Suicides have long been most common among white people — particularly older white males. But most striking in the new report is the growth in whites ages 45 to 64.
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There were nearly 43,000 U.S. suicides in 2014. More than 14,000 of them were middle-aged whites — twice the combined total for all blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaska Natives.
A note about American Indians and Alaska Natives in particular: the suicide rate for these people is higher than the national average for any other demographic.
Native youth suffer disproportionately from suicide. From 2009-2012, the age-adjusted suicide rate for American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages 10-24 was 14.66/100,000, which is significantly higher than the overall suicide rate for that U.S. age group of 8.25/100,000.1 Male Alaska Native youth (10-24) in particular suffer from the highest rate of suicide of all demographic groups, 109/100,000 (2009-2012).2
Bolding is mine.
The CDC report did not speculate on why but the ECONOMY is known to be at the root of much of it.
Money was a factor, too, they say. The economy was in recession from the end of 2007 until mid-2009. Even well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about weak hiring, a depressed housing market and other problems.
Yeah, well the “jobless recovery” is a serious issue that belies this idea that the economy is somehow “improving.” It has improved if you were already rich, but if you lost your best job, depleted savings like millions have experienced and then hit your 50’s still trying to get a proper job — and not some “contract” scam that is all that I can find — then tension and anxiety and despair can be your constant shadows. I know this firsthand, being 55 and still trying to get a “real” job.
The headline unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent last month from 7 percent in November. That is below the peak of 10 percent in 2009, but it took five years for the rate to decline under 7 percent.
Additionally, the U-6 unemployment rate, which includes everyone in the headline rate — plus people who are employed part-time but prefer a full-time position, or want work but have stopped looking — remains stubbornly high at 13.1 percent.
Yeah, it's the economy, stupid:
A study released late last year by two Princeton academics, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who won the 2014 Nobel prize for economics, revealed that the death rate for white Americans aged 45 to 54 has risen sharply since 1999 after declining for decades. The increase, by 20% over the 14 years to 2013, represents about half a million lives cut short.
The uptick in the mortality rate is unique to that age and racial group. Death rates for African Americans of a similar age remain notably higher but continue to fall.
Neither was the increase seen in other developed countries. In the UK, the mortality rate for middle-aged people dropped by one third over the same period
Again, the bolding is mine. In 1999 these suicides were about 25% of the total number of suicides in America. Now they are a full third. (I went to do a search for some data on this period — I have a recollection of stories talking about increased suicide rates during the Cheney Bush Administration. What I found were numerous links to increase military suicides, which remain very high to this day.)
I am 55. I went to college, studied, got jobs, worked hard, went to graduate school, kept working, got a professional license and I cannot find a job due to issues with the economy in general and with the ravages of managed care on the field of mental health. I don’t sleep well, I’m forever awake at 4am wondering how I am going to get another decent job.
I am certain that the internet-based hiring that is done now makes it very easy for employers to utterly bypass somebody my age, despite the fact I have been doing this since other applicants were playing with toys. in their front yards. Possibly even in diapers. It is extra frustrating because I am in significantly better health than many people 20 and 25 years younger than me. My license means MONEY to an employer, so all I can imagine is that age is an issue for me and millions of others in this age bracket who are beating their heads against the wall seeking proper work.
There are, of course, a number of other issues intertwined but all things being reasonably equal, the utter devastation of the economy has ravaged millions and millions of people. We hear about the vanishing middle class:
Already the richest country in the world, the United States reached its highest cumulative wealth ever in 2013. It ranked fourth in the world in wealth per person, with $348,000 for every American adult.
But the average American wouldn’t know it. Thanks to economic policies that favor the super-rich and fuel inequality, the typical US adult’s total wealth is $31,688 — not even close to $348,000. And things aren’t poised to change: The median household brought in $51,939 in 2013, a real dollar increase of just $180 from 2012. This recent income stagnation came in the wake of a steep drop from 2007-2011 (mouse over the graph to see data):
Graph at link, not reproduced here. More:
Everyday Americans are well aware they’re being squeezed out of economic security. The percentage of Americans self-identifying as “middle class” has dropped significantly in recent years, while the percentage considering themselves “lower class” or “lower middle class” has risen:
So I say it is crystal clear that the assault on American’s wages, the assault on their home values and their savings has pushed millions of people my age and older into near-poverty, working poverty and utter depression.
Dreams have been demolished.
Seeming never to return.
Thus are these folks despairing.
We want to — and CAN — fix this but the status quo calls us moochers, compounding the problem.
At some point it is fair to suggest the status quo has blood on its hands.