skilled and unskilled immigrants into the U.S. every year . Our middle class workers have been forced to compete with Third World workers, overseas and here in the U.S., for 40 years.
Good short analysis:
http://www.progressivesforimmigrationreform.org/the-second-great-wave-of...
Also, we should rethink our "everyone must go to college" mantra, and a bias against blue-collar work (mechanic, plumber, electrician, etc.). We talked our son out of pursuing an IT career, as he would have to compete for low wages and job opportunities with millions of H-1B immigrants. (ask the Disney IT workers how that works!) He is now a successful, well-paid diesel mechanic and gets unsolicited job offers on a regular basis. FYI: There is a huge shortage of truck drivers, a good paying steady job. A CDL license is required; not college.
4
This is probably the demographic group that has the highest percentage of gun ownership; this might be a reason for the higher rates of suicide.
The big story here is that this group's income has declined by 19 percent. Poor people have more stressful lives and die younger. This is just one of the many outcomes of our increasing income inequality.
13
Just today an early 60ish guy was fired from my company. In the companies view, he was falling behind. His knowledge, experience did not outweigh his lack of knowledge in today's technology. He couldn't produce (make money) at a desirable rate. (He was saddled, I believe intentionally, with a difficult work load.) Younger people could perform better at a lower salary (their health costs are lower too). Right now, I feel so bad for this nice articulate knowledgeable man and all I can think of is the movie, "They shoot horses, don't they?"
29
when a person loses hope that tomorrow will be a better day, in some way... their body loses some essential vitality and a cascade of changes begins that very often does lead to disease and death within a few years.
4
Trying to figure this out. My father was an alcoholic who worked at a low paying job in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. He had job security that not even college graduates have today. He did not have a path to a better job. We were not bombarded with advertisements of stuff we should have RIGHT NOW. Over the air TV, a tiny home, modest holidays, one old car and a shared telephone line. We knew we had to wait or do without. In Central Ohio, we I live most of the time, there is a huge drug and obesity problem. Have we set up the younger generations where they feel entitled to get what they want now? And when their budget does not permit, they max out their credit and satiate themselves with alcohol, drugs and food while falling into a depressed state when the bills come in or they lose their job. It is human nature to want more but we must be taught to be realistic.
1
As a post-egalitarian, I feel that support for women and minorities must be cyclical and an endgame must be considered for special attention to rights.
Poorly educated whites have been in decline while elite whites are scoring points for taking care of ethnic persons. We need to do an accounting of how groups gain by favoritism due to special interest and determine when to change focus. Post-egalitarianism is based on the belief that the engine for ethnic and female equality has been roaring for decades and may do damage to relationships and quality of life if it is not turned off.
Poorly educated whites have been in decline while elite whites are scoring points for taking care of ethnic persons. We need to do an accounting of how groups gain by favoritism due to special interest and determine when to change focus. Post-egalitarianism is based on the belief that the engine for ethnic and female equality has been roaring for decades and may do damage to relationships and quality of life if it is not turned off.
The article is not about old people, it's about middle aged people who are still juggling mortgages, raising children, caring for aging parents and working two or three jobs. There are no more "family vacations", 9-5 hours don't exist, and neither does job security. Pensions are gone, 401Ks were gutted during the recession. I think that taking drugs and using alcohol is a way to decompress for so many Americans now. It's cheaper than a plane ticket. And strangely, it may be the only way to maintain one's sanity when you literally don't have a single minute of down time. The economic disparity in this country is a national disgrace. Only Bernie has been willing to put himself on the line about it. Even the so-called "liberal media" has regarded him suspiciously for his theories on redistribution of wealth. I do think that the situation is so dire, that if something isn't done about it, the social upheaval will be earth shattering. People simply cannot maintain the pressure under which they live right now, and not have a nervous breakdown. What this article describes scientifically, is simply the charting of a society that is falling apart because the billionaires won't give an inch. It's all laid out right in front of us, yet scientists and sociologists seem surprised when confronted by it. I have a solution for them. Come live in my town and work three jobs for a couple of weeks at minimum wage. Better bring some bourbon too.
29
Nailed it.
2
The Standard American Diet (SAD), loaded with processed commodity foods, is not sustaining to health. In middle age, the consequences of years of chronic inflammation from poor diet come fully to bear, and quality of life becomes terrible. In our working-class neighborhood I see so many folks at the local grocery who can barely walk, or are riding motorized carts, their baskets filled with everything the US Govt has been subsidizing over the years, none of it healthy or alive. None of us can consume foods devoid of nourishment for a lifetime and not suffer the consequences. We need to better educate all children throughout their childhoods on good nutrition.
2
A combination of factors at play, here. Unreasonably optimistic expectations of the "you can be anything you want" variety when you are young; irrational exuberance, bad advice, too much faith in the system, and poor planning can set you up for a fall. Failure or inability to prepare or save enough to cushion adverse events, plus the fact that life is not fair are contributors. You might be working very hard but accomplishing very little if most of your energy is being soaked up by the consumer economy or just meeting basic needs or even being overextended in family, financial or business obligations. Sometimes there are people and institutions that are actually trying to do harm.
If the universe doesn't care, if life is not fair, if there are bad actors, it is incumbent upon human beings, who have the ability to recognize this, to act accordingly. We are, to our knowledge, the only creatures on the planet who are capable of dealing fairly with one another and injecting balance into our lives. We should be doing better for the sake of all. This extends beyond middle age whites - it involves everyone.
First, do no harm.
If the universe doesn't care, if life is not fair, if there are bad actors, it is incumbent upon human beings, who have the ability to recognize this, to act accordingly. We are, to our knowledge, the only creatures on the planet who are capable of dealing fairly with one another and injecting balance into our lives. We should be doing better for the sake of all. This extends beyond middle age whites - it involves everyone.
First, do no harm.
2
If we are going to address let me suggest the following beyond the loss of jobs and the sluggish economy
1. What is the effect of the internet? - does it not isolate people socially - spending long hours surfing rather than talk or interact with people
2. There is always been some degree of behavioral health issues in many society and they tend to surface more prominently societal support systems break down - why have our support systems broken - is it money, inequality of wealth or something unexpected?
3. Lastly is this the time to legalize marijuana without addressing this serious problem in our country?
1. What is the effect of the internet? - does it not isolate people socially - spending long hours surfing rather than talk or interact with people
2. There is always been some degree of behavioral health issues in many society and they tend to surface more prominently societal support systems break down - why have our support systems broken - is it money, inequality of wealth or something unexpected?
3. Lastly is this the time to legalize marijuana without addressing this serious problem in our country?
My very subjective point of view is this: Hispanics and African Americans are constantly pushed out of the system. In Chicago, they rarely get to retire from professional jobs and are brutally constrained to low level wages while most managers, presidents and CEOs are white. This makes it look as if whites were better and feeds on a racist system. Poor whites naturally feel like a failure in comparison, and exhibit toxic coping mechanisms such as food binging, alcoholism and drug addiction. Their limited education feeds a mentality of being right as opposed to intellectual practice, and this lack of adaptability leads to despair and suicide. My guess is that if discrimination laws were executed ethically to get out of this vicious cycle, and responsibility was given to those who deserve it and not just whites, then poor whites would not feel obligated to be superior and perhaps would then focus on better themselves.
1
Ours is a country where people are dismissed, pushed off the cliff, thrown away. Look at any institution or corporation (Amazon is only one of many). The HR practices pay lip service to teamwork and supportiveness while actual practices destroy. We have a generation of people who somehow never learned why cooperation, listening, empathy are important. The 45-55 year-olds I've known missed something here. Why, I'm not sure. But at a time of life when work and living should be deepening and ripening, they have values and practices that throw people on the street without a second look. We have created a society where human beings are seen as "capital." The only values are greed and control. This is where rugged individualism has created a non-society where people supporting and helping each other is seen as contemptible. The story line is that helping someone "demeans" them and creates weakness and dependency. I've given up fearing for us. I believe we've gone so far that we can't come back. Listen to the GOP candidates. They support the wealthy, and only the wealthy. And why do the already wealthy need more? What happened to generosity as a value? Caring for others? Helping others? It's over, folks.
4
This trend has been picked up before! - the following article is indelibly set in my memory:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/us/life-expectancy-for-less-educated-w... The epicenter is the rustbelt and further south - think of the recently published maps showing those still lacking health insurance.
"The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs."
Postulated causes were declining access to health care, smoking, abuse of prescription drugs, less flexible and insecure employment, single parenting, poor diet... That was 3 years ago. WHEN will we confront the obvious need for single payer health insurance, investment in public education, infrastructure jobs, the social safety net - income inequality. Bernie?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/us/life-expectancy-for-less-educated-w... The epicenter is the rustbelt and further south - think of the recently published maps showing those still lacking health insurance.
"The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs."
Postulated causes were declining access to health care, smoking, abuse of prescription drugs, less flexible and insecure employment, single parenting, poor diet... That was 3 years ago. WHEN will we confront the obvious need for single payer health insurance, investment in public education, infrastructure jobs, the social safety net - income inequality. Bernie?
5
I think diet is also a large contributing factor. The amount of carbohydrates, processed foods- massive amounts of sugar consumed by less educated and lower income people or folks who haven't taken the time to consider the foods they eat. This all causes obesity, joint pain and contributes to depression. The see-saw impact of sugar creates massive emotional ups and downs and generally cravings. Couple this with a basic lack of exercise and economic instability/pressures and it's a recipe for disaster.
3
It is indeed a sad article. Perhaps inequity in incomes in US is the elephant in the room. Still, I was surprised that nobody mentioned frugality also as one of the issues to consider. As a far poorer person than any average white American, it always surprises me how extravagant white Americans have been, totally relying on their Governments/employers to take care of them in old age and therefore not having significant savings. Some of us never had that luxury and stressed on savings and sharing (with communities) to live by which forced us to be more social.
1
Who loses when minorities benefit from affirmative action policies? Not the highly educated, affluent white Democrats who push these policies. Not the minorities they are aimed at helping. No, it's the whites, especially white men, who are living on the margin that suffer.
The other obvious and much bigger problem here is free trade. I remember my Dad lamenting NAFTA in the days when no one had the foresight to realize what the consequences would be for those without college degrees or the ability of get them. We bought Made in the USA for a long time, before it became impossible. Some people cannot compete in the international marketplace of today, and no amount of taxing the rich can fix the lack of a reliable, well-paying job.
The US has probably benefited as a whole from free trade, especially those affluent white Democrats and Republicans. Millions of people overseas have benefited. But it has been devastating for the former factory workers in places like where I grew up (SW Virginia).
The other obvious and much bigger problem here is free trade. I remember my Dad lamenting NAFTA in the days when no one had the foresight to realize what the consequences would be for those without college degrees or the ability of get them. We bought Made in the USA for a long time, before it became impossible. Some people cannot compete in the international marketplace of today, and no amount of taxing the rich can fix the lack of a reliable, well-paying job.
The US has probably benefited as a whole from free trade, especially those affluent white Democrats and Republicans. Millions of people overseas have benefited. But it has been devastating for the former factory workers in places like where I grew up (SW Virginia).
4
Minorities still live shorter lives, have higher suicide rates, have much less economic or political power--and the gains they have made over even worse times for them are not the reasons for white people's losses. Everybody's losing but the rich these days, and that's by design, the bosses have ruled since Reagan, and it shows.
1
Being classified as "ignorant" is never good for anyone in the human race. Suffering that condition, and living in a capitalistic economy, where competition encourages a "dog eat dog", "big fish eat the little fish" mentality, makes it very difficult for the weak, ignorant, unemployed, to maintain a modicum of balance in their lives. Their doctors working in tandem with the pharmacology industry sell as much, if not more opioids than drug dealers sell heroin and other drugs.
Life is not easy in the best of times, and the first decade of life in the US after the turn of the century will go down as one of the worst of times. Instead of all systems "go", we experienced living in a nation that has lost its way, with so many major "systems" failing. Energy, infrastructure, education, manufacturing, environment, and on and on, all in horrible condition because of leadership that focused on getting rich at all costs while the population at large floundered. Even today, our best hope, hungry-for-success immigrants, are made to suffer and live in uncertainty, while our general population fails to get educated. We really need a change in attitude, but even that will have to be taught by a just, wise, compassionate, yet strong leader. So look who wants to be president. If all or most of the above is true, do you see anyone in the field that can deal with our problems?
Life is not easy in the best of times, and the first decade of life in the US after the turn of the century will go down as one of the worst of times. Instead of all systems "go", we experienced living in a nation that has lost its way, with so many major "systems" failing. Energy, infrastructure, education, manufacturing, environment, and on and on, all in horrible condition because of leadership that focused on getting rich at all costs while the population at large floundered. Even today, our best hope, hungry-for-success immigrants, are made to suffer and live in uncertainty, while our general population fails to get educated. We really need a change in attitude, but even that will have to be taught by a just, wise, compassionate, yet strong leader. So look who wants to be president. If all or most of the above is true, do you see anyone in the field that can deal with our problems?
2
I strongly agree with the findings of the article as I see these issues everyday in my work in federal disability. It's high time we start disregarding the differences and pay more attention to the similarities. Lower educated low income whites are experiencing these problems just as lower educated low income blacks have forever! Its no longer a matter of black vs white, but the haves vs have not. We should work together to deal with these issues head on as American citizens! Because the social disadvantages affect us all the same regardless of color. We have a country with many ppl on both sides, blue collar and white collar, black, white, Hispanic who are being squeezed financially and disenfranchised by social structures created by those in power. The blue collar workers job is shipped overseas and the white collar workers job is replaced by a foreign worker who is brought in to fill a void of talent and skill that is allegedly unavailable in the US, except you have to train them before they take your job.
People for the most part drink excessively and do hard drugs when life sucks. 20-30 years of manual labor will likely lead to arthritis and other severe orthopedic conditions that cause lifelong chronic pain. And there are many places in this country where manual labor is the only type of labor, and there isn't much of it to go around. We have been divided and conquered too long! There's strength in numbers.
People for the most part drink excessively and do hard drugs when life sucks. 20-30 years of manual labor will likely lead to arthritis and other severe orthopedic conditions that cause lifelong chronic pain. And there are many places in this country where manual labor is the only type of labor, and there isn't much of it to go around. We have been divided and conquered too long! There's strength in numbers.
11
Your broadside could have been transposed right from 1965, not long after Collective Bargaining began with the Big 3, and then the Federal government, and the fantastical Great Society was a-borning. Now, after several fat decades, we've come full circle.
Sadly, this is not the first paper to identify this finding, although the authors have been able to identify factors about which others have speculated. Moreover, the findings are not surprising to anyone who has some social or family connection to blue collar white folks (i.e., people other than typical NY Times readers). the idea that education is protective was identified long ago. The decline of the middle class became evident to some of us with the deindustrialization that began in the 70s. i wouldn't be surprised to find parallels among better educated folks in the future given the declining opportunities for college grads. Inequality kills--it's as easy as that and an economy directed by overpaid CEOs who drive businesses and wages into the ground is not the solution.
6
Student debt and no means of paying it off if unemployed, or under-employed, may well lead to a spike in suicides among that 30-something age group.
The 50 year protectionist period which began during the time of President Lincoln was a period of industry building in this country. Due to the fact that we viewed our country as a society, we decided as a nation that we would trade with each other as fellow Americans. Factories were built all across this country including in many rural areas. We Americans bought things that other Americans produced, and in doing so paid a fair price for the other man's labor. This produced a stability of many, many middle class jobs. Now we have outsmarted ourselves, and brought a despair to many. We need to go back and study history, and learn the lessons of what brought satisfaction, accomplishment, and stability to people's lives who always wanted to make their contribution to society.
1
Have you noticed? The suicide rate is solely attributable to "Republicans," say 40% of the comments here. Who knew? But..... why then did America elect the Republicans just 12 months ago in the largest numbers since.... 1932? No wonder the suicide rate is so high! Right?
1
I suspect that social isolation is more of a killer than drugs or unemployment. Blacks and Latinos tend to stay connected with family and church, which help them get through hard times.
5
These are not 'older' boomers but those born during the transitional period from boom and bust during the 1960s and coming of age during the Reagan Administration. The steroidal opulence of the times and the gleaming glass cities of the Sunbelt masked the complete collapse of the nation's manufacturing and agricultural sectors: the first off-shored, and the second a victim of capitalist collectivization. A visit to Anytown Midwest or what remains of old ag communities in Texas, you can see first-hand what happened.
With poor whites off-loaded by the liberal movement after the busing wars, they were preyed on by Evangelical chislers and Republican jihadists sealing their economic fate. In most cultures being poor is not a source of shame. Not so in Reagan's America. Reagan created an America of 'winners' and one of 'losers'. Woe betide you if you fall into the latter. Unless you can worm your way into some victim-group and find yourself sentimentally 'tokenized' by well-meaning liberals, you're a loser who deserves what she gets. That's a heavy burden indeed. Prayer and angry rage work about as well as playing the lottery; at the end of the day it's either grim acceptance or a bottle.
With poor whites off-loaded by the liberal movement after the busing wars, they were preyed on by Evangelical chislers and Republican jihadists sealing their economic fate. In most cultures being poor is not a source of shame. Not so in Reagan's America. Reagan created an America of 'winners' and one of 'losers'. Woe betide you if you fall into the latter. Unless you can worm your way into some victim-group and find yourself sentimentally 'tokenized' by well-meaning liberals, you're a loser who deserves what she gets. That's a heavy burden indeed. Prayer and angry rage work about as well as playing the lottery; at the end of the day it's either grim acceptance or a bottle.
1
The graph comparing US death rates for white Americans 45-54 years of age and the same age groups in European countries should be highlighted, and yet, I didn't find one mention of this in the article. Note the sharp diversion of US death rates in the last decade of the 20th century from those in Europe. Notably, these European countries are derided as "socialist."
The obvious next analysis is to test the correlation of social services and death rates among Caucasions in the developed nations. It's hard to avoid thinking we took a wrong turn in the recent past and that, looking at Europe, this need not have happened.
To have a sharp up turn in death rates comparable to the HIV scourge, in the absence of any one disease factor, suggests that some social changes can go "viral" in a most deadly fashion.
This is a timely report as political campaigns debate whether we are Denmark. No we aren't, but we can likely save lives by being a bit kinder, labels of "socialist" not withstanding.
The obvious next analysis is to test the correlation of social services and death rates among Caucasions in the developed nations. It's hard to avoid thinking we took a wrong turn in the recent past and that, looking at Europe, this need not have happened.
To have a sharp up turn in death rates comparable to the HIV scourge, in the absence of any one disease factor, suggests that some social changes can go "viral" in a most deadly fashion.
This is a timely report as political campaigns debate whether we are Denmark. No we aren't, but we can likely save lives by being a bit kinder, labels of "socialist" not withstanding.
2
I have been watching this for some time as a daily reader of the obits. At age 72 I am surprised by the number of people younger than me dying in such numbers. Many days they outnumber those older than me. Few bits tell you why someone died. My observation is that this began with the demise of America's industrialists and the rise of the MBA in controlling the economy, the rise of the GOP at first via the evangelicals and then by the criminally insane and suicidal Tea Party types. Investments in America were made in financial paper rather than industry. Unionization failed and so did pensions and available work for a living wage. God was now in charge of America's political future for publicity purposes but the strings were pulled by the oligarchs, a historical pattern for the world run by mankind rather than nature itself. The hope that was born following WWII turned to faith in the next life as mankind lost any control of his daily life. America became the warring nation with loss after loss explained away by political hacks. Until Americans decide that they want a democracy and will actually vote for it, current trends wilt improve. Oh, and the ever present "thoughts and prayers" are with you.
20
"Hispanics is far lower than for middle-aged whites at 262 per 100,000." What is different about the Hispanics? Is it family structure? Are they more likely to rely on and contribute to their entire family? Do they have different expectations from life? Is there something to be learned from the contrast between cultures?
Maybe, just maybe we need to listen to people like Tom Brady more and investigate the FTC and FDA for not doing their job. We are paying them protect us while they are allowing great harm to the American people by greedy corporations interested in a profit at our expense. It's time to change our laws and hold those in the government, its agencies and corporation criminally accountable for their crimes against humanity.
This article points out problems caused by lack of jobs for those with limited education. We need to consider what those with high school education can do for work that pays enough to live and if not enough jobs how can this group live normally? This issue should be considered by Congress if Comgress was working normally.
1
The article did not mention overweight or obesity as one reason.
1
I would imagine that a lot has to do with the way that white males have been devalued in society. They have no reproductive rights yet they are forced to support a woman's choice financially. They are blamed for almost every sociological sin of the past. They have little real identity to call their own it is dictated by the media and the now mainstream society. They only may lay claim to being sexual desperadoes (note that THIS stereotype is somehow not considered sexist) and sadly enough, too many accept this designation willingly having it beaten into them via the media and the popular culture.
The baby you father is not "a woman's choice". It's a product of your own DNA and your choices, too. So you'll have to have your pity party alone.
Interesting correlation between the death rate and the fact that in the past 40 years we have lost hundreds of thousands of blue collar jobs in this country.
3
Perhaps lower-income white American males have lost their sense of entitlement, leading to despair and its self-destructive behavior. Their college-educated peers still feel entitled. Their female, black and Hispanic age-peers never had any entitlement to lose.
1
For a large segment of the US population life is terrible, and it gets worse for the affected group as they age. It is sad this once-great country has gone so wrong in so many ways. Only forceful political action will reverse the trend, but there is no sign that will happen, none whatsoever. The trend is further down, steeply.
12
Reading the comments on this article this morning, I'm chagrined to see most people have somehow gotten the idea this study focuses on white males. It does not. The death rate is increasing for men and women alike.
There is a feeling of general hopelessness here in the hinterlands of northern Illinois. A $13 an hour welding job looks good right about now, compared to two or three minimum wage part-time jobs at Wal-Mart or Dollar General - but are we supposed to raise a family on that?
The American dream has turned into a nightmare as more and more working stiffs find it easier to just shuffle off the mortal coil, knowing full well they will not be missed by our craven, dog-eat-dog society.
There is a feeling of general hopelessness here in the hinterlands of northern Illinois. A $13 an hour welding job looks good right about now, compared to two or three minimum wage part-time jobs at Wal-Mart or Dollar General - but are we supposed to raise a family on that?
The American dream has turned into a nightmare as more and more working stiffs find it easier to just shuffle off the mortal coil, knowing full well they will not be missed by our craven, dog-eat-dog society.
2
I do believe that the drugs and alcohol have a significant effect but have you ever been to a small rural town lately, or a deep fringe suburb that is not affluent? What these people eat would drop anyone like flies. Convenience gas-mart breaded fried chicken strips with ranch dressing and the chips and soda parade.
That whole myth about hometown cooking is gone. Long gone. If you go out to eat at a rural restaurant it's mostly food that comes frozen from a big food service truck and is deep fried or grilled or if its vegetable; frozen and chucked into a pan of boiling water until all nutrients and flavor are gone. Check out the shopping carts of rural folks hitting up their local Safeway - boxes of processed foods with lots of sugar and fat.
There are exceptions of course but in my work I have to deal with super educated, hip, wealthy, Whole Foods shopping lifestyle people one day (which are every bit as irritating) and the next; it's folks that I have described in the first part of my comment. I have watched this phenom my entire professional life since the mid 80's, increase.
But what do you expect, you don't see ads for organic tomatoes or grass fed meats. You see ads for Taco Bells, Doritos, Captain Crunch and Pepsi. Now mix those ads with mediocre wages and poor education and a weak family culture.
That's why I envy Latinos and Asians; they brought their own very tight cultural with them. It's a beautiful thing. Blacks and Whites are kinda cultural-less here
That whole myth about hometown cooking is gone. Long gone. If you go out to eat at a rural restaurant it's mostly food that comes frozen from a big food service truck and is deep fried or grilled or if its vegetable; frozen and chucked into a pan of boiling water until all nutrients and flavor are gone. Check out the shopping carts of rural folks hitting up their local Safeway - boxes of processed foods with lots of sugar and fat.
There are exceptions of course but in my work I have to deal with super educated, hip, wealthy, Whole Foods shopping lifestyle people one day (which are every bit as irritating) and the next; it's folks that I have described in the first part of my comment. I have watched this phenom my entire professional life since the mid 80's, increase.
But what do you expect, you don't see ads for organic tomatoes or grass fed meats. You see ads for Taco Bells, Doritos, Captain Crunch and Pepsi. Now mix those ads with mediocre wages and poor education and a weak family culture.
That's why I envy Latinos and Asians; they brought their own very tight cultural with them. It's a beautiful thing. Blacks and Whites are kinda cultural-less here
Politicians, business "leaders" and pundits have not seen this because they are in a bubble of privilege. I believe they don't truly know (spend time with over a period of time) anyone who has been affected by the economic downturn in this way. Because they are all connected, if anyone they know loses their job, they are able to help them find one, And as a result, they don't see the deterioration of a person over time...their confidence, economic security, mental and physical health, etc...and the rise of panic, fear and anger. A lot of regular people who are still thriving also turn away from people who are struggling in this economy...it makes them uncomfortable.
The political parties and their wealthy backers and some of the radio hosts and television networks have taken advantage of the anger of this group, and work hard to rile them up and make them more paranoid. And these "leaders" profit from this manipulation both in money and power.
It reminds me a bit of some of the leaders in the Middle East and other countries who rile up their citizens in anger against the US or other imagined enemies to distract them from their own corruption and incompetence.
It's a cruel and heartless tactic. Meanwhile too many people are living with increasing despair and no hope.
I don't see many politicians (or pundits) who I think have a vision or the knowledge of how to fix this. Some of it is an out of touch-ness. But a lot of it is just a lack of depth.
The political parties and their wealthy backers and some of the radio hosts and television networks have taken advantage of the anger of this group, and work hard to rile them up and make them more paranoid. And these "leaders" profit from this manipulation both in money and power.
It reminds me a bit of some of the leaders in the Middle East and other countries who rile up their citizens in anger against the US or other imagined enemies to distract them from their own corruption and incompetence.
It's a cruel and heartless tactic. Meanwhile too many people are living with increasing despair and no hope.
I don't see many politicians (or pundits) who I think have a vision or the knowledge of how to fix this. Some of it is an out of touch-ness. But a lot of it is just a lack of depth.
1
The suicides indicate that people feel entirely hopeless and powerless. In other countries we might see desperate people on the verge of suicide at least rising up to demand change before they take their own lives; in the US, we know in our bones that we do not live in a democratic state that will permit meaningful change. Worse, we know that our fellow citizens have been so brainwashed by the propaganda of American exceptionalism that they will blame us, as individuals, for failing to make it in a perfect system handed down by God. “Democracy” has been rendered to little more than a rhetorical device used to obfuscate and justify cynical and selfish policies designed to benefit elites at the expense of everyone, and everything, else. Anybody who doubts that need only look at the way that true agents of change, like Bernie Sanders, are marginalized by the political apparatus and its media.
I have a friend who's a high school teacher who talks about her students being insanely stressed out, with her brightest students often crying, literally, about how much they have to do and how they can’t keep up with it all. It's an anxiety passed to them from their parents and society, born of a sense that only one percent of Americans will make it, and there are desperate efforts afoot to try to secure a spot as one of the chosen. That’s the world we've given them.
I have a friend who's a high school teacher who talks about her students being insanely stressed out, with her brightest students often crying, literally, about how much they have to do and how they can’t keep up with it all. It's an anxiety passed to them from their parents and society, born of a sense that only one percent of Americans will make it, and there are desperate efforts afoot to try to secure a spot as one of the chosen. That’s the world we've given them.
3
For lack of a better term, I will refer to this as the Rush Limbaugh effect. First, white men are being hit with very real problems largely due to the policies they support. The advantages of being a white male are eroding in our society. That's not to say that other groups are now advantaged. The death rate of middle-aged black males still far exceeds that of white males. It is more the case that white males, particularly high school or less educated white males, increasingly are being thrown into the same pit as everyone else. Then, they are constantly being told unbelievably hateful and factually false swill about what's happening to them by Limbaugh and even worse, lesser known pundents on the right. As the NYTimes has been reporting, many of the sources pushing this swill aren't even true believers. They are two-bit hustlers. Some funded by selfish, agenda driven billionaires. Others by the people who's lives they are ruining. Most of you have seen Fox, i.e., Faux, News, but have you ever heard the much more shocking and hateful speech on right-wing talk radio across this country these days? Turns out this stuff has very real and devastating consequences to the intended audience.
1
This cannot in any respect be "startling." Where individuals are bereft of hope, death will ensue as surely as night follows day. Several generations of white males have been told they are useless oppressors, and this has taken its toll. Add to that the multiple collapses of the economy, tumbling downwards as old slinky toys used to lumber down stairs, and the outcome is inevitable. This can only be "startling" to those who thought they could insult and eliminate gainful employment without consequence.
1
This just again shows the cost of unrestrained capitalism and the dominance of our political and economic system by a small elite. It was not too long ago that almost anybody (or at least any white person) with a minimal education and a willingness to work could achieve the American Dream. Now an entire generation is left out in the cold with declining wages, loss of benefits that used to be taken for granted, and a tattered social safety net. I want my country back!!
3
This is the most important Times article in years.
We've all sensed that 'something is rotten in Denmark'. We all feel our culture and approach is seriously off. America has lost it's way.
Perhaps this study will trigger the reexamination we know is needed.
We've all sensed that 'something is rotten in Denmark'. We all feel our culture and approach is seriously off. America has lost it's way.
Perhaps this study will trigger the reexamination we know is needed.
1
"... are being driven not by the big killers like heart disease and diabetes but by an epidemic of suicides and afflictions stemming from substance abuse: alcoholic liver disease and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids."
I would bet, that vets from the 14 years wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, disproportionately occupy those categories of persons affected by the above mentioned conditions.
More thanks due to the ShrubCheney gang and the uninvestigated crimes of 9/11.
I would bet, that vets from the 14 years wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, disproportionately occupy those categories of persons affected by the above mentioned conditions.
More thanks due to the ShrubCheney gang and the uninvestigated crimes of 9/11.
1
Its more than ironic that these are often the faces of the Tea Party.
Desperate, middle aged white men, undereducated, left with few options but to blame government for a life collapsed.
But they are not exceptional.
I also see my single, middle-aged buddies dying at an extraordinary rate.
These are often some of the best educated, highest earning people out there.
For many reasons the children of the '70s have some tragic outcomes.
We were raised with sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Life fast. Die young, Leave a good looking corpse.
Not exactly a prescription for growing old.
That some give it up should not come as a surprise.
With nothing left to live for, what's the point?
Desperate, middle aged white men, undereducated, left with few options but to blame government for a life collapsed.
But they are not exceptional.
I also see my single, middle-aged buddies dying at an extraordinary rate.
These are often some of the best educated, highest earning people out there.
For many reasons the children of the '70s have some tragic outcomes.
We were raised with sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Life fast. Die young, Leave a good looking corpse.
Not exactly a prescription for growing old.
That some give it up should not come as a surprise.
With nothing left to live for, what's the point?
Could it be higher amongst conservative whites?
Perhaps all that frenzy Fox News whips them up into is not good for their health, mental or physical?
Perhaps all that frenzy Fox News whips them up into is not good for their health, mental or physical?
When I was waiting to hear about contract work here in the DC area, I stayed in a cheap room in Jackson, Michigan. The region was post industrial and was pretty poor. Some folks in order to support themselves turned to selling drugs and whatnot. It was a very dismal and depressing place to live. There were no prospects for the people living there. Due to educational backgrounds, they were stuck. The manufacturing and construction jobs had vanished.
3
Many years ago I broke my back. This followed a broken pelvis. Now at 65 these injuries are back with a vengeance. Using the medical pain scale zero is pain free, ten is very intense pain.
My good days are a five. This would be very uncomfortable for most people. For me it's a dream score. Most days are 6 - 7, bad days are 8 - 9. I cannot drive a car more than an hour. Cutting the grass (power mower and small lot) leaves me on the hard-surfaced kitchen floor for 30 minutes until I can grapple and grab the counter in order to stand up.
My MD gives me an Oxycodone (15 mg) Rx that lasts two weeks, and that's if I hold off until I'm a 8 - 9. Cannot refill until 30 days pass.
Yeah, I'm tempted to use alcohol as an anaesthetic, but that's going from the pan to the fire.
The advice I'm given? "Take an Advil. It's not addictive."
Thanks a lot.
My good days are a five. This would be very uncomfortable for most people. For me it's a dream score. Most days are 6 - 7, bad days are 8 - 9. I cannot drive a car more than an hour. Cutting the grass (power mower and small lot) leaves me on the hard-surfaced kitchen floor for 30 minutes until I can grapple and grab the counter in order to stand up.
My MD gives me an Oxycodone (15 mg) Rx that lasts two weeks, and that's if I hold off until I'm a 8 - 9. Cannot refill until 30 days pass.
Yeah, I'm tempted to use alcohol as an anaesthetic, but that's going from the pan to the fire.
The advice I'm given? "Take an Advil. It's not addictive."
Thanks a lot.
1
We're sad. Some of us are dying of it. More than before.
Too, some migrants are dying of migrating. And some Africans, a lot, are dying of nothing other than being Africans. And the planet's dying, leaf by tendril, because we can't abide being sad, or a little bit cold.
So yeah, save the first-world middle-aged white guy, by all means, I'm one and would love to be saved, wouldn't have clicked otherwise.
And yet. How much of our infrastructure, pharmacology, economics and metaphysics are arranged around how not to be sad? Say, patriarchy, white-guy-science, how's that working out for you?
My first appointment as president: Secretary of Fine-with-Being-Sad.
Or an Institute to study how that might be even conceivable.
Too, some migrants are dying of migrating. And some Africans, a lot, are dying of nothing other than being Africans. And the planet's dying, leaf by tendril, because we can't abide being sad, or a little bit cold.
So yeah, save the first-world middle-aged white guy, by all means, I'm one and would love to be saved, wouldn't have clicked otherwise.
And yet. How much of our infrastructure, pharmacology, economics and metaphysics are arranged around how not to be sad? Say, patriarchy, white-guy-science, how's that working out for you?
My first appointment as president: Secretary of Fine-with-Being-Sad.
Or an Institute to study how that might be even conceivable.
No shocking in the least. This demographic has been sold out by the new economy, the jobs they once held filled by cheaper workers with less education and less experience. Try getting a job or securing any sense of self-worth if you're over 50. It's virtually impossible. The folks who run things have decided they have no use for this demographic.
There's a price to be paid for this, and we are paying it in various ways, one of which is the increased mortality rate in this group. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Many of these people have no access to healthcare and will never be able to retire in any kind of normal sense. What we've created is a ticking time bomb.
There's a price to be paid for this, and we are paying it in various ways, one of which is the increased mortality rate in this group. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Many of these people have no access to healthcare and will never be able to retire in any kind of normal sense. What we've created is a ticking time bomb.
3
Once, along a bike path, I saw a couple of black plastic garbage bags lying in the ditch, so I stopped to pick them up to throw them in a trash can. As I reached for them, they...moved...and a head poked out of one, then two bare, emaciated arms and two bony legs out of the other...and a young man - what remained of a young man - staggered to his feet, gave me a sidelong glance of lostness I will never forget, and shambled off into the bushes in his black plastic clothes.
This article infuriates me. The way our society just throws people away. This is "conservative" politics staring back at us in the mirror. This is lip service sound-bites about "hard-working Americans," who have a true unemployment rate of 14 percent because their jobs were shipped to China and Bangladesh, because they're working three part-time jobs at minimum wage if they're lucky, and they are just so...tired, worn down, mangled by this machine we call the free market, a market that is free only to those who own it.
This is shredding the social safety net, which in normal times is how we save each other, which in reality is how we survive as a nation and a species.
Just step over them on the sidewalks, snap on our latex gloves and zip them up in body bags in front of their destroyed families, and throw them away along with millions of tons of food and plastic.
This is how we simply do not care. Call it anything you like, but this is savagery.
This article infuriates me. The way our society just throws people away. This is "conservative" politics staring back at us in the mirror. This is lip service sound-bites about "hard-working Americans," who have a true unemployment rate of 14 percent because their jobs were shipped to China and Bangladesh, because they're working three part-time jobs at minimum wage if they're lucky, and they are just so...tired, worn down, mangled by this machine we call the free market, a market that is free only to those who own it.
This is shredding the social safety net, which in normal times is how we save each other, which in reality is how we survive as a nation and a species.
Just step over them on the sidewalks, snap on our latex gloves and zip them up in body bags in front of their destroyed families, and throw them away along with millions of tons of food and plastic.
This is how we simply do not care. Call it anything you like, but this is savagery.
61
Per the article I think it comes down to four words. "A sense of hope."
No matter what level of education one has, by the time one reaches "middle age" one pretty much has figured out what the "game of life" is. The game of life in America (USA) is shifting drastically. Shifting away from "you, me, us", post World War II philosophy to "me, myself, I" philosophy.
The "me, myself, I" (this includes corporations) types are very good at the game they play. One game rule, send jobs to China to squeeze profit margins.
The people the article is referring to, middle age whites, are not dumb. Growing up, they've had little sound employment avenues - which generates hope. I like Germany's model of "trades people" skilled workers in a given fields. This non going to college avenue creates a social / economic path to self worth and hope.
No matter what level of education one has, by the time one reaches "middle age" one pretty much has figured out what the "game of life" is. The game of life in America (USA) is shifting drastically. Shifting away from "you, me, us", post World War II philosophy to "me, myself, I" philosophy.
The "me, myself, I" (this includes corporations) types are very good at the game they play. One game rule, send jobs to China to squeeze profit margins.
The people the article is referring to, middle age whites, are not dumb. Growing up, they've had little sound employment avenues - which generates hope. I like Germany's model of "trades people" skilled workers in a given fields. This non going to college avenue creates a social / economic path to self worth and hope.
2
Gen-xers have been affected living in the shadow of the baby boomers - when we reached the age when life and career ambitions positioned us to assume greater responsibility and leadership, the baby boomers refused to cede their positions, even as they hit their late 60s. When companies eventually look to "new leadership", Gen-xers are passed over in favour of a younger generation.
This fascinating article answers the age-old question, “Where do you go when there is no place left to go?” Our society and its faltering economy have driven a huge segment of its members away. Sadly, this problem is far from over. In actuality, it is just under way.
The higher authorities should be paying close attention to the “Comments.” They provide a stark overview. “johnlaw of Florida” writes very well on the subject.
The higher authorities should be paying close attention to the “Comments.” They provide a stark overview. “johnlaw of Florida” writes very well on the subject.
My spouse and I talked about this article this morning. Nearly all of our male college friends are gone(we're 70). They don't fit the profile exactly: they were all educated, but in precarious professions. Economic insecurity takes its toil.
1
Educational level is but one factor, what about marital status and religious faith?
2
Let's all shout out that people "on the dole" are lazy and do not want to work. Let's raise pharmaceuticals that actually help people to $50 a pill or hundreds for injections, because hey, big pharma needs to make a profit. Let reduce food stamps and reduce medicaid opportunities because we can't afford it. Let's teach dumber and dumber and keep real science out of curricula, because IF you insist on educating, feeding, and caring for the citizens you steal from, you might find a strong nation that can actually persist. Let the reality bubble we want to live in never burst like a pipe dream.
2
My cousin never smoked anything, and drank beer only moderately, and was a champion rower on a Jersey Shore beach patrol from which he retired at age 60. Now age 65, he has only a few weeks left to live, from a brain tumor that was found about a year ago. Our mutual cousin Joanne got breast cancer at 55 or so, she now has pancreas cancer at 67. So both will pass away by Thanksgiving, probably. I survived stage IV lymphoma in 2002. I tell my wife: 4 of my cousins, and 2 of my uncles, died of cancer or coronaries in their mid-60s. (I exclude 2 other uncles who died from lung cancer, and alcoholism.) Her brother died in just weeks from a fungal infection in his lungs, age 60. His older brother killed himself during his 2nd divorce, age 39, in 1987. (The few suicides I know were all in 30-something men with substance problems, not including a few others who overdosed, knowingly.)
I turned 65 on Halloween, so I'm walking on eggshells. Will the postman ring twice, cancer wise? I suddenly had to get a pacemaker in 2012, in the cardiac ICU. Damage to my heart's electrical system from cancer radiation doses 10 years earlier, I was told. Fred Thompson, Mr. Watergate, just died of lymphoma at 71. Same age as my father died, just 4 days after 9/11, a small consolation for dad, not to see the world at war now. An augur for me, death at 71? But then, as Hamlet bravely said, "We defy augury!" Soldier on.
I turned 65 on Halloween, so I'm walking on eggshells. Will the postman ring twice, cancer wise? I suddenly had to get a pacemaker in 2012, in the cardiac ICU. Damage to my heart's electrical system from cancer radiation doses 10 years earlier, I was told. Fred Thompson, Mr. Watergate, just died of lymphoma at 71. Same age as my father died, just 4 days after 9/11, a small consolation for dad, not to see the world at war now. An augur for me, death at 71? But then, as Hamlet bravely said, "We defy augury!" Soldier on.
As a lefty, I agree wholeheartedly with the other comments about income inequality, and the terrible economic prospects for folks in small-town America. I have a family member who recently went through several years of money issues, followed by bankruptcy. I saw the heavy toll this took on his mental and physical health.
However, I think it's also important to take a page from conservative observers to talk about other things that have changed over the past 50 years: social cohesion, church attendance, and local community. While I think that writers like Charles Murray, and even David Brooks, take this too far, there is definitely some truth to it.
Even if you don't feel a need for these things personally, they are important to living a happy life for many. I have read stories in this paper about the happiness of elderly New Yorkers: the happiest are those with the most friends and social structure, not those with the most money. One can find camaraderie in places other than a church or VFW hall, but that is where it had always been -- just like jobs had always been easy to come by. Now both are gone or disappearing.
Again, I don't discount the primary need for better jobs and a fairer economy. And work also gives the worker dignity and a social support. But money doesn't buy happiness.
However, I think it's also important to take a page from conservative observers to talk about other things that have changed over the past 50 years: social cohesion, church attendance, and local community. While I think that writers like Charles Murray, and even David Brooks, take this too far, there is definitely some truth to it.
Even if you don't feel a need for these things personally, they are important to living a happy life for many. I have read stories in this paper about the happiness of elderly New Yorkers: the happiest are those with the most friends and social structure, not those with the most money. One can find camaraderie in places other than a church or VFW hall, but that is where it had always been -- just like jobs had always been easy to come by. Now both are gone or disappearing.
Again, I don't discount the primary need for better jobs and a fairer economy. And work also gives the worker dignity and a social support. But money doesn't buy happiness.
America is a sick country socially, economically and more important spiritually. I can't say I'm surprised at the findings. Many rural communities in the Midwest and South are literally dying due to lack of economic development.
The irony here is that many of the problems that used to characterized inner-city communities; drug abuse, and drug abuse related crime, are now exploding in rural America. It shows that anyplace there is a lack of economic development and educational opportunities is going to a negative impact on health, social issues, and crime.
The real issue is why hasn't there been more media focus and attention from politicians on the severity of these problems? Are people afraid to confront these issues openly and why?
The irony here is that many of the problems that used to characterized inner-city communities; drug abuse, and drug abuse related crime, are now exploding in rural America. It shows that anyplace there is a lack of economic development and educational opportunities is going to a negative impact on health, social issues, and crime.
The real issue is why hasn't there been more media focus and attention from politicians on the severity of these problems? Are people afraid to confront these issues openly and why?
1
America always measured the success using money as the matrix - the value and utility of an individual depends how much money he or she has. This money is decreasing for the 99% due to inequality trend and its effect we are seeing. To counter this stress individual needs alternative strategy to hold to life - family, social involvement, religions, ....The strategy of white American middle age group to counter this loss of money in many cases is very different - anger, hatred, alcohol, drug.....The display of this trend can be seen in the Trunp campaign pictures. This is a psychological problem of the group - only alternative life style can restore them in meaning full life. The same inequality is seen in other developed countries - their psychological reaction is not like Americs and outcome on mortality rate is different for them.
I was born in the 50's and grew up in an America that had ample opportunities for me and others in my white working-class neighborhood. We all believed in the basic goodness of this country and we were working hard for our piece of the American dream. The end result is that we all prospered. But with so much available wealth in the middle class, corporations saw a new opportunity. It seems to me that, in the past decade, there has been a increasing willingness of large corporations to feed on the people that got them there. High fees, usurious credit policies, drug-pushing, and privatization have turned our dream into a nightmare. And government has turned it's back on average Americans while it chases after corporate dollars. Is it no wonder that the group with the highest expectations for success, the white male, is the group who has psychologically suffered. They were suppose to lead their families into an American paradise, but instead found themselves lost in the desert.
1
Dr. Deaton's research may be one of the most important studies in recent times and in a better world should be the basis of large scale programs such as the ones that eventually eliminated child labor. As Pete from California comments below, it is not just the bad circumstances that middle age men find themselves mired in, it is the realization that things are never, never, going to get better. The way the rich have slanted the economy away from working men is criminal. And their co conspirators, the last 20 Congresses, should be held accountable as well.
1
Many of the white, middle-aged people in this group suffered a loss of jobs, status, and income in the wake of the financial disaster of 2007-2009. In addition, their incomes had been flat for many years before that, leading of course to a decline in purchasing power.
Ours is a hyper-individualized society, as was pointed out by the great political sociologist, Alexis de Tocqueville. We are responsible for our successes but also for our failures. When a person loses his job, he blames it on himself, even though the cause may be due to large macroeconomic forces.
The Republican Party, in particular, holds to this belief. The Democrats at least believe that we are all in this together and that we should support community mental health programs that will aid people during these dark times.
Ours is a hyper-individualized society, as was pointed out by the great political sociologist, Alexis de Tocqueville. We are responsible for our successes but also for our failures. When a person loses his job, he blames it on himself, even though the cause may be due to large macroeconomic forces.
The Republican Party, in particular, holds to this belief. The Democrats at least believe that we are all in this together and that we should support community mental health programs that will aid people during these dark times.
1
This is not a trend that is going away. The children of suicides and substance abusers are more likely to repeat their parents' behaviors.
The solution is simple: Tax. The. Really. Rich. (TTRR) Then funnel their money into 1) repairing our infrastructure and providing well-paying jobs 2) vigorous and inspiring public education 3) affordable higher education 4) true health care reform in which none of us will face bankruptcy 5) public libraries to stimulate our minds and encourage life-long learning 6) a fabulous park system 7) shorter work weeks and longer family-leave so we can all enjoy the above.
In other words...vote Bernie.
The solution is simple: Tax. The. Really. Rich. (TTRR) Then funnel their money into 1) repairing our infrastructure and providing well-paying jobs 2) vigorous and inspiring public education 3) affordable higher education 4) true health care reform in which none of us will face bankruptcy 5) public libraries to stimulate our minds and encourage life-long learning 6) a fabulous park system 7) shorter work weeks and longer family-leave so we can all enjoy the above.
In other words...vote Bernie.
2
These individuals are just the canaries in the coal mine for what is taking place in western society. Many of us can see what the second wave is going to be, so thinking that education is going to insulate is a mistake. It is what many believed when factory jobs went overseas in the 1980s and 1990s, only to find out in the aughts that the global economy didn't see the value of their skills. There are people who have advanced degrees who are closing in on ten years of disappointment with job opportunities and social mobility. People in their 30s and 40s with educations are still living with their parents after the economic recovery. Individuals hitting retirement age have found that they can't afford to do so unless they downsize their lives into a social class they never thought they would be a part of after working hard to achieve the American dream. Opiate and stimulant use is steadily rising in middle-class areas as more people are tuning out or fighting to keep up with a society where their positions in it are becoming more and more precarious.
1
One thing that could be done by government or the Pew Foundation or someone is to offer grants and prizes to anyone who can figure out how to USE such people productively. What are people still good for, even without college? For example, human vision is still better than billion dollar machine-vision systems, although not for that many more decades.
Example - 5 humans on the web with 3-D glasses could remotely drive a car, acting as the backup assist for Google car when it runs into a situation it doesn't understand.
Every Chinese student has to study English, and most are woefully deficient in conversational English. They pay good money to get practice partners. Surely we could facilitate Skype and connect unemployed older Americans and English learners.
There is much "shale oil" left in "old people". Come on innovators - find it!
Example - 5 humans on the web with 3-D glasses could remotely drive a car, acting as the backup assist for Google car when it runs into a situation it doesn't understand.
Every Chinese student has to study English, and most are woefully deficient in conversational English. They pay good money to get practice partners. Surely we could facilitate Skype and connect unemployed older Americans and English learners.
There is much "shale oil" left in "old people". Come on innovators - find it!
1
This is a very sad report and despite the evidence, nothing will be done to help these individuals, which honestly, bit for the grace of God could be any of us. The unavailability of affordable health care, including mental health support, is a HUGE impediment to seeking and getting necessary assessment and care. Even those of us with "great" coverage for which we pay a fortune, along with very high deductibles, are reluctant to go to the doctor due to costs, knowing all with be out of pocket until our $5000 deductibles are met. There is no solution except a single payer health care system. It is a travesty that the richest nation on earth has such unaffordable care for its "free" people.
4
The sad reality is that many of the middle-aged, poorly educated white males identified in the afore mentioned study are the people who constantly vote for politicians who are philosophically incapable of helping them in any way. They vote for folks who see the world in shades of black and white, winners and losers Listen to the debates that occur when some of our nitwit politicians take to the floor of congress to debate the extension of food stamp benefits or maybe it's the expansion of food subsidies for poor children. Social Darwinism at it's best.
1
It would be very interesting to correlate these findings with the work of Yale Political Scientist Jacob Hacker, whose seminal book "The Great Risk Shift" described how social safety nets were slowly being removed from middle class and working class families over the past 35 or 40 years.
Hacker wrote about the decline of disability insurance (among other things), which was often a lifeline for working class families when a worker was injured on the job.
Perhaps his most relevant point, however, was that these outcomes were not inevitable. Rather, they are the result of deliberate political choices.
The slow tilt in favor of what Republicans like to call the "job creators" has eroded workers' rights and led to a society with more insecurity. Among the most insecure are the poorly educated white working class.
In the rhetoric of the hard right is a recurring message that insecurity is good for the economy. This idea is expressed in the effort to cut unemployment benefits, eliminate cash assistance to poor families and to resist Medicaid expansion. A few years ago in my state, it was also behind an unsuccessful effort to repeal child labor laws.
To paraphrase the movie Wall Street, "Insecurity, for want of a better word, is good. Insecurity works."
Just not for everyone.
Hacker wrote about the decline of disability insurance (among other things), which was often a lifeline for working class families when a worker was injured on the job.
Perhaps his most relevant point, however, was that these outcomes were not inevitable. Rather, they are the result of deliberate political choices.
The slow tilt in favor of what Republicans like to call the "job creators" has eroded workers' rights and led to a society with more insecurity. Among the most insecure are the poorly educated white working class.
In the rhetoric of the hard right is a recurring message that insecurity is good for the economy. This idea is expressed in the effort to cut unemployment benefits, eliminate cash assistance to poor families and to resist Medicaid expansion. A few years ago in my state, it was also behind an unsuccessful effort to repeal child labor laws.
To paraphrase the movie Wall Street, "Insecurity, for want of a better word, is good. Insecurity works."
Just not for everyone.
4
This is, as other posters have said, not surprising.
When I look back at my father's generation (he is 89), it seems like things were much better for middle class men when they were in their prime working years. Even if they didn't have a college degree they could find good paying jobs in manufacturing and be good providers for their families.
Now, with so many manufacturing jobs being shipped over to China the blue collar class is suffering, especially those over 50 when you start to see age discrimination. It is no wonder that so many middle class men engage in behaviors that shorten their lives.
I used to work for a company who I won't name because knowing them they would read this, hunt me down and sue me. They were a large manufacturer who used to make a lot of their consumer goods in the US and Canada. But they were also a publicly heald company and were always looking for ways to cut costs. Over time they closed all of their US and Canadian manufacturing plants and moved the production overseas.
I'm sure their bottom line benefitted handsomely but at the cost of many good paying manufacturing jobs in the US. This is a well known company but what they did to many of their employees was shameful and ruthless.
I fortunately left this company before they shut down the plant I worked at (in finance and accounting). Now the site where my former plant was located contains a Lowe's that sells many of my former employer's products that are made overseas. How ironic.
When I look back at my father's generation (he is 89), it seems like things were much better for middle class men when they were in their prime working years. Even if they didn't have a college degree they could find good paying jobs in manufacturing and be good providers for their families.
Now, with so many manufacturing jobs being shipped over to China the blue collar class is suffering, especially those over 50 when you start to see age discrimination. It is no wonder that so many middle class men engage in behaviors that shorten their lives.
I used to work for a company who I won't name because knowing them they would read this, hunt me down and sue me. They were a large manufacturer who used to make a lot of their consumer goods in the US and Canada. But they were also a publicly heald company and were always looking for ways to cut costs. Over time they closed all of their US and Canadian manufacturing plants and moved the production overseas.
I'm sure their bottom line benefitted handsomely but at the cost of many good paying manufacturing jobs in the US. This is a well known company but what they did to many of their employees was shameful and ruthless.
I fortunately left this company before they shut down the plant I worked at (in finance and accounting). Now the site where my former plant was located contains a Lowe's that sells many of my former employer's products that are made overseas. How ironic.
Lower middle-class white males and to a lesser extent, white females form the core of the Republican base that, we've known now for years, consistently vote "against their best interests." Scared, angry, and frustrated, they've been receptive to every xenophobic, racist, homophobic, sexist, anti-union bone that's been thrown to them. Either from simple-minded ideology or on orders from corporate donors, the leaders they elect pass laws that tangibly and quickly reduce the quality of their constituents' lives culturally and economically (cf: Kansas and N. Carolina) while perpetuating the ever-increasing redistribution of wealth upwards. The only surprise is that the experts cited in this article are surprised at the results of their research.
If America insists on a winner-takes-all society, then there will be a serious numbers of 'losers'.
If the 'winners' refuse to pay taxes, there will be no money to help defer the consequences to the losers.
I guess the system will self-correct when even the 'winners' learn that a consumer economy cannot function without consumers, and that the roads don't fix themselves without money.
Those who travel know what this future looks like. The houses of the rich surrounded by walls topped with electrified razor wire, inside 'gated communities'. Armed private security guards. Terrible roads and infrastructure. The frightened rich surrounded by abject poverty.
Or you could chose the Scandinavian socialist alternative of equal access to education, social support, free health care, negligible incarceration, high social mobility, etc.
If the 'winners' refuse to pay taxes, there will be no money to help defer the consequences to the losers.
I guess the system will self-correct when even the 'winners' learn that a consumer economy cannot function without consumers, and that the roads don't fix themselves without money.
Those who travel know what this future looks like. The houses of the rich surrounded by walls topped with electrified razor wire, inside 'gated communities'. Armed private security guards. Terrible roads and infrastructure. The frightened rich surrounded by abject poverty.
Or you could chose the Scandinavian socialist alternative of equal access to education, social support, free health care, negligible incarceration, high social mobility, etc.
2
It is too bad that the analysis contains only one passing reference to a review of the data by gender. I am willing to bet $1 that the rise in mortality is driven by more deaths among males in this cohort. The underlying causes may be uniquely traced to the collective life experience of men aged 45-54 as of 2013. They came of age during a time of malaise in the US when the message to white males who lacked education or financial stability was, you've been left behind. The message is not untrue; globalization and an effort to right the wrongs of the past with catch-up programs to assist minority populations seems to have left this cohort out in the cold. I hope that politicians of every stripe will use this analysis to ponder the implications of their policy decisions which may take decades to unfold.
I am 51 and white. I am an alcoholic (sober 16 yrs). I have a college degree. A college degree is not inoculation against substance abuse. But the humble ability to follow direction has been invaluable in my career and more importantly, my sobriety.
One of the defining characteristics of many of the high school educated white males around my age is defiant oppositional disorder. Often expressed in terms of ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do. They express themselves as outlaws and rebels in their country music. They smoke, they litter, they buy large trucks they can't afford.
I worked with a Carpenters Union and saw how these kind of guys interacted with each other without an oppositional force like an employer. They just fought amongst themselves. The management is not the problem.
No wonder why they have no success in employment, familial relationships, or maintaining their health. Ain't nobody gonna tell them nothing. Save your breath.
One of the defining characteristics of many of the high school educated white males around my age is defiant oppositional disorder. Often expressed in terms of ain't nobody gonna tell me what to do. They express themselves as outlaws and rebels in their country music. They smoke, they litter, they buy large trucks they can't afford.
I worked with a Carpenters Union and saw how these kind of guys interacted with each other without an oppositional force like an employer. They just fought amongst themselves. The management is not the problem.
No wonder why they have no success in employment, familial relationships, or maintaining their health. Ain't nobody gonna tell them nothing. Save your breath.
29
I know many such types from my grandfather's family business, commercial roofing and sheet metal, founded in 1901. Real hard cases, serious drinking and chain-smoking and fighting, etc. Cold people. I only found out a few years ago that my uncle killed a co-worker on a job site in the 1950s, he'd punched the guy who fell off a scaffold. A skeleton deep in the family closet. Most of those of Irish lineage I knew had furious tempers -- imagine Victor McLaglen in a John Ford film -- that brought lots of their family members major grief. Many of them died in their 60s.
There is a great deal of despair in America today, driven by inequality, lost opportunities, and a leadership in Washington that openly and proudly declares that not only are regular people not entitled to decency, security, and any entitlements at all, but they don't deserve them because they are lazy, of poor character, and others (who are better than them) are more deserving.
Why does America have leadership in Congress that openly hates and despises government - and the majority of Americans? Why does the majority allow their liberties to be taken away? Even as many American are now trained to vilify entitlements, they themselves are going without. They blame their lack on the nameless, poor "others" who take what they should be getting, and despair increases. No, the poor are not taking what belongs to you, the Rich and Powerful are. They now own the controls, and all the messaging. There are boundless entitlements, but it's those that already have most everything that keep coming back and taking yet again.
Think, America! Who is telling you they are oppressed? Who is saying they are treated poorly and need more? It's those who can afford to get the same drumbeat messages out, over and over again, and that's not Poor People. We have a tragedy: even people who are in need are telling themselves they are not deserving. Is it any wonder they are full of despair? Even in their rage, they believe they can't measure up, and it's their own fault.
Why does America have leadership in Congress that openly hates and despises government - and the majority of Americans? Why does the majority allow their liberties to be taken away? Even as many American are now trained to vilify entitlements, they themselves are going without. They blame their lack on the nameless, poor "others" who take what they should be getting, and despair increases. No, the poor are not taking what belongs to you, the Rich and Powerful are. They now own the controls, and all the messaging. There are boundless entitlements, but it's those that already have most everything that keep coming back and taking yet again.
Think, America! Who is telling you they are oppressed? Who is saying they are treated poorly and need more? It's those who can afford to get the same drumbeat messages out, over and over again, and that's not Poor People. We have a tragedy: even people who are in need are telling themselves they are not deserving. Is it any wonder they are full of despair? Even in their rage, they believe they can't measure up, and it's their own fault.
2
What was once a cohort proud is now a cohort embarrassed and ashamed. Archie Bunker's and those who work in the assembly lines in Detroit aren't needed quite like they used to be. The world is passing them by.
1
I have to say, as I have before, that I fear we are becoming the twin of 19th century, opium-riddled China, unable to think through the haze of drugs. (Certainly, the drug companies price as if these drugs were illegal.) My spouse works at a boarding school, and can't help but note that none of the international students, who comprise half the student body, are on any meds, while almost all the American students are. What we need to start to do is to say no to prescription drugs. Second, what pulled China out of despair was politics. We surely don't need Maoism or crazed extremism on either side of the spectrum, but couldn't a politics for positive change pull people together?
1
Drugs, alcohol and tobacco have taken its toll physically and mentally. They cause earlier diseases. Unsettled ideas that were covered with drugs come back to haunt. There are few therapists to help unless you can pay cash.
1
Car accidents have always been a way to kill one's self, and spare the parents and siblings the pain of knowing it was a suicide. News reports say the number of highway fatalities is spiking up, despite cars that have more safety features, and despite DUI arrest rates that are declining (as driving-while-stoned arrests increase.) Many of the approx. 30,000 such fatalities currently are likely suicides.
2
They were told that if the worked hard and dedicated themselves to a company, they would turn out fine. They then discovered that they were too expensive, that their jobs were moving, that after the dot com and mortgage busts they were deeply in debt due to dumb purchases on home equity loans on inflated house values and their pension was gone and their 401(k) collapsed in value. They are in their 50s, and no new education is going to help them find a decent job. They're done and their stuck.
Any wonder why they do drugs, drink and kill themselves. They thought they were going to experience the American Dream, and they found themselves left in the ditch.
Any wonder why they do drugs, drink and kill themselves. They thought they were going to experience the American Dream, and they found themselves left in the ditch.
2
Not drinking, or doing drugs, turns out to be a good choice, not just when I was young! Goes to show that education may not be a cure-all, but it does make you smart about some things that really count.
1
If you are between 45-54, you graduated between 1979 and 1988. Look at the challenging changes in our environment. Many people in this age group resist reeducation or training. I know two smart, talented blue collar men who don't know how to use computers. For one a machinist and self taught musician this means 'no work.' For the other a maintenance man constant job insecurity. Travel back in your hot tub time machine to 1979 and assume that is all the formal education you will receive. For those of us who finished College (while working full time) education is just a place you go in the evening to update your skills. But for a vast majority of that population you are entering the twilight zone every day because all the complex changes in autos, your work place, daily finances cannot addressed. Even the financial world becomes a twilight zone experience. How does someone feel? I think we need free community colleges with aggressive outreach programs. The stress of always being in a society without an operation manual is enormous. For people of that age, proud and struggling, there should be alternatives. Can we address the problem holistically and help people to be able to live in the modern world. The substance abuse is the white flag, the surrender.
1
I suspect lack of community is the leading cause of this phenomenon. Plenty of people have experienced economic decline. Middle-aged white men may have had higher hopes that were dashed as they aged. Minorities and women have had dashed hopes without the same result. Minorities and women tend to have more genuine social connection. The dominance of white males for hundreds of years fostered stronger social bonds of others. White men always had family and were somewhat connected to people they dominated. Those connections have withered as white male dominance declined, especially for the less educated. I suspect the trend started well before 2008 and will continue for awhile longer. The Tea Party is a new outlet white men rally around to express anger about their trajectory. Perhaps it provides some bonding, but it is also a dangerously irrational expression for people who still have some power to lash out.
1
I know these people. I'm related to them, although, now in a healthy old age, I've outlived them all. I'd be one of them if I hadn't hocked my soul in my twenties to make it through college toward a rewarding life as a teacher.<br/><br/>The demographic I left behind lives in a neighborhood of small houses a mile away from me in this rust belt city. These people are filled with misplaced resentment. They resent The Blacks, especially, and they resent Elitists. <br/><br/>The departure of well-paid jobs in this area has given many of them two options: not working OR selling their backs. In middle age, they often are pretty much used up. Heavy drinking, drug use, and disability of one kind or another are rampant. <br/><br/>They vote Republican, always. They watch Fox News and have learned to hate the government. A Paul Krugman column last week discussed Americans' resistance to information. I think poor white Americans watch Fox and listen to hate radio because. to some degree, the anger generated by those sources invigorates them.<br/><br/>A previous comment mentioned Archie Bunker, who had no sympathy for anyone. Check. Taxes for social programs (except for Social Security)? Nope. Recently an acquaintance told me: "Help should only go to those who really deserve it. Most of those people just don't want to work." <br/><br/>"Those people."<br/><br/>I campaigned for Obama in that neighborhood twice. The mental image of all the "Bush for President" signs still haunts me.
2
I am a middle aged, upper caste Indian male roughly corresponding to the subject matter here, the american white male. Like some of the sympathetic commentators here, thanks to a good education, part of which was in States, and middle class values, I landed a decent and secure job. But I could easily have ended up like the people written about here and perhaps there are millions of such men all over the world who thanks to the economic crises of the past few years, got fired and suddenly discovered that their age, regardless of their professional experience, is their biggest liability. The world has changed rapidly and the strides made by social justice over the past 6-7 decades have redistributed opportunities away from the traditionally privileged class, read white males in US and equivalents in other societies, in favor of hitherto disadvantaged through affirmative action or job reservations. Apparently our sensibilities haven't evolved yet to fully assimilate and hence the tragic consequences.
A shocking study, but not all that unexpected. Thanks for Deaton and Case for taking the interest to do the research and to publish their results. One thing Americans can bet on is that Congress will pay no attention and the Republican leadership, if they notice it at all they will call for more tax cuts and Free Trade and Investor Protection Agreements like TPP.
The disappearing middle class and the plight of those sliding from the Middle Class is a direct result of the appalling collapse of the meagre social safety net for those victims of the 2008 recession and the long term slide of decent full time jobs in the USA.
If you care to look at history, you will see that the Middle Class grew most after WWII when top marginal tax rates were 91% and their was massive investment of these tax dollars in building the USA via interstate highways, the Space Program, Medicare, schools and massive expansion of colleges and universities and the expansion of social security and public services from environmental protection to public health, even PBS.
All was sacrificed in the name of tax cuts beginning with Reagan, which drove debt through the roof and set the parameters to demand more cuts to "balance the Budget", something only Clinton managed to do, and then only once or twice.
So, the poor shop at Wal Mart, who pay low wages to part-timers with no benefits and sell largely imported junk.
Disillusioned and angry, they vote Republican. The downward spiral accelerates.
The disappearing middle class and the plight of those sliding from the Middle Class is a direct result of the appalling collapse of the meagre social safety net for those victims of the 2008 recession and the long term slide of decent full time jobs in the USA.
If you care to look at history, you will see that the Middle Class grew most after WWII when top marginal tax rates were 91% and their was massive investment of these tax dollars in building the USA via interstate highways, the Space Program, Medicare, schools and massive expansion of colleges and universities and the expansion of social security and public services from environmental protection to public health, even PBS.
All was sacrificed in the name of tax cuts beginning with Reagan, which drove debt through the roof and set the parameters to demand more cuts to "balance the Budget", something only Clinton managed to do, and then only once or twice.
So, the poor shop at Wal Mart, who pay low wages to part-timers with no benefits and sell largely imported junk.
Disillusioned and angry, they vote Republican. The downward spiral accelerates.
2
Every reason offered in the article and by commentors is true for the vast majority of human beings living in the United States. So many people are stressed -- about health, about money, about safety, about a lot of things. Everyone is hurting. And moreover, for every area of societal hardship, people of color in the U.S. are more (proportionally speaking) adversely affected than whites. What is really unique to the white American experience that has folks in this group practicing poor self-care that shows up in these alarming numbers.
It may take another decade or two to really sit with this, but what I see, what folks who are having courageous conversations are discussing is the continuing effects of America's original sin. Much is talked about how much was/is gained, materially speaking, from just being white in America.... White privilege as it's often called. And those discussions have their place, but it's such a small piece of the human development pie. What's mostly discussed in whispers is what has been/ is being lost from folks we call "white" born into and going through the motions in a country with racist foundations. What's lost is intangible -- stuff connected to the soul, our humanity, one's ability to relate and stay connected with all life. Unfortunately, material possessions cannot reclaim this kind of stuff.
It may take another decade or two to really sit with this, but what I see, what folks who are having courageous conversations are discussing is the continuing effects of America's original sin. Much is talked about how much was/is gained, materially speaking, from just being white in America.... White privilege as it's often called. And those discussions have their place, but it's such a small piece of the human development pie. What's mostly discussed in whispers is what has been/ is being lost from folks we call "white" born into and going through the motions in a country with racist foundations. What's lost is intangible -- stuff connected to the soul, our humanity, one's ability to relate and stay connected with all life. Unfortunately, material possessions cannot reclaim this kind of stuff.
The past cuts in federal and state aid for the distressed middle class in need, such as food stamps and unemployment benefits, are now taking their toll on the the largest group who were receiving them, the white middle class.
It is the white middle class that, in mass numbers, voted for these cuts and now the effect of voting against their self-interests is destroying the safety net which was to assist in their time in need.
Fifteen years ago, I was laid off and had to go on unemployment. I had worked all my life and I heard of all these "moochers" who cheat the system, but I was expecting to receive what I had paid for my whole life, assistance as a citizen and a taxpayer.
Nevertheless, the benefits I received were inadequate, ever week it was a constant fight to receive these benefits, that I thought I had earned. I was not a "moocher", but was treated as such. I lived in a world of daily depression, searching for a new job, and fighting with the state to receive what was owed to me. To live in this constant state of lost wages and no assistance whatsoever from the powers we elected, can leave a terrible toll on the psyche. This article demonstrates that the largest demographic affected by these cuts in services and lost wages, white males, are being stressed, with no relief in sight.
It is the white middle class that, in mass numbers, voted for these cuts and now the effect of voting against their self-interests is destroying the safety net which was to assist in their time in need.
Fifteen years ago, I was laid off and had to go on unemployment. I had worked all my life and I heard of all these "moochers" who cheat the system, but I was expecting to receive what I had paid for my whole life, assistance as a citizen and a taxpayer.
Nevertheless, the benefits I received were inadequate, ever week it was a constant fight to receive these benefits, that I thought I had earned. I was not a "moocher", but was treated as such. I lived in a world of daily depression, searching for a new job, and fighting with the state to receive what was owed to me. To live in this constant state of lost wages and no assistance whatsoever from the powers we elected, can leave a terrible toll on the psyche. This article demonstrates that the largest demographic affected by these cuts in services and lost wages, white males, are being stressed, with no relief in sight.
1
I've said it before, and it's worth repeating again; empathy has been excised from humankind, to such a large degree, most are almost soulless, and focused entirely on self-preservation.
This state of affairs owes it's existence to the corporatist takeover of the American way of living, where the bottom line is all that matters; workers are seen as disposable components in this machine, easily replaced.
Governments worldwide, are now wholly owned by the mega corporations, and have effectively removed any opportunity for people to counter their influence.
The .01%ters, the owners and operators of these corporate governments, are comfortable and confident in their success, and the occasional easily put down resistance, causes them little concern.
We the people are entirely to blame, so fixated on enjoying the "bread and circuses" of this alliance, we failed to notice how cleverly our masters managed our perception, fomented division, and conquered all.
This state of affairs owes it's existence to the corporatist takeover of the American way of living, where the bottom line is all that matters; workers are seen as disposable components in this machine, easily replaced.
Governments worldwide, are now wholly owned by the mega corporations, and have effectively removed any opportunity for people to counter their influence.
The .01%ters, the owners and operators of these corporate governments, are comfortable and confident in their success, and the occasional easily put down resistance, causes them little concern.
We the people are entirely to blame, so fixated on enjoying the "bread and circuses" of this alliance, we failed to notice how cleverly our masters managed our perception, fomented division, and conquered all.
2
I am amazed that the consensus among readers seems to be that they are the "fly-over-white-male-Republicans" so what else can they expect? How on earth did these same people create, maintain and defend this nation in decades past? It is the Right that has destroyed them. The Right with its ideology of strength, service and social fabric of family and community. Not dependance on others. How can this be true? It is the Left, as the last 8 years so clearly show, that has enriched the elites, from crony capitalism and its corruption, driving all investment to the investors through fed easy money to Wall Street, enlarged hand-outs that encourage retreat from self-respect and employed meaning, while squeezing as much as possible from the middle class in fees and regulations and taxes. Do the middle class attend the elite schools? Are better schools like charter and independent schools encouraged? No. Teacher Unionized cookie-cutter failing education is the only offer for 99%. Middle class jobs have withered, but hey, who wants a job anyway. The worship of government and its leaders will drive this onward. It has achieved the goal of marginalizing the fly-over, white male. The Left is not surprised, it is pleased, and all under our noses. Oh and yes, it is the white male's own fault. Salt in the wound.
You seem to "fly over" the fact that the article indicates a rise in white middle-aged people, not just males.
It's becoming harder and harder for working-class whites to get by in this society. And of course 2008 hurt everyone except the very rich and the very poor. Those of us who had investments have recovered fairly well, especially since the Fed decided to print gobs of money, allowing us to recoup our losses. Poorer people. on the other hand, sometimes lost both home and livelihood in the crisis, and they don't possess the skills that would allow them to start again. This is one of the reasons why the Trump phenomenon has had such staying power (albeit, it may still fizzle out).
Each of these stories is, of course, a human tragedy. However, taken as a group, we have adopted a Social Darwinist view of these people. They are unable to contribute meaningfully to society as it is currently constituted, and they are a financial burden when it comes to welfare, food stamps, drug treatment programs, etc., etc. They have no advocate in the political class (no, Sanders isn't really "on their side"). As whites they are automatically assumed to be privileged, and so get little attention from "advocates." It's cheaper and easier to just let these failures die off.
Each of these stories is, of course, a human tragedy. However, taken as a group, we have adopted a Social Darwinist view of these people. They are unable to contribute meaningfully to society as it is currently constituted, and they are a financial burden when it comes to welfare, food stamps, drug treatment programs, etc., etc. They have no advocate in the political class (no, Sanders isn't really "on their side"). As whites they are automatically assumed to be privileged, and so get little attention from "advocates." It's cheaper and easier to just let these failures die off.
2
"Behind every great forturne lies a great crime" The great crime of our generation rivals that of "big tobacco".
The opiate epidemic has led to the heroin epidemic which is destroying our country. Opiate overdoses now outnumber motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for our children. For too long we allowed pharmaceutical companies like Perdue to aggressively market highly addictive opiate painkillers, turning a 30million business into a 3 billion business which largely profited from pill mills doling out prescriptions which were diverted or resold for abuse to our kids. It ain't just Appalachia. These drugs have fully infiltrated both urban and rural areas, the white middle class, top prep schools, Division 1 athletic programs and fraternities and has led directly to heroin addiction and desperate criminal behavior in those addicted who rapidly switch to heroin when their opiate pills are either no longer available or the habit has become too expensive to maintain. Now we see the end result, a rapidly escalating death rate in middle aged white Americans.
We need to immediately ban the continued manufacture of these opiates and go after overprescribers, increase public awareness, improve access to detox, rehab and transitional sober living facilities or we are doomed.
It is time for Perdue and The Sackler family to pay some bills.
The opiate epidemic has led to the heroin epidemic which is destroying our country. Opiate overdoses now outnumber motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for our children. For too long we allowed pharmaceutical companies like Perdue to aggressively market highly addictive opiate painkillers, turning a 30million business into a 3 billion business which largely profited from pill mills doling out prescriptions which were diverted or resold for abuse to our kids. It ain't just Appalachia. These drugs have fully infiltrated both urban and rural areas, the white middle class, top prep schools, Division 1 athletic programs and fraternities and has led directly to heroin addiction and desperate criminal behavior in those addicted who rapidly switch to heroin when their opiate pills are either no longer available or the habit has become too expensive to maintain. Now we see the end result, a rapidly escalating death rate in middle aged white Americans.
We need to immediately ban the continued manufacture of these opiates and go after overprescribers, increase public awareness, improve access to detox, rehab and transitional sober living facilities or we are doomed.
It is time for Perdue and The Sackler family to pay some bills.
1
No surprise.
WASP America is on the rocks as the good ole days are rapidly disappearing.
Any species without the ability to adjust faces a set of immutable laws: change or wither.
Hatred and self hatred play a part but the biggest contributor is the 40 year rise of unrelenting capitalism which put most of the wealth and income in the hands of 1/10 of 1% of the population.
No meaningful jobs, no real benefits and nothing at the end except a threatened Social Secuity check or decreasing Vet benefits or medical care.
Directed where they should not be directed, white Americans face getting older with little to live for.
The main easy to identify cause is the drug industry which pushes addictive drugs as cure alls. The leaders of one such drug company each paid a $600,000,000 fine along with the company. But no one went to jail.
Suicide is easy with a gun and getting a gun is easier still. So in addition to a huge harrah for the drug companies, take off your boots for the NRA.
And the last honoree is a federal government legislature controlled by people who really need mental and emotional help but instead see their illness as a positive reaction to get government out of the prescription drug industry, manufacturing of guns and mental health.
Their rationale is that our political, social and economic systems are so great that we must control them by making it impossible to join the 21st Century.
Now back to Rush for the latest news and weather and river crossings!
WASP America is on the rocks as the good ole days are rapidly disappearing.
Any species without the ability to adjust faces a set of immutable laws: change or wither.
Hatred and self hatred play a part but the biggest contributor is the 40 year rise of unrelenting capitalism which put most of the wealth and income in the hands of 1/10 of 1% of the population.
No meaningful jobs, no real benefits and nothing at the end except a threatened Social Secuity check or decreasing Vet benefits or medical care.
Directed where they should not be directed, white Americans face getting older with little to live for.
The main easy to identify cause is the drug industry which pushes addictive drugs as cure alls. The leaders of one such drug company each paid a $600,000,000 fine along with the company. But no one went to jail.
Suicide is easy with a gun and getting a gun is easier still. So in addition to a huge harrah for the drug companies, take off your boots for the NRA.
And the last honoree is a federal government legislature controlled by people who really need mental and emotional help but instead see their illness as a positive reaction to get government out of the prescription drug industry, manufacturing of guns and mental health.
Their rationale is that our political, social and economic systems are so great that we must control them by making it impossible to join the 21st Century.
Now back to Rush for the latest news and weather and river crossings!
2
Like medicines, globalization side effects are becoming ever more apparent. It is going to take a couple generations back to adjust to current realities so they minimize disillusionment. A typical white male or female high school graduate with no higher education or special career discipline will live much differnt than expected. My experience is while so called free trade was forever marketed by our government it matured into what we call globalization. Globalization is simple. If there are x millions of jobs required globalization model takes those requirements and spreads them all over the globe whever it is the least expensive.
1
Alcohol abuse and the often deadly effects it has on peoples' brains and every other vital body organ is almost completely overlooked by the media and rarely (but occasionally) addressed by mainstream, prime-time TV. Most middle-agers who are drinkers -- say, in their 50s -- have been using alcoholic for recreation and stress relief for more than 30 years. And one doesn't have to be the oft-portrayed stumbling drunk to have an alcohol problem. Self-medicating with alcohol is usually something that happens in the privacy of one's home; it's not done in public display. Yet, as age begins to take its natural tolls on every aspect of life, from overall health and pain to social and financial pressures, alcohol all-too-quietly but exponentially magnifies those stresses of aging.
The topic of substance abuse and its relations to rising mortality rates among middle-agers is one that will hopefully begin to attract more attention across the media and entertainment canvases.
One of the next big health stories will come in about 10 years. That will involve the absolute overuse, if not addiction, of instant energy products among the current generation of 20- and 30-somethings that has yet to enter what we consider middle age. That generation has been consuming, and abusing, these heart and blood pressure enemies since childhood. It will become a medical nightmare as those folks begin creeping into their 40s and start showing up with alarming frequency in cardiac units.
The topic of substance abuse and its relations to rising mortality rates among middle-agers is one that will hopefully begin to attract more attention across the media and entertainment canvases.
One of the next big health stories will come in about 10 years. That will involve the absolute overuse, if not addiction, of instant energy products among the current generation of 20- and 30-somethings that has yet to enter what we consider middle age. That generation has been consuming, and abusing, these heart and blood pressure enemies since childhood. It will become a medical nightmare as those folks begin creeping into their 40s and start showing up with alarming frequency in cardiac units.
2
I would venture a guess that the primary cause can be summarized as: "It's the economy stupid!" Working class white men once enjoyed well-paid, union jobs. They could raise a family and eventually retire with a modest pension after many years of loyal service in their occupation. This is not true today for the most part.
Our infrastructure is crumbling, but the money necessary to fix it is only grudgingly parsed out in dribbles because politicians would rather crow about cutting taxes than do the work that government should be doing. Meanwhile, non-productive financial services firms largely dominate our economy, servicing the wealthy and exploiting everyone else. The country could easily dominate manufacturing if infrastructure and R&D investment by government was at the levels seen 50 - 60 years ago when it primed our economy's pump. But instead we don't make nearly what we could make in America, and the high school educated instead make minimum wage.
The Reagan Revolution where business became untethered from the social contract, fueled ironically by the votes of 'Reagan Democrats', blue collar white men, is killing some of them now. It is high time government got back to helping create jobs by investing. We need to turn out the tax cutting charlatans and make America greater again by making it work again for all of us.
Our infrastructure is crumbling, but the money necessary to fix it is only grudgingly parsed out in dribbles because politicians would rather crow about cutting taxes than do the work that government should be doing. Meanwhile, non-productive financial services firms largely dominate our economy, servicing the wealthy and exploiting everyone else. The country could easily dominate manufacturing if infrastructure and R&D investment by government was at the levels seen 50 - 60 years ago when it primed our economy's pump. But instead we don't make nearly what we could make in America, and the high school educated instead make minimum wage.
The Reagan Revolution where business became untethered from the social contract, fueled ironically by the votes of 'Reagan Democrats', blue collar white men, is killing some of them now. It is high time government got back to helping create jobs by investing. We need to turn out the tax cutting charlatans and make America greater again by making it work again for all of us.
2
In general, at the community and family level, the power and influence of poorly educated white males has been in decline for a while. We have declining job prospects concurrent with the rise of women in the workforce. This has caused marriages to become more egalitarian which is a difficult pill to swallow for this group. Additionally, the nature of work and the workplace itself has changed - jobs are more intellectual in nature and the workplace has become more about consensus building rather than the traditional alpha-male command-and-control mindset of years past. Additionally we have changing social mores which are antithetical to the values of many working class white males.
To quote Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." The white male working class has failed to adapt and is literally dying as a result.
To quote Charles Darwin: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." The white male working class has failed to adapt and is literally dying as a result.
1
I agree with the many commenters citing economic factors - like decreased access to jobs, financial hardship - as being likely primary causes of many of these problems. But I think that, given the emphasis on poor health and pain, we should also consider the diets of uneducated white Americans. There are many such individuals in my family, and many eat very, very poorly. Not poorly as in inexpensively per se (although probably that too), but poorly as in very unhealthily. Also the products that people use on a daily basis - hand soaps, air fresheners, bug sprays, are all known to contain chemicals harmful to our health. The less expensive products are the worst. Add to that television, computers, phones, and a car-based transportation system, and I wonder how much physical activity this group gets as well. I think that both economic and diet/environmental health factors are likely contributors. Also, the slapped-up cookie-cutter develops that most people can afford now are pretty depressing, especially coupled with an "outing" being to a strip mall. I used to live in a cookie cutter development, and I felt depressed about my surroundings, even though it was technically the newest and "nicest" home I'd lived in. We thought the family-friendly neighborhood would be a good environment for our child, but in fact, we hardly ever saw anyone outside.
1
Not surprising and it will continue to get worse.
Without a doubt, some of this is attributable to the rise of globalization and the shifting of opportunities offshore. But with that said, it's had to rationalize why we have so many voters that continue to vote for politicians who fight against their own basic, common sense interests, and more shockingly, the future of their children. When we have a political party and a vast body of voters who demonize worker's rights and the role of government in regulating corporate overreach and ensuring basic rights of its citizenry while at the same time witnessing the terrible toll on society, these outcomes were inevitable.
We've reached a point that we can't learn the lessons of past policy blunders and are hell bent on repeating them over and over.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we're on threshold of a tidal wave of people who will leave the workforce with little resources to face retirement given disappearing pensions and decreased opportunities to prepare, unlike the protections of recent generations. The burden of having to economically care for aging parents will place more stress on the rising generations.
Maybe things need to get much worse before we can collectively wake up and demand that the people have a greater voice in government, not just the rich and corporate interests.
I hope not.
Without a doubt, some of this is attributable to the rise of globalization and the shifting of opportunities offshore. But with that said, it's had to rationalize why we have so many voters that continue to vote for politicians who fight against their own basic, common sense interests, and more shockingly, the future of their children. When we have a political party and a vast body of voters who demonize worker's rights and the role of government in regulating corporate overreach and ensuring basic rights of its citizenry while at the same time witnessing the terrible toll on society, these outcomes were inevitable.
We've reached a point that we can't learn the lessons of past policy blunders and are hell bent on repeating them over and over.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but we're on threshold of a tidal wave of people who will leave the workforce with little resources to face retirement given disappearing pensions and decreased opportunities to prepare, unlike the protections of recent generations. The burden of having to economically care for aging parents will place more stress on the rising generations.
Maybe things need to get much worse before we can collectively wake up and demand that the people have a greater voice in government, not just the rich and corporate interests.
I hope not.
2
According to the study authors, the problems were distributed across the genders, and didn't lean male.
"The change in all-cause mortality for white non-Hispanics 45–54 is largely accounted for by an increasing death rate from external causes, mostly increases in drug and alcohol poisonings and in suicide. (Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately.)"
The 54-to-59 YO segment is almost as bad, but for 60 to 64 (no ages given above that) the death rate drops dramatically, although is still rising.
The authors sound a warning about the poor overall health of this cohort and their future prospects:
"A serious concern is that those currently in midlife will age into Medicare in worse health than the currently elderly. This is not automatic; if the epidemic is brought under control, its survivors may have a healthy old age. However, addictions are hard to treat and pain is hard to control, so those currently in midlife may be a 'lost generation' whose future is less bright than those who preceded them."
Based on the study and my own conclusions , I think we need to address the ready availability of socially toxic painkillers, our runaway obesity epidemic, consider meaningful outreach and retraining for underskilled idled workers, and the consequences of undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric problems, the effects of poor insurance coverage, and the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health issues.
"The change in all-cause mortality for white non-Hispanics 45–54 is largely accounted for by an increasing death rate from external causes, mostly increases in drug and alcohol poisonings and in suicide. (Patterns are similar for men and women when analyzed separately.)"
The 54-to-59 YO segment is almost as bad, but for 60 to 64 (no ages given above that) the death rate drops dramatically, although is still rising.
The authors sound a warning about the poor overall health of this cohort and their future prospects:
"A serious concern is that those currently in midlife will age into Medicare in worse health than the currently elderly. This is not automatic; if the epidemic is brought under control, its survivors may have a healthy old age. However, addictions are hard to treat and pain is hard to control, so those currently in midlife may be a 'lost generation' whose future is less bright than those who preceded them."
Based on the study and my own conclusions , I think we need to address the ready availability of socially toxic painkillers, our runaway obesity epidemic, consider meaningful outreach and retraining for underskilled idled workers, and the consequences of undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric problems, the effects of poor insurance coverage, and the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health issues.
1
Two likely reasons for the tragic circumstances and what we should do now:
(1) The massive loss of manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere. Entire communities throughout the United States were turned into desert wastelands between 1970 to 1990. Today, most of us can see these burned-out communities from the interstate.
(2) Republican economic theory controlled public policy-making between 1980 until now. Just at the time the people in these communities needed government help, the government refused to fund programs that could have addressed this massive displacement of workers. The Republican solution in 1980 and today: the "free market." Remember "the government is the problem." Remember Reagan's cheery "morning in America" and his claim that "the free market will lift all boats"?
Now we know that policy sank millions of boats. Now we are finding the bodies that washed up on the shore. Most of us didn't see the tragedy unfolding because we have been speeding past those shores on the interstate.
What we learned: We needed Bernie Sanders' type solutions in 1980. Well, as they say, better late than never.
What we should do now: Support Bernie Sanders type candidates, register to vote and make sure you vote. Why? The billionaires that make money from the "free market" con game are spending lots of money to suppress voting and mislead the voters who do make it to the polls.
(1) The massive loss of manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere. Entire communities throughout the United States were turned into desert wastelands between 1970 to 1990. Today, most of us can see these burned-out communities from the interstate.
(2) Republican economic theory controlled public policy-making between 1980 until now. Just at the time the people in these communities needed government help, the government refused to fund programs that could have addressed this massive displacement of workers. The Republican solution in 1980 and today: the "free market." Remember "the government is the problem." Remember Reagan's cheery "morning in America" and his claim that "the free market will lift all boats"?
Now we know that policy sank millions of boats. Now we are finding the bodies that washed up on the shore. Most of us didn't see the tragedy unfolding because we have been speeding past those shores on the interstate.
What we learned: We needed Bernie Sanders' type solutions in 1980. Well, as they say, better late than never.
What we should do now: Support Bernie Sanders type candidates, register to vote and make sure you vote. Why? The billionaires that make money from the "free market" con game are spending lots of money to suppress voting and mislead the voters who do make it to the polls.
2
Until relatively recently, the vast majority of people in the US whose lives were damaged or destroyed by economic and social changes (the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, Wars, etc.) did not choose suicide. I assume this was largely due to the almost universal influence of Judeo-Christian theology and its strong and unqualified condemnation of suicide. Now that society is moving away from the total domination of theology/religion in our daily lives (at least outside the Bible Belt), I don't find it all that surprising that people under enormous stress are choosing to end their lives in lieu of continuing to struggle. I leave it to others to determine whether theirs is a rational decision or the result of some sort of pathology.
The vast majority of people who have been harmed economically and socially now have not chosen suicide either. But suicide demonstrably rises in periods of economic and social loss. "Émile Durkheim writes, “It is a well-known fact that economic crises have an aggravating effect on the suicidal tendency.” Contemporary research lends support to Durkheim’s assertion. Studies of the Great Depression, for instance, have found increased suicides among the general population during that period.
"Other research has found increased suicide risk for individuals who experience unemployment, indebtedness, and home foreclosure."
- See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/suicides-du... See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/suicides-du...
"Other research has found increased suicide risk for individuals who experience unemployment, indebtedness, and home foreclosure."
- See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/suicides-du... See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/public-health/suicides-du...
1
I wonder if there's a correlation of this trend with the cost of prescription drugs. Drugs for chronic pain can run $300-550/month each, and it usually takes more than one drug to solve the pain. If you don't have medical insurance, or even with medical insurance, the cost of these drugs may be out of reach of someone at lower income levels. When you get older and onto Medicare you find that Medicare is no panacea because of the donut hole. My wife has chronic pain due to a number of factors. Medicare estimated our cost for her drugs will be about $9000 a year. Add to that the cost of dr visits and you're dealing with medical and drug costs on the order of a house mortgage. We have too much income for any of the drug cost help programs so it's all on us. But I wonder how much those so-called help programs would really help someone with little retirement savings and living only on Social Security.
So imagine what it must be like for someone who is too young to be on Medicare, who works on a low wage job, who doesn't have health insurance, and who can't get Medicaid. The stress of all of this often leads to depression. The costs of the drugs to treat depression aren't cheap either.
So, why am I not surprised by the findings of Drs Denton and Case.
So imagine what it must be like for someone who is too young to be on Medicare, who works on a low wage job, who doesn't have health insurance, and who can't get Medicaid. The stress of all of this often leads to depression. The costs of the drugs to treat depression aren't cheap either.
So, why am I not surprised by the findings of Drs Denton and Case.
As an special education teacher, I have noted that unless you are intellectually successful as a student there are no other choices available, the only goal of today's education programs is to go to college, those who can't get a highschool acadeic diploma, have no where to go, no choices, those who drop out of highschool are really handicapped employment wise, but many students are just not academically capable, and all of those students have been left behind in today's society. Perhaps the statistics have risen for white children because there are programs in place all over the country for black children and for latino's, addressing their needs to try to close gaps, but there are not such programs for white students, it may have been assumed there was not a need, however this study shows otherwise. There needs to be a change in education, students should be educated according to their abilities and needs, we are dealing with people, and all people vary in intellectual ability, today's educational demands do not take that into consideration, and cause an increasingly sad group of youngsters of all races, who cannot achieve on a high level, to despair , as there are no programs addressing the educational and then transitional to work needs of these people, they have been ignored, and left to despair, and be very unemployable, thus they may turn to things like drugs, alcohol, poor health habits etc.
2
Before the Reagan Revolution and mentality of drowning the government in a bath tub America had government funded safety net programs. The safety net programs helped support men facing these problems and enabled them to get back on their feet. When you hear the new Speaker of the House, Mr. Ryan, rail about cutting government funding and their programs, think about this article. Because of tax cuts and budget cuts many states have reduced unemployment benefits drastically. If disabled the application process for Social Security disability can take up to four years, exhausting all savings and most applicants do not have access to basic healthcare since many states have not expanded Medicaid. Americans should wake up and be looking for political candidates who support the funding and expansion of safety net programs. This article clearly points out the cost America is paying is high for not having programs. Much higher than an increase in taxes on the 1%. It is our voting choice to change this trend.
3
Yes, many of the comments blame our abandonment of the middle class and the loss of opportunities in an increasingly technological society. As Bernie Sanders would say, "All true!"
But the famous ACES (adverse childhood events) study suggests that the seeds of this inexorable decline into despair and drug use are often predicted by growing up in abusive, dysfunctional families.
These children, no let me rephrase that, our children learn to escape their horrible childhoods by taking drugs, engaging in high risk behaviors, which they learn to repeat in their middle ages when faced with a society where there is no safety net.
America is built on the premise of rugged individualism, Horatio Alger stories of entrepreneurs inventing in garages, and the wonders of capitalism. In the meantime, we have abandoned our safety net for families: no paid family leave for new parents, no paid sick time, poverty minimum wages, food insecurity for millions of children, and a totally unaffordable, for profit health care system. Its enough to drive you to drink.
This is not "those people". These are our children, our families, our neighbors. We need to start acting like an America that cares.
But the famous ACES (adverse childhood events) study suggests that the seeds of this inexorable decline into despair and drug use are often predicted by growing up in abusive, dysfunctional families.
These children, no let me rephrase that, our children learn to escape their horrible childhoods by taking drugs, engaging in high risk behaviors, which they learn to repeat in their middle ages when faced with a society where there is no safety net.
America is built on the premise of rugged individualism, Horatio Alger stories of entrepreneurs inventing in garages, and the wonders of capitalism. In the meantime, we have abandoned our safety net for families: no paid family leave for new parents, no paid sick time, poverty minimum wages, food insecurity for millions of children, and a totally unaffordable, for profit health care system. Its enough to drive you to drink.
This is not "those people". These are our children, our families, our neighbors. We need to start acting like an America that cares.
1
You don't suppose this could be the effect of the fact that you can be let go at any time, regardless of how good a worker you are or how many years of loyal servicd you've put in? The steady jobs and the social safety net disappeared at the same time. What did we think people were going to do if not get depressed, drink, overeat and do drugs?
1
Very few people seem to be able to correlate drugs and alcohol to depression, which is not always the result of economic stress, but in this case, I think it is. You can't have a social structure if you don't have time to build one, ;you can't attend church if you're working 18 hours a day. I saw a very interesting documentary about the decline of church attendance in the US. I'm not religious, but the answer most people gave was interesting: Sunday mornings were the only time a lot of young people didn't have to go to work. They simply wanted to have a chance to sleep and find a few hours of relaxation.
How many of these people who so desperately need our help are voting, election day after election day, for the very politicians whose primary goal is to enrich the 1% at the expense of those most in need?
3
It is this ethnic/age group who have traditionally been the builders of this nation. They were handed this mantle from their forebears and have seen only decline during their tenure at the helm. They have seen the decline of their families, their standard of living - they have seen the decline of their nation.
There is no longer a middle class in this country for this cohort to populate. That loss has fallen most firmly on High School educated white males who used to make up the bulk of the manufacturing sector of this nation. Those jobs have been sold off to China and replaced with minimum wage cashier jobs at Walmart selling the Foreign version what these folks used to produce.
Suicide is often a result of profound sadness. Look at what our nation has morphed in to. Our school system turning out illiterate, unthinking grads. Our once proud cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit and so many others have turned into depraved wastelands of gang violence, drug and alcohol use, and dependency. I'd say these are pretty sad times and these men feel responsible. They are quite possibly the last generation to feel responsible for anything that is truly important. This nation has morphed into a rabble of takers and complainers - it's their golden age now.
There is no longer a middle class in this country for this cohort to populate. That loss has fallen most firmly on High School educated white males who used to make up the bulk of the manufacturing sector of this nation. Those jobs have been sold off to China and replaced with minimum wage cashier jobs at Walmart selling the Foreign version what these folks used to produce.
Suicide is often a result of profound sadness. Look at what our nation has morphed in to. Our school system turning out illiterate, unthinking grads. Our once proud cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit and so many others have turned into depraved wastelands of gang violence, drug and alcohol use, and dependency. I'd say these are pretty sad times and these men feel responsible. They are quite possibly the last generation to feel responsible for anything that is truly important. This nation has morphed into a rabble of takers and complainers - it's their golden age now.
If this were an article about African-Americans, the majority of comments would be about the failure of "the culture" and mean spirited lecturing about planning ahead, working hard, delayed gratification etc.
Disinvestment, studied indifference, blame and outright hostility turn out not to be good strategies for dealing with the poor and suffering. The problem is, now that these have become enshrined as national policies and articles of faith, they're kind of hard to stop.
In a somewhat different context, a certain Reverend a while back spoke of our chickens coming home to roost. Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to disregard that sentiment.
Disinvestment, studied indifference, blame and outright hostility turn out not to be good strategies for dealing with the poor and suffering. The problem is, now that these have become enshrined as national policies and articles of faith, they're kind of hard to stop.
In a somewhat different context, a certain Reverend a while back spoke of our chickens coming home to roost. Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to disregard that sentiment.
1
Coming from Angus Deaton, I think the results are suspicious.
If you look hard enough, you find the correlation you want. Just another reason for the elite to trash the bottom 10%.
Things ( economic, civil, social ....) were rising for all segments thru the 80's and 90's - especially the 90's, so the 'die off' so to speak should not have been pronounced until much much later, perhaps not until the the impacts of the two wars and the crash of '08 started to affect everyone, or at least these particular groups.
Perhaps blame in on the right wing tilt of 80s, the extreme but sub surface bigotry of the least educated, under insured (south) states. A geographical distribution might provide some insight, as well as looking back to the prior decades before 2000.
If you look hard enough, you find the correlation you want. Just another reason for the elite to trash the bottom 10%.
Things ( economic, civil, social ....) were rising for all segments thru the 80's and 90's - especially the 90's, so the 'die off' so to speak should not have been pronounced until much much later, perhaps not until the the impacts of the two wars and the crash of '08 started to affect everyone, or at least these particular groups.
Perhaps blame in on the right wing tilt of 80s, the extreme but sub surface bigotry of the least educated, under insured (south) states. A geographical distribution might provide some insight, as well as looking back to the prior decades before 2000.
Some day ancient historians and archaeologists will ponder why American civilization fell. We let down our people, outsourced their jobs, opened up our borders to illegals, and obsessed over the rights of fringe elements like the transgendered while ignoring the plight of the majority of people who never complained but just gave up hope.
1
I've been watching this happen in my native Appalachia (and adjoining parts of the Midwest) for years now. It is immensely sad. Many of us in this age range (probably most of us who grew up working-class, men or women) live with chronic pain conditions (I do), but it is the hopelessness that takes the worst toll. I agree that men in this demographic grew up with expectations that became completely unrealistic over the past three decades, and were never encouraged to develop flexibility of mind or attitude. What privileges they had are largely gone (those of us who had fewer of those are probably better prepared now), and the entire social and economic fabric they were raised to be a part of no longer exists in most places. The things that gave meaning to life--steady employment, provider-hood, neighborhood ties--largely swept away by forces completely beyond their control, at least to their understanding. Women no longer thoroughly below them in the hierarchy of work or home or public life (I fought that relentlessly for myself, but for many people having that hierarchy in place was a huge anchor of security.) The destruction of family life by many shifts, but primarily by economic forces and by a so-called "conservative" tide that in actuality, by concentrating the vast bulk of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, made it impossible for most families to have a stay-at-home parent. Imploded identity, economic irrelevance and powerlessness, chronic pain--a deadly combination.
26
Could have had more emphasis on loss of sense of being valuable/taking responsibility, than on loss of privilege...
How are these people dying? The article says that the deaths are caused by “substance abuse: alcoholic liver disease and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids.”
Why are the prospects of white middle-aged Americans any different than in, say, Britain? And why are Hispanic males here in the US faring better?
These points are not addressed by many of the commentators here, whose blinkered approach is suggested by canned responses. Typical comments offer such explanations as: “it is not only the mental stress but the financial stress” and “they're good and trapped economically -- lousy or no job prospects,”
There was a lot more economic hardship in the 1930s and the population didn't resort to substance abuse as a way out. If abusive substances and heroin are killing white middle-aged Americans, then the Government should do something about it, instead of wasting resources going after groups such as ISIS.
Why are the prospects of white middle-aged Americans any different than in, say, Britain? And why are Hispanic males here in the US faring better?
These points are not addressed by many of the commentators here, whose blinkered approach is suggested by canned responses. Typical comments offer such explanations as: “it is not only the mental stress but the financial stress” and “they're good and trapped economically -- lousy or no job prospects,”
There was a lot more economic hardship in the 1930s and the population didn't resort to substance abuse as a way out. If abusive substances and heroin are killing white middle-aged Americans, then the Government should do something about it, instead of wasting resources going after groups such as ISIS.
The angry-white-man syndrome. These are the sons of the Archie Bunker generation. Men with good Union-paying jobs lifting their families into the solid middle class demographic. Many with housekeepers and vacation homes. Their sons would typically follow into the crafts & class professions of their dads. These jobs disappeared leaving millions upon millions without any meaningful job prospects (it also left millions of black men without any job prospects as well- don't forget this). The anger turns outward, directed at affirmative action and all blacks, and the perceived "illegals" taking American Jobs. What to do; drink, overindulge in prescription drugs- get them from the street because you don't have insurance. Blame, blame everyone else who also experiences the effects of an economy and wage base supported by retail-store consumerism. Yeah- it stinks having an expectation that doesn't materialize. I say- join the crowd.
1
Despair in Disparity....Sometimes the sanest reaction to an insane situation....
Is Insanity.
Is Insanity.
1
I think the adage is “you reap what you sow”
Just as the Ayn Rand rightwing has generated apathy and political stasis towards reducing pollution / global warming has reached the tipping point? So now has the laissez faire attitude towards income inequality, the social safety net, and refusal to develop a universal health care system and other results of the capitalist plutocracy America that has become.
These results are not unheard of in history, they are very well known. Go back to the feudal societies of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to pre-revolutionary France, and to late 1800-early 1900s in America, and the various versions of serfdom around the world.
We know all too well what the rule of plutocracy did to those who were not plutocrats: lowered life expectancy, increased crimes of necessity, created widespread poverty in the working class, famines, created debtor prisons/workhouses with indentured servitude and increased illnesses of all types. Nearly all such countries moved in response towards a more socialist approach to social welfare, health care, education, and income redistribution through taxation.
Let them eat cake, let them sink or swim, let them grind each other down at the millstone while the wealthy earn 1000x what those who actually work earn per day. This result is no surprise, and if nothing is done about it? Don’t expect the societal results to be any different than they have been in the past either. And they were not good.
Just as the Ayn Rand rightwing has generated apathy and political stasis towards reducing pollution / global warming has reached the tipping point? So now has the laissez faire attitude towards income inequality, the social safety net, and refusal to develop a universal health care system and other results of the capitalist plutocracy America that has become.
These results are not unheard of in history, they are very well known. Go back to the feudal societies of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to pre-revolutionary France, and to late 1800-early 1900s in America, and the various versions of serfdom around the world.
We know all too well what the rule of plutocracy did to those who were not plutocrats: lowered life expectancy, increased crimes of necessity, created widespread poverty in the working class, famines, created debtor prisons/workhouses with indentured servitude and increased illnesses of all types. Nearly all such countries moved in response towards a more socialist approach to social welfare, health care, education, and income redistribution through taxation.
Let them eat cake, let them sink or swim, let them grind each other down at the millstone while the wealthy earn 1000x what those who actually work earn per day. This result is no surprise, and if nothing is done about it? Don’t expect the societal results to be any different than they have been in the past either. And they were not good.
2
The communities experiencing this may not be able to elucidate this phenomenon coherently, but I want to guess that kinds of suffering that drive this increase in mortality is the very source of outrage and dissatisfaction that Republicans have been successfully and cynically able to channel.
Democrats write these stresses off as racism, ignorance and a reactionary lack of willingness to adapt. This would explain why, despite the Republican party's counter-productive policies, low-income whites continue to support Republican politicians even though, in theory, the policies of Democrats are generally more favorable to these communities.
If Democrats would take this seriously, they'd understand why these communities oppose immigration or affirmative action. Writing off this opposition are mere racism fails to take into account the grinding economics of these communities and the social malaise it produces.
Democrats write these stresses off as racism, ignorance and a reactionary lack of willingness to adapt. This would explain why, despite the Republican party's counter-productive policies, low-income whites continue to support Republican politicians even though, in theory, the policies of Democrats are generally more favorable to these communities.
If Democrats would take this seriously, they'd understand why these communities oppose immigration or affirmative action. Writing off this opposition are mere racism fails to take into account the grinding economics of these communities and the social malaise it produces.
3
This is a problem that will continue to grow because certain segments of society have been set up to fail. We all know about the African american experience which justifiably set off 50 years of affirmative action programs to give them a boost out of poverty. We know about the illegal immigration folks who will be rescued shortly. Who is watching out for the poor and Lower middle class white people? We are quickly becomming a divided nation. Many of us have good jobs and make decent 401K contributions that are growing with the Stock Market. ( Unless the Banks make another round of huge mistakes.) We applaud as the manufacturing and textile industries along with IT support and call centers move overseas which causes more Profit for our stocks and more security for our retirement. However, the price is being paid by our fellow Americans. Further, the poor and Lower middle class is just the start. Radiologists are losing work to overseas Doctors in Israel and India who read x rays via the internet. The confluence of overseas low costs and the ever expanding capabilities of the computers and internet will rip apart the US economy for all classes. Its a predators dream as the capitalists keep picking off the weakest parts of the american Herd. This study is a wake up call.
2
We live in a society whose motto is "Every man for himself," as opposed to the countries of western and northern Europe (as well as Australia and New Zealand and Canada), where the motto could be something like "We're all in this together."
What Americans seem to forget or deny is that, unless you're part of the 1%, we really *are* all in this together, and the repercussions of lost jobs, criminally low wages, and addiction will eventually be felt by all of us in the form of increased crime and direct or indirect (higher taxes) costs to pay for the health care and mass incarceration of those who flounder.
What Americans seem to forget or deny is that, unless you're part of the 1%, we really *are* all in this together, and the repercussions of lost jobs, criminally low wages, and addiction will eventually be felt by all of us in the form of increased crime and direct or indirect (higher taxes) costs to pay for the health care and mass incarceration of those who flounder.
4
Yes, america is not the wonderful country you'all seem to think. Americans do not care for other Americans, there is not americanism, like there is a certain "Dutchness" and certain "Germaness", even the Brits think "we are Brits together". (Yes, I lived in all those countries).
1
"They concluded that taken together, suicides, drugs and alcohol explained the overall increase in deaths. The effect was largely confined to people with a high school education or less. In that group, death rates rose by 22 percent while they actually fell for those with a college education."
....
I don't understand the surprise. There are no jobs, poor (very expensive) health care and no future. Everything is going to the top 1%. College educated people are taking jobs that formerly went to the high school educated crowd. That means college educated people are barely surviving...but high school educated people aren't.
....
I don't understand the surprise. There are no jobs, poor (very expensive) health care and no future. Everything is going to the top 1%. College educated people are taking jobs that formerly went to the high school educated crowd. That means college educated people are barely surviving...but high school educated people aren't.
3
So I guess coping has become the #1 disease we must combat.
We have allowed our society, which was geared for everyone to advance, at one's own pace, to slide into a tilted, one sided prize for the connected, similar to many third world nations, controlled by a handful for families, etc.
This creates two classes, one with everything, the other with near zero
the decades of union bashing, the stripping of resources from schools had put us in this position, and we let it happen...so any solutions?
Crash and start over....it will not be peaceful....buy that farm in Ireland, you are going to need it soon....
This creates two classes, one with everything, the other with near zero
the decades of union bashing, the stripping of resources from schools had put us in this position, and we let it happen...so any solutions?
Crash and start over....it will not be peaceful....buy that farm in Ireland, you are going to need it soon....
2
Read Paul Theroux's new book Deep South and learn about entire regions that have had virtually all manufacturing jobs outsourced to China, Mexico and other cheap labor areas.
Ride any of Amtrak's routes, all of which go through deserted industrial areas where millions of jobs once existed.
Take a look at Department of Labor statistics that reveal that NAFTA and all the other trade deals since have resulted in the loss of 6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs -- most of which went the people described in this article, hard working with high school or less educations.
Then, recognize that a Democrat President and a Republican Congress are poised to expand these trade deals to Asia with the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Why should anyone be surprised that many in this cohort of people who cannot take care of themselves or their families relieve their pain with alcohol, drugs and then suicide?
Worse, the issue is not part of the 2016 political issues being debated. Abandoned and forgotten people are desperate and desperate people do desperate acts.
Ride any of Amtrak's routes, all of which go through deserted industrial areas where millions of jobs once existed.
Take a look at Department of Labor statistics that reveal that NAFTA and all the other trade deals since have resulted in the loss of 6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs -- most of which went the people described in this article, hard working with high school or less educations.
Then, recognize that a Democrat President and a Republican Congress are poised to expand these trade deals to Asia with the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Why should anyone be surprised that many in this cohort of people who cannot take care of themselves or their families relieve their pain with alcohol, drugs and then suicide?
Worse, the issue is not part of the 2016 political issues being debated. Abandoned and forgotten people are desperate and desperate people do desperate acts.
6
I personally think, Environmental Stress [Cold Climate], Individualistic Lifestyles [cannot confide other than an psychiatrist], Hire & Fire policies of Companies, Divorces etc all lead to stress decrease in Quality of Life for Americans.
As simple as an a Sunny day can change people's perception of Life. There are several sprawling Temples in the place where I live. Many people just appear each day just to get the "Prasad", or the Free food that is given each day. These are mostly Women who would rather be cooking for the Family they take bigger amounts for the family. Get free, tasty food, and lie in the Sun, your life is fulfilled.
As simple as an a Sunny day can change people's perception of Life. There are several sprawling Temples in the place where I live. Many people just appear each day just to get the "Prasad", or the Free food that is given each day. These are mostly Women who would rather be cooking for the Family they take bigger amounts for the family. Get free, tasty food, and lie in the Sun, your life is fulfilled.
The "thought leaders" among our deranged-by-theory intelligentsia decided during the postwar years that they could improve the carrot-and-stick approach to economic production. They saw having both a carrot and a stick as needlessly redundant and expensive, in the belief that discarding one and retaining the other would be just as effective. So they got rid of the carrot. That approach also happens to accord with the nation's centuries-old preference of the Old Testament over the New. The result: America as a nation tosses people on the scrap heap in a kind of sacrificial pyre.
2
I waited at a pharmacy yesterday while a prescription was being filled. I sat off the the side and just watched people come and go for a few minutes. Without exception, the men that came in were enormous. Their bellies were the size of elephants. Middle-aged, white suburban men, thick stomachs, and thick necks, no jogging or weight training in sight, but plenty of sausage sandwiches and Halloween candy watching football all day Sunday. Meanwhile, the shelves were stocked with candy, potato chips, junk food in huge quantities. So corporate America has triumphed. Under the guise of "liberty and freedom," sensible regulations on sugar sodas have been defeated on the municipal level. (Remember dear Sarah Palin obnoxiously slurping a Quadruple Gulp for the cameras while sneering at public health regulations and crowing about her "liberty"?) I'm wondering if any GOP candidates will address any of the issues raised here now that it's their voting demographic that's dying.
4
I believe financial distress is the core issue/cause of the problem. Middle age Americans arrive at it from different avenues.
Unemployment in this age group is a principal factor. Millions have been laid off and are without benefits. Many other middle age people have left paid employment to take care of elderly, infirm parents whose disabilities require 24-hour care. Considering that the government and medical insurance don't contribute anything to home care for dementia patients, middle age people often go through their own savings to help their elderly loved ones. These caregivers can never get their jobs back. So, those two categories of involuntary job loss and caring for the elderly are two contributing reasons.
What middle age Americans need to do is organize; get vocal; make demands; and find an honest and viable leader to represent them in the national forum.
Unemployment in this age group is a principal factor. Millions have been laid off and are without benefits. Many other middle age people have left paid employment to take care of elderly, infirm parents whose disabilities require 24-hour care. Considering that the government and medical insurance don't contribute anything to home care for dementia patients, middle age people often go through their own savings to help their elderly loved ones. These caregivers can never get their jobs back. So, those two categories of involuntary job loss and caring for the elderly are two contributing reasons.
What middle age Americans need to do is organize; get vocal; make demands; and find an honest and viable leader to represent them in the national forum.
5
When I say that neoliberalism sacrifices people to its god Mammon, that's not a metaphor. I mean it quite literally. Lack of economic means destroys large sections of the populace. And now we have the data to back it up.
We have to mock, belittle, and ultimately break free market ideology, or these numbers will continue to tick upwards.
We have to mock, belittle, and ultimately break free market ideology, or these numbers will continue to tick upwards.
3
It is mentioned in this study that older Americans those 65 and older live longer and better. Guess why!! They have all access to good health care thru the Medicare system. Republicans is fighting to eliminate the Medicare system and replacing it with an idiotic voucher system. Even the front runner Carson is advocating for eliminating the Medicare system. Carson an individual that compare the ACA health care system to slavery. I wish this study would have looked at the impact of our terrible health care system on middle age Americans.
4
The most interesting thing about this article is how ignorant and surprised the academics were, who are supposed to have expertise in economics and sociology pertaining to the American working class. It may be an indication of the growing segregation of economic classes in America, that the more affluent academics simply don't walk down the streets of working class cities to see the devastation.
This is what happens when American economic policy is crafted to benefit international corporations instead of the best interests of the citizens. The results of this study hold no surprise to anyone who has driven through the cities of Elmira, Utica or Buffalo.
This is what happens when American economic policy is crafted to benefit international corporations instead of the best interests of the citizens. The results of this study hold no surprise to anyone who has driven through the cities of Elmira, Utica or Buffalo.
4
It's Ageism, not manufacturing jobs going over seas and it's not a male thing either. In an age of everything disposable, even durable goods like cars, computers, phones, clothing you name it, employers treat people like they are disposable too.
Where I live, hundreds of college educated unemployed can be called in for temp work at any time and when you get there, it's 50/50 women to men all in their 40's 50's and 60's. There is such a surplus of people of this criteria republican politicians have no problem enticing employers wanting cheap groomed labor with tax breaks to create temp contract jobs that churn this population. Yes, there is also a high concentration of white uneducated, our literacy rate is 1 in 4 adults don't have the reading skills required for a modern work environment, but even so, this does not explain why a huge subset of educated people with long resumes of valuable work experience across diverse fields of work do not find work either.
I was never so shocked and dismayed when steered to a networking group for job hunting to find a room full, 50+ people all middle aged that when broken into groups found out these were IT specialists of all stripes, people who had real responsibility for various kinds of project management, were in product development for medical devices and research in the pharmaceutical industry.
This is more akin to being considered an old iphone than useless. It's ageism cold hard and simple.
Where I live, hundreds of college educated unemployed can be called in for temp work at any time and when you get there, it's 50/50 women to men all in their 40's 50's and 60's. There is such a surplus of people of this criteria republican politicians have no problem enticing employers wanting cheap groomed labor with tax breaks to create temp contract jobs that churn this population. Yes, there is also a high concentration of white uneducated, our literacy rate is 1 in 4 adults don't have the reading skills required for a modern work environment, but even so, this does not explain why a huge subset of educated people with long resumes of valuable work experience across diverse fields of work do not find work either.
I was never so shocked and dismayed when steered to a networking group for job hunting to find a room full, 50+ people all middle aged that when broken into groups found out these were IT specialists of all stripes, people who had real responsibility for various kinds of project management, were in product development for medical devices and research in the pharmaceutical industry.
This is more akin to being considered an old iphone than useless. It's ageism cold hard and simple.
2
Primary family doctors are retiring early and practices are closing up all over because of all the new health care rules.
High deductibles are keeping folks away from doctors.
This is just the beginning.
High deductibles are keeping folks away from doctors.
This is just the beginning.
3
I fall into most of the causes. I have a high school education, I'm disabled and living on disability. I use opioids for pain.
Yet I am 64. Losing a job that I'd considered a career in 1985 (Ma Bell, RIP) I started a business. Despite having had 12 surgeries including two for stenosis and a cut Achilles tendon by a bone spur I managed to keep my business open even though I was the only employee for a few years.
After going on Disability I created new purposes for myself. I worked a little more in my duties as a Presbyterian Deacon, I worked on renovations in and outside the house, stayed in touch with other business owners and old customers. I go to the range every two months with my wife and I teach others to shoot. I still get up between 5AM and 6AM. I take care of my dogs and the cat. I read the papers. Work on one of my long running projects.
In short I have purpose. I hold to my life attitude: Stuff happens. Deal with it.
Yet I am 64. Losing a job that I'd considered a career in 1985 (Ma Bell, RIP) I started a business. Despite having had 12 surgeries including two for stenosis and a cut Achilles tendon by a bone spur I managed to keep my business open even though I was the only employee for a few years.
After going on Disability I created new purposes for myself. I worked a little more in my duties as a Presbyterian Deacon, I worked on renovations in and outside the house, stayed in touch with other business owners and old customers. I go to the range every two months with my wife and I teach others to shoot. I still get up between 5AM and 6AM. I take care of my dogs and the cat. I read the papers. Work on one of my long running projects.
In short I have purpose. I hold to my life attitude: Stuff happens. Deal with it.
Substance abuse is the symptom, not the cause. It looks like it is stress from finances and being told you are not needed in this economy.
2
As long as our political leaders refuse to create an adequate health insurance scheme not a lap work like the ACA people will continue to die prematurely. Of course the Republicans will never let that happen.
2
All we need now is the recipe for "Solient Green". And that pesky Sicial Security what to do with the old folks is solved. Maybe Paul Ryan has it ...
2
So here we have it, politics is killing us.
1
We've forgotten that an economy is supposed to serve people, all the people in a society, not just the few who have the power to grab the lion's share of the profits generated at the cost of the health, happiness and longevity of the many.
4
Yes, it's a 22% increase over the previous period but the increase represents only a 0.134% absolute increase from 281/100,000 to 415/100,000 middle-aged white people. Sad for those people and probably tragic for their families but significant for the population mainly, I think, as an indicator of how we in our society care for each other compared to other societies. Is my math wrong?
That featured comment tells the whole story. America is now a private corporation owned by 158 families, and those statistics reflect the fate of working people who are unable to cope with the devastating after-effects.
4
The wealthiest country in the world without any kind of health insurance or free healthcare, so it's not surprising. When you have a severe toothache, you can't afford a dentist, but you can buy pain relievers that can kill you.
4
Without delving into a a commentary of American social programs and political ideologies, my comments reflect a 'boots-on-the-ground' view. Approaching retirement, a second career looming on the horizon, I made a decision to completely rebuild a home along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Not having an established contractor base, efforts were made to recruit skilled trades locally. If there wasn't one contractor that didn't speak two languages, it was the exception. Most of the willing and able hailed from Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Israel, Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica. Not only were they bi-lingual, it was questionable whether they were American citizens, even though they were all licensed with the State of CT. Sure there were contractors who fit the 'Middle-Aged White' profile, but not the norm. Is there an American educational system mislead and misdirect of our future ' Middle-Aged White' citizens?
1
Where I live you can't get anyone to show up. I had to call four plumbers before one arrived. And I live in a rural area (read, no diversity). There is work here but no one wants to do it. If you ask anyone to give you an estimate on the price of the work they refuse to do it. It's like no one wants to do an honest day's work. If they can hit a home run then they'll gladly show up. This scenario plays itself out over and over again. I am not the only one where I live who has had this experience.
This is exactly what is expected in a society becoming more and more unequal.
The world and national statistics are spelled out and the reasons discussed in the book The Spirit Level. Real food for thought.
The world and national statistics are spelled out and the reasons discussed in the book The Spirit Level. Real food for thought.
2
This is what results from voting against your own interests. Voting for Republicans that decimate unions and enact the "right to work" for less. Falling for the line that raising minimum wage will result in less jobs (the opposite happens). Believing the lie that having no health care is better than Obamacare. There are death panels as they said, but it's Republican governors that refuse Obamacare. Being angry at the poor as right wing media tells you to be, while the wealthy stuff their pockets with your hard earned money at much higher percentages than the disadvantaged. Income inequality is at obscene levels. It is not caused by social safety net programs. The white middle aged Americans that get sucked in by all this are the ones who seem to be dying from their bad choices in the voting booths. This is no coincidence. If you think the people you voted for care about this, you would be mistaken. If they did, they wouldn't vote against every bill that benefits anyone but the wealthy. Even veteran's bills, 9/11 first responder healthcare bills, small business bills. Wake up before it's too late.
3
These are the same people who hate Obama, blame him for everything and vote staunchly Republican whose main interests seem to be abortion and gun control, not the declining opportunity for high school educated middle aged white men. This goes along with the purported ability of the Republican party to get people to vote against their own interests which, I suppose, emanates from their ignorance. To some extent we were all ignorant being sold a bill of goods about how great these trade pacts were when in fact they simply shipped the type of jobs needed overseas. Exacerbating the problem is an income shift to the top which doesn't appreciate the value of labor.
There was no mention of the contribution of the obesity epidemic which places inordinate stresses on the body increasing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and arthritis which result in chronic pain causing states. A cycle of pain, inactivity, disability and unemployment develops which can promote the tendency to alcohol and drug abuse.
I think it's wrong to attribute the increased mortality to alcohol and drug abuse. There are preceding factors of decline such as the perceived worthlessness of labor combined with the obesity epidemic which encourage the development of alcoholism and drug dependence as a way to cope.
There was no mention of the contribution of the obesity epidemic which places inordinate stresses on the body increasing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and arthritis which result in chronic pain causing states. A cycle of pain, inactivity, disability and unemployment develops which can promote the tendency to alcohol and drug abuse.
I think it's wrong to attribute the increased mortality to alcohol and drug abuse. There are preceding factors of decline such as the perceived worthlessness of labor combined with the obesity epidemic which encourage the development of alcoholism and drug dependence as a way to cope.
"No taxation without representation"
Time for another American Revolution.
Time for another American Revolution.
Why must politics enter every discussion? Reagonomics is blamed for everything. Small town America was still thriving then. Things were still made in America, and our borders were more secure. Now we're multicultural, just love illegal immigrants, and outsource all our good jobs that once made us middle-class. We are swamped by identity politics, plagued with violence in the cities, and practically hopeless as a people. but the Democrats who once stood up for the working man--yes, "man!"--are now more interested in the rights of transgendered males to use women's toilets.
4
America has two things going against us. The first is that we are a nation of immigrants and as such we do not have a strong national identity. I am not talking about nationalism in the political sense but in a cultural sense. What makes someone an American, what makes life worth living, what is it that makes me a good person. Europe and Asia have been populated and have had cultures that go back hundreds of centruries and what emerges from all of this life is a sense of who we are as people and what is important. without having this yardstick people drift from one high to another and they do not find meaning in this chase which leads to depression and greater levels of self destructive behavior. What is worse is that we have lost respect for work as an important part of a persons life. If we valued work then each person who works will feel this value. Our value is in wealth, so if you have wealth then life is great and if you do not have wealth then you are a looser. This belief system is broadcast over TV, radio, and streaming live over the Internet. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be wealthy or working to generate wealth it is when wealth becomes our all consuming passion that things start to go wrong. When we value wealth over people and disregard those who are not wealthy that we go down rabbit hole that has no end.
1
While I agree with all opinions citing stress, ageism, declining options and the breakdown of our social safety net, I have observed much of the described behavior from those who have not been able to shoulder the responsibilities of adulthood -- the Peter Pan syndrome. I believe it speaks more to the disaster that is our mental health system than anything else. The body responds to the mind's firm belief that 'I can't handle that,' and so falls into addiction.
1
Only populations of people who have stagnated in their progress are prone to suicide or lack the inability to handle pain and misfortune.
When you look at desperate multitudes in Africa, one might wonder why they even bother going on with their lives since they will probably be stuck in primitive states of poverty for another 100 years. But guess what? They not only don't kill themselves, they have many children too! When you have next to nothing in power or material goods or expectations , everything looks like a blessing. You have nothing to lose and all to gain by going on in life.
On the other hand, Americans have everything in this regard. But things plateau if you are not constantly struggling to achieve more. The fact is large swaths of Americans have grown very comfortable over the last hundred years. I don't mean physically comfortable, though sure, there is that. But psychologically comfortable. No external threats, a constant expectation of the availability of the basics. TV, tasty food, transportation, etc..So that when things start to look bad or deteriorate, they have no inner resources to push them forward. They would rather roll over and die, or escape through drugs, etc...
Add to that the constant drumbeat of those pushing assisted suicide, the right to die, the decriminalization of drugs. What do expect low educated people to take away from that?
It's no mystery at all. And non whites will eventually follow their lead.
When you look at desperate multitudes in Africa, one might wonder why they even bother going on with their lives since they will probably be stuck in primitive states of poverty for another 100 years. But guess what? They not only don't kill themselves, they have many children too! When you have next to nothing in power or material goods or expectations , everything looks like a blessing. You have nothing to lose and all to gain by going on in life.
On the other hand, Americans have everything in this regard. But things plateau if you are not constantly struggling to achieve more. The fact is large swaths of Americans have grown very comfortable over the last hundred years. I don't mean physically comfortable, though sure, there is that. But psychologically comfortable. No external threats, a constant expectation of the availability of the basics. TV, tasty food, transportation, etc..So that when things start to look bad or deteriorate, they have no inner resources to push them forward. They would rather roll over and die, or escape through drugs, etc...
Add to that the constant drumbeat of those pushing assisted suicide, the right to die, the decriminalization of drugs. What do expect low educated people to take away from that?
It's no mystery at all. And non whites will eventually follow their lead.
2
The cohort merely fell into the bad habits of their parents. They expected their racial and class advantages in American society to allow them to ignore education and to behave and vote against their own best interests. Sort of proof positive that the nation is truly in decline into a 2nd class nation!
1
As Danny Hakim of The Times confirms, I suggested this outcome... to him in 2007. I said why.
I said suicidal behavior with frequency in the younger male will emerge, with school shootings, family violence, other; separately, I called the logic in Syria with International, suicidal and beheadings, said why. These discussions were not included in the piece by Michael Powell and Danny Hakim.
Note, a recent piece in The New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell attributes US school killings to the logic he found, credits to Stanford U sociologist Prof. Mark Granovetter, in a paper published by Granovetter in 1978 from Stony Brook, SUNY - point of origin omitted in The New Yorker.
Mark Granovetter's statistical sociological work suggested an accelerating, widening behavior pattern starting with the first hot head to throw the rock through the window, the second to follow, progressing to mob, with more normal people following the first, to the point of mob action.
Gladwell says today's suicidal killings and mass murders are following the same pattern suggested by Granovetter in his '78 rock throwing research, found in his c.v. at Stanford. Prof. Granovetter emails that he would not have applied this logic but feels that it may apply.
Disagree. The psychotic, even episodic psychotic behavior, has an element of the rock throw in serialized killings set apart, but school kills, family kills and terror etiology alike are not as described by Gladwell. One off psychotic is different.
I said suicidal behavior with frequency in the younger male will emerge, with school shootings, family violence, other; separately, I called the logic in Syria with International, suicidal and beheadings, said why. These discussions were not included in the piece by Michael Powell and Danny Hakim.
Note, a recent piece in The New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell attributes US school killings to the logic he found, credits to Stanford U sociologist Prof. Mark Granovetter, in a paper published by Granovetter in 1978 from Stony Brook, SUNY - point of origin omitted in The New Yorker.
Mark Granovetter's statistical sociological work suggested an accelerating, widening behavior pattern starting with the first hot head to throw the rock through the window, the second to follow, progressing to mob, with more normal people following the first, to the point of mob action.
Gladwell says today's suicidal killings and mass murders are following the same pattern suggested by Granovetter in his '78 rock throwing research, found in his c.v. at Stanford. Prof. Granovetter emails that he would not have applied this logic but feels that it may apply.
Disagree. The psychotic, even episodic psychotic behavior, has an element of the rock throw in serialized killings set apart, but school kills, family kills and terror etiology alike are not as described by Gladwell. One off psychotic is different.
I became suicidal 7 years ago when my parents got sick (I was the major caregiver and the one who made the decisions), I had health problems, my job was good but didn't pay well, and I owned a condo but could not re-finance because of the bad housing market. I live alone. felt like no matter what I did, life just seemed to get worse and worse. I am a female (now in my 50's) but I understand this despair. I do have a college degree and a fairly supportive family so my situation was a little different. I had good health care and I have been in therapy for years so I knew to call a doctor when I reached the end of my rope. I ended up in a psych hospital and got the care that I needed. But, it took everything I had to go. I have a lot of faith in God but God doesn't pay my bills. In a time when life can bring many challenges, it is important to remember that there are a lot of people out there that can help, and mental health medications have improved so much. Life will always bring troubles, no matter what situation you are in. Sometimes you can't wait for life situations to get better, because it might not happen. Life is good for me now and I am so grateful that there were people out there to help me. They really are out there. Don't give up.
32
In years of reading The Times, I've not seen a finer set of comments than these – at once thoughtful and empathetic. Let me add my poor two cents.
It is no accident that poor, white males' mortality has risen at the same time as the rise of the Tea Party in this country, and radical fundamentalism abroad, especially radical Islam.
What connects them is male dominance. It is a deeply, powerfully held instinctual need, and it has come into disrepute in the modern world. The backlash can be seen in the Republican "war on women," in the oppression of women by ISIS, and in the mysogenist tenor of radical conservativism everywhere.
In this country, lower-class, white males experience male dominance as white male dominance. They see their jobs, their values and their dominant place in family and community being stolen away by women and people of color, both of whom they've always regarded as beneath them. They are no longer valued by society, so they no longer value themselves.
Yes, on one level, it is the loss of good jobs, and the loss of finacial security and self-esteem those jobs provided that is stressing these white males. At a deeper level, their basic identity as a human bering has been denied, and that is killing them.
It is no accident that poor, white males' mortality has risen at the same time as the rise of the Tea Party in this country, and radical fundamentalism abroad, especially radical Islam.
What connects them is male dominance. It is a deeply, powerfully held instinctual need, and it has come into disrepute in the modern world. The backlash can be seen in the Republican "war on women," in the oppression of women by ISIS, and in the mysogenist tenor of radical conservativism everywhere.
In this country, lower-class, white males experience male dominance as white male dominance. They see their jobs, their values and their dominant place in family and community being stolen away by women and people of color, both of whom they've always regarded as beneath them. They are no longer valued by society, so they no longer value themselves.
Yes, on one level, it is the loss of good jobs, and the loss of finacial security and self-esteem those jobs provided that is stressing these white males. At a deeper level, their basic identity as a human bering has been denied, and that is killing them.
32
I don't see anything in the article that says this phenomenon is confined to males. But given the recent fashion of whining about the erosion of male privilege, I'm not surprised you read it in.
2
SqueakyRat,
Try to exercise a little imagination. What do think happens to a family with limited resources when the male goes down? He takes his wife and children with him. The problems discussed in the article more often start wth the males. They have higher expectations for themselves, and are more easily devastated by failure.
Try to exercise a little imagination. What do think happens to a family with limited resources when the male goes down? He takes his wife and children with him. The problems discussed in the article more often start wth the males. They have higher expectations for themselves, and are more easily devastated by failure.
4
Your comment is decidedly a form of radical fundamentalism in thinking. First, the article is not about men alone. It is about a whole subset of our society that is suffering and dying at a higher rate than the rest of us. To suggest that these suffering human beings are to be linked with ISIS or a war on women or that they are the old "White Devils" who are now getting their due speaks of a total lack of empathy, and a perspective not supported by any data. I've not read a more acidic example of blaming the victim in years. And yet the NYT has you as a "pick" and cites you for your praise of the comments being made here. I hope readers have read as far as I have to learn how your comment has been unjustly dignified and mischaracterized. At this point, I'm wondering if the NYT will even print my reply to you, appropriate as it is. To suggest these people are dying of despair because they once looked down on minorities but no longer can is as irrational a conclusion as I can think of.
Maybe one of the few categories of Americans excluded from "protected Class" status should now be included.
1
They are not wanted in many circles. This is why any subgroup does away with itself. I've seen it too many times. If you cannot stay relevant and positive you are looking forward to nothing.
1
This is an indication of the multitude of things that are terribly sick in American society. First it has become a country without God. Secondly there is an economic war raging all through the society. Everyone is competing tooth and nail for survival against everyone else. Thirdly it has no social nets (No free higher education, no free health care as in many other developed and undeveloped countries). Fourthly the family has been destroyed, there is no social cohesion. Fifthly Money has become king. It has become a country without any moral values. Sixthly it is run by a corrupt elite without any idea of social responsibility and which represents only it own selfish interests. In effect its global wars raging all over the world have made it a BARBARIAN NATION without any hope, without any spiritual depth. These deaths are really only signs of the death of the society itself
2
It's the economy, stupid.
With rising inequality and continued erosion of mid-range incomes, low-earning whites no longer enjoy the socioeconomic advantages they once did over people of color. It's hardly a surprise that white skin provides no protection against disease and social dysfunction when the material basis for health and well-being is degraded.
With rising inequality and continued erosion of mid-range incomes, low-earning whites no longer enjoy the socioeconomic advantages they once did over people of color. It's hardly a surprise that white skin provides no protection against disease and social dysfunction when the material basis for health and well-being is degraded.
3
Years ago I interviewed for employment with NYS CS in Albany. I had a four-year degree from a respected NYC university. Met all requirements. Was advised that only women, preferably of color, were being considered, that there was no point in continuing the interview process. The HR representative was a woman of color. Have you been in any HR office lately? Have you seen who is sitting in the HR manager's office? White males need not apply. This is today's reality.
5
I'd like to see this further broken down by gender. Are thye suicides and addictions an outcome of military service, for instance? That would probably show in much higher male death rates.
The rapid jump in mortality from lifestyle causes for this demographic mirrors precisely what happened to the same age and class cohort in the Soviet Union under Boris Yeltsin, when the social safety net was yanked away and predatory capitalism began to rule the day, with public assets going to a class of increasingly powerful oligarchs.
See any similarities to what is happening now in American culture? The only difference is that vodka is not as cheap here as it was in Russia.
See any similarities to what is happening now in American culture? The only difference is that vodka is not as cheap here as it was in Russia.
4
A better case for increasing the minimum wage has never been made.
3
And our political leaders thought shipping all of those jobs to China was a good idea.
3
What is the breakdown in statistics for men and women? Are we talking about mostly white males here?
3
The political and economic elite have a stranglehold on the U.S. There is no democracy here, only a laughable facsimile thereof. I’ve given up on change in this country. The Constitution has been “reinterpreted” so many times it’s meaningless. As the saying goes, “it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.” Only states have a legal right to use violence. The only way things will change is for an ISIS-like homegrown group to start destabilizing and challenging the “system” in a language only states understand. But then, I’m a cynic. Let's the election shows begin.
1
Unless it is a real tort liability, suits today are so frivolous that the cost of doing business and insurance for the corporation and the small business acts like a hidden tax on the consumer and the job applicant. Small business administration seems to be failing at stopping the loss of small businesses, some Republican presidential candidates claim. Small businesses hire the most people proportionally in the USA. I would like to see an economist show a correlation with the rise of legal claims and the loss of businesses that would have hired these high school displaced in our now global economy. There seems to an disincentive to hire rather than an incentive. Is Obama care hurting or helping small business if an artificial cap on size is exempting the business from penalties. There should be more incentives and less penalties.
It's dismaying to read the comments here by so many people who think their particular political bête noir (usually Reagan) is to blame for this. There are two underlying reasons that many working class whites despair. One is that they are totally untethered, they have lost their support systems. Stable work is one of these, but people in times past endured much more deprivation and economic uncertainty than is suffered by most of the lower middle class whites because they also had extended families, neighbors, community groups, and churches. So many people lack all of these that it is no wonder they are lost.
The other reason is the more basic one: rapipdly accelerating change. Most people are not equipped to adapt to radically new demands after they reach the age of forty. If they happen to have a profession that allows them to coast beyond that (college teaching, for example), fine. If they have enough money to get by while sidestepping the pressures of the new, that's fine too. But most people in most jobs simply cannot successfully refashion themselves two or three times, as needed, in middle age, and no administration in Washington will change that.
A better social safety net for all our citizens is certainly desirable, but don't expect it to reverse these trends.
The other reason is the more basic one: rapipdly accelerating change. Most people are not equipped to adapt to radically new demands after they reach the age of forty. If they happen to have a profession that allows them to coast beyond that (college teaching, for example), fine. If they have enough money to get by while sidestepping the pressures of the new, that's fine too. But most people in most jobs simply cannot successfully refashion themselves two or three times, as needed, in middle age, and no administration in Washington will change that.
A better social safety net for all our citizens is certainly desirable, but don't expect it to reverse these trends.
20
You are correct that it is the loss of family. And when one of your very few family members (my 48-year-old brother, college-educated but job-outsourced and mentally ill) commits suicide and you now have to live with that as well as your own increasing isolation it's a further shock when you realize you're now at risk yourself.
2
Spot on!
So people beyond age 40 can be tossed as useless from their employment. What then? Very callous.
1
We should not discount discouragement as one of the potential causes of these phenomena. With the ready availability of drugs, including alcohol, that many lower income people use to treat themselves for depression and the possibility of a confluence of circumstances appears.
The study mentions people with lower education levels. First, it is well known that those with lower education tend to smoke at higher rates and the possibility exists of a higher volume intake of alcohol, too. A confluence of events appears to be happening.
The current generations from middle age onward are the first ones to have the "you must have a college degree" thrown in their faces. The upper layer of the American social economic system is getting very, very rich. The layer just below that, the upper 30% or so of the population, is doing very well. Most of the rest have been denied decent pay raises for decades. They face problems paying bills, keeping housing, health care and helping their children advance.
The "must have degree" came to the fore only in the last 30 to 40 yrs. My father, who did not graduate high school, worked in skilled construction and made more than the average lawyer throughout his working life. There are still high paying, skilled jobs, but fewer of them to go around.
Many people who did not attend college are simply stuck economically. They have been told there is no way out. Why work hard and have faith in the future if opportunities are closed off, permanently?
The study mentions people with lower education levels. First, it is well known that those with lower education tend to smoke at higher rates and the possibility exists of a higher volume intake of alcohol, too. A confluence of events appears to be happening.
The current generations from middle age onward are the first ones to have the "you must have a college degree" thrown in their faces. The upper layer of the American social economic system is getting very, very rich. The layer just below that, the upper 30% or so of the population, is doing very well. Most of the rest have been denied decent pay raises for decades. They face problems paying bills, keeping housing, health care and helping their children advance.
The "must have degree" came to the fore only in the last 30 to 40 yrs. My father, who did not graduate high school, worked in skilled construction and made more than the average lawyer throughout his working life. There are still high paying, skilled jobs, but fewer of them to go around.
Many people who did not attend college are simply stuck economically. They have been told there is no way out. Why work hard and have faith in the future if opportunities are closed off, permanently?
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I am heart sick for these people. You say 'surprising jump.' I say, where have you been? This is so common it is practically the norm. We have destroyed great swathes of our people, in the interest of profit and justified by economic fashion. I have to protest how you have been a purveyor of conventional wisdom in the areas of free trade, outsourcing, globalization and the like. The middle class has been decimated by design. The Democrats are as guilty as Republicans, if not more. There is no more successful neo-liberal than Bill Clinton. Why the elites confuse themselves with successful people is beyond me. They have led us over a cliff.
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What's so surprising about it?
Baby boomers are dying off. They were the most irresponsible generation in US history (economics, obesity, etc).
Baby boomers are dying off. They were the most irresponsible generation in US history (economics, obesity, etc).
The time will come when your kids blame you for not fixing it all, too.
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There is a study opportunity not being utilized here.
I have several friends who fit the age profile, who died, plus 2 siblings. The reason they died were related to unemployment (lack of hope), lack of a spouse, hereditary 'bad luck' and in one case, a 4 pack a day cigarette habit.
Bot frankly -- lack of job potential, and lack of economic hope -- trumps everthing. People are getting more and more lost, and it is NOT because of drugs or alcohol - it is because opportunity is far too sophisticated and difficult.
We've destroyed at least 25% of the baby boomer generation - because we forgot they were so old school (we thought we should replace them with imported folks).
How is it that we did this to our own?
I have several friends who fit the age profile, who died, plus 2 siblings. The reason they died were related to unemployment (lack of hope), lack of a spouse, hereditary 'bad luck' and in one case, a 4 pack a day cigarette habit.
Bot frankly -- lack of job potential, and lack of economic hope -- trumps everthing. People are getting more and more lost, and it is NOT because of drugs or alcohol - it is because opportunity is far too sophisticated and difficult.
We've destroyed at least 25% of the baby boomer generation - because we forgot they were so old school (we thought we should replace them with imported folks).
How is it that we did this to our own?
7
Just 2 months ago an acquaintance who falls into this demographic walked into the woods, shot his 2 dogs, and then himself. He was stuck in a menial job, had a lot of pain, both physical and emotional, and was drinking heavily. Last I saw him he was quoting Ayn Rand and lamenting all these damn liberals trying to take his freedom. He was angry, but I didn't realize at the time how much pain he was really in. Knowing now how many people are in his same boat in our country is beyond sad. We need a new direction.
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Seems he was one of those people who believed that asking for help was a fate worse than death. That he would shoot his dogs makes me think he was a raging narcissist.
President Trump and Vice President Dr. Carson will take us in that new direction. Out with the same old, same old that got us here, and the Politics of Envy.
The first graph is a sad example of "American Exceptionalism".
15
Inflection point in the graph in 1996
Clintons welfare reform act goes into law
And so it began.
Clintons welfare reform act goes into law
And so it began.
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Clinton's Welfare Reform Act affected blacks, not whites. Reagan was the poison of choice for the white working class.
1
What is the affect, if any, of the revolution in gender relations for many white American males?
How have American males adjusted to the immense social changes that have swept across the U.S. since the 1970s?
I am no way, implicitly or explicitly, saying that women bear any responsibility for the increased mortality rate of middle-aged white American males; they don't. I am saying that perhaps some of the rate increase can be attributed to some white American males difficulty or sheer inability adapting to profound social changes.
Also, how much does one part or another, or several pieces, of the rightfully maligned U.S. health care system, including health care insurers, are to blame for the mortality rate increases for middle-aged white American males?
Finally, it is unequivocally clear that steady, corrosive economic changes have occurred since at least the 1980s that disproportionately affect white male Americans with but a high school education. Is it not clear that economic inequality can be deadly? When will we acknowledge, too, that we can do something about these problems, which include making choices for the betterment of us all through the voting booth, and holding our elected and non-elected government representatives accountable and responsible?
How have American males adjusted to the immense social changes that have swept across the U.S. since the 1970s?
I am no way, implicitly or explicitly, saying that women bear any responsibility for the increased mortality rate of middle-aged white American males; they don't. I am saying that perhaps some of the rate increase can be attributed to some white American males difficulty or sheer inability adapting to profound social changes.
Also, how much does one part or another, or several pieces, of the rightfully maligned U.S. health care system, including health care insurers, are to blame for the mortality rate increases for middle-aged white American males?
Finally, it is unequivocally clear that steady, corrosive economic changes have occurred since at least the 1980s that disproportionately affect white male Americans with but a high school education. Is it not clear that economic inequality can be deadly? When will we acknowledge, too, that we can do something about these problems, which include making choices for the betterment of us all through the voting booth, and holding our elected and non-elected government representatives accountable and responsible?
7
One "immense social change" was No-fault Divorce. I know 3 men who killed themselves after Divorce. One was my brother in law, age 39 in 1987, laid-off one too many times by Pittsburgh-area steel mills, on his 2nd divorce, this one with two young kids. His estranged wife came to visit over Christmas and he killed himself in their home in her presence with the hunting rifle her father had given him the Christmas before. She's lucky it was not murder-suicide. I noticed that a few suicides I knew, after divorce, were intentionally staged in a way to dramatize the event. That took the place of a suicide note, I guess. Several years ago, one of my daughter's high school acquaintances hanged herself on New Year's Eve, in her bedroom at home, after her boyfriend dumped her just before Christmas. She was 19. I went to the church for the funeral mass, but it was too disturbing so I left after 10 minutes, and prayed for her for months afterward. It's a sin to cause your family, especially your mother, so much pain.
Bruce, you hit the nail on the head with the first strike listing the significant social changes occurring in the last 20 years. To the advances made by women, I would add the gains made by minorities on many fronts and the suntanning of America.
Success in this nation is beginning to be more dependent on what you know and your ability rather than who you know. Many white males can't handle the fact that their success is increasingly determined by their qualifications, rather than their being white. The results are obvious, minority well being improves while the well being of whites diminishes.
After years of struggles minorities are starting to arrive at their destination, equality. How they handle their success still remains to be seen.
The political angle is another nail that should not be in this equation. It may have some relevance only as one of the causes giving white males stress because it is another area in which they are losing the control they have enjoyed for so long.
I predict that the well being of minorities and women will continue to rise. The poor, I am not so sure about. The well being of white males will continue to decline for a few years until they adjust to the inevitable, a demographically changed America with a government that reflects the diversity of its people.
In the end, it will work out. America will retain it's place in the world and American citizens will be proud of their great nation.
Success in this nation is beginning to be more dependent on what you know and your ability rather than who you know. Many white males can't handle the fact that their success is increasingly determined by their qualifications, rather than their being white. The results are obvious, minority well being improves while the well being of whites diminishes.
After years of struggles minorities are starting to arrive at their destination, equality. How they handle their success still remains to be seen.
The political angle is another nail that should not be in this equation. It may have some relevance only as one of the causes giving white males stress because it is another area in which they are losing the control they have enjoyed for so long.
I predict that the well being of minorities and women will continue to rise. The poor, I am not so sure about. The well being of white males will continue to decline for a few years until they adjust to the inevitable, a demographically changed America with a government that reflects the diversity of its people.
In the end, it will work out. America will retain it's place in the world and American citizens will be proud of their great nation.
I did see any reference in the article which broke the statistics out by sexes. Maybe we see this first before we load up on political accusations.
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