It looks like cranky middle aged white dudes are keeling over at an increasing rate. It looks like Obama’s master plan is working. He’s pissed off so many middle aged white people, they are drinking themselves to death and committing suicide at an increasing rate. Black and Hispanic death rates continue to decline.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the ongoing recession we have been experiencing since 2000 has affected middle aged white people more than any other demographic. Their participation in the labor force is now at an all-time low. For many of these people, their jobs were what provided their self-esteem and purpose in life, along with the income. As their standard of living has methodically declined, they have turned to drugs and alcohol to drown their sorrows, and some have decided it isn’t worth living in this society anymore.
Anger, depression and losing your purpose in life are a bad combo. I’m sure Obama will announce a program to help middle aged white people in the coming days. Right?
#WhiteMiddleAgedMatters
The Death Rate Is Rising for Middle-Aged Whites
Addiction and mental-health issues largely drive a reversal of decades of longevity gains
By BETSY MCKAY
White, middle-aged Americans are dying at a rising rate, a new study shows, a startling reversal that suggests addiction and mental-health issues are setting back decades of gains in longevity.
Suicide, alcohol abuse, drug overdoses and chronic liver diseases largely drove the rise, which occurred between 1999 and 2013, according to the report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Those causes of death offset declines in other major drivers of mortality in midlife, such as lung cancer, the study said.
The study “is going to change the game” for setting research priorities in public health, predicted Michael Eriksen, dean of Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, who wasn’t involved in the work. “Substance abuse and alcoholism are taking their toll in a way people haven’t acknowledged,” he said.
No other rich country has seen a similar reversal, and the trend is at odds with falling death rates for black and Hispanic Americans in that age group over the same period, said the authors, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who are economics professors at Princeton University. Mr. Deaton won the Nobel Prize in economics this year.
The rise occurred primarily among men and women between 45 and 54 with no more than a high-school education. But deaths from those causes also rose for better-educated middle-aged whites as well as whites in other age groups, according to the study. Death rates are defined in the study as the number of deaths per 100,000 people for each age cohort.
Ms. Case and Mr. Deaton found that mortality rose half a percent annually for whites aged 45 to 54 between 1999 and 2013, after declining 2% a year on average between 1978 and 1998. Had mortality continued to decline at that rate, 488,500 deaths would have been avoided between 1999 and 2013, they said.
The study is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individual death records and other sources.
Mortality for Hispanic Americans continued to fall an average of 1.8% a year during that period, while deaths for blacks slid an average of 2.6% a year—though blacks of this age group still have a higher mortality rate than whites.
A narrowing gap in life expectancy between blacks and whites is due largely to the rising death rate among whites, Ms. Case and Mr. Deaton said.
James Smith, an expert in labor markets and demographic research with Rand Corp., called the study a “landmark paper.” He added, “I did not know things were getting this bad this fast.”
The authors warned that by the time white people in this age group are eligible for Medicare they could be in worse health than the current elderly population. That means they could require more expensive care.
Why middle-aged whites have been more affected than other groups isn’t entirely clear and needs more study, the authors and other experts said.
Ms. Case and Mr. Deaton found in health-survey data from the CDC that middle-aged whites have increasingly reported mental-health problems and difficulties dealing with daily life. One in three reported chronic pain between 2011 and 2013.
Those increases in mental-health and musculoskeletal problems may “explain some of the recent otherwise puzzling decrease in labor-force participation in the United States, particularly among women,” the authors said. Participation in the labor force has fallen since 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Economic stress may play a role in substance abuse by middle-aged white people, according to the study.
Many people are reaching midlife short of a cornerstone of the American dream: making more money than their parents did. Average hourly wages in real terms were $19.18 in 1964 and $20.67 in 2014, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by the Pew Research Center. Median real household incomes for whites with a high-school education have fallen since the late 1990s, Ms. Case said.
Health and well-being should be measured along with income in debates about inequality, Mr. Deaton said. “You can’t just look at their incomes,” he said.
The findings illustrate the ways in which some people are responding to physical and mental pain, adversity and changing life situations, the researchers said. “What we see here is a group that’s in quite a lot of distress,” said Ms. Case, an expert in development and health economics.
The rising death rate is linked in part to the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Whites have one of the higher rates of nonmedical use of prescription painkillers among ethnic groups, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The majority of those who died from overdosing on prescription painkillers between 1999 and 2013 were white, according to the CDC. People between 45 and 54 had the highest rate of such deaths of all age groups, at 10.6 per 100,000.
Suicide in 2013 was highest among whites and people ages 45 to 64, according to breakdowns by ethnicity and age. The U.S. suicide rate overall rose from 10.9 per 100,000 in 2005 to 12.6 per 100,000 in 2013, according to CDC data.
I saw this admin. Yes, it doesn’t surprise me, having had many family members do themselves in. My own father killed himself in the prime of his life for reasons I will not talk about and for reasons unknown of course. Suicide is a mystery of mankind. Some on this website might think suicide by various means indicates personal weakness of sorts. Surely that is true on some level. But I think this is a little simplistic. For reasons partially unclear, whites, in particular white men, kill themselves more than other demographic category. Are they more sensitive than other races? Probably, but I don’t know how to quantify that.
It certainly does not help that whites have become strangers in their own countries. Nor the fact that there is no work for them to do. Work makes the man. It doesn’t matter whether it is shoveling shit or punching the keyboard, or running a company. A white man needs to work in order to feel worthy of living, not so much the kneegrow. Inasmuch as whites have been disenfranchised, spit on, denigrated, humiliated, and feminized, over say, the last fifty years, I do not view such findings surprising at all. I expect them to worsen.
Suicides among German men during Weimar period also spiked, if I recall. I expect history to repeat here, or at least rhyme. It looks like it already has.
Incidentally, I do not want any pity party to emerge here on my behalf, on account of my dad’s death. I have long made peace with it. Furthermore, I have no emotional intelligence, or whatever it’s called. I feel only rage and lust, like most men.
However, the bastards who have turned this country into a warmongering, grossly materialistic, jobless, violent, dangerous, ugly, and soulless hellhole should pay the ultimate price, that of the noose. You have it coming.
I’ll go out on a limb and say betsy is just another murdoch presstitute ordered to spread the word that it’s over for whitey. Hey betsy, nylon, or hemp?
White males are the only remaining object of “legitimate” discrimination. Add to that the death of Christian morality, yielding nihilism, and you have an answer as to why.
Crap culture and an unjust society, some country. I am waiting impatiently for the collapse.
If any of you boomers out there are looking for any help from the diversity Nazis at US corporations (ageism is discrimination, right?) you’ll be seriously disappointed. The large multinational corporation that I work for (by the skin of my teeth) announced their compulsory yearly diversity training today. The topic is generational diversity. The gist of the approximately 30 minute online “training” is that the boomers are wrong in their characterization of gen-xers and millenials as lazy. The real problem is that the boomers aren’t retiring like they should so the poor gen-xers and millenials haven’t been given the opportunities that they need to move up. So we boomers should be more understanding and just quit so that the gen-xers can take our jobs.
If I remember correctly, the working age male suicide rate also spiked in Russia during their collapse, along with huge increases in alcohol usage. Dimitry Orlov wrote of it.
Ya…… doesn’t surprise me. Lost 2 middle age whities last week alone in our town. Definitely on the upswing.
Check your privilege. Checkmate.
I have to wonder how much this has to do with the 13ers of S&H fame.
13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
My God – the title pretty much says it all – and as part of that cohort I can appreciate the attitude.
In the 4th Turning – starting on page 194 – it gives some background. In S&H’s “Generations” it is described on page 98.
To me this speaks of a group that has pretty much said “fuck it” – and not for very surprising reasons.
My two cents.
Well as long as Stucky doesn’t die I’ll be alright. Kinda look forward to fucking with him everyday. Gives me a reason to live.
Maybe it’s white guys sick of pulling the wagon that everybody else is riding in. So they say “fuck it”. But if they do it when they’re 64, that helps the system. They drain you for taxes your whole life and then you kick it right when you’re about to start taking out? Makes no sense. A better revenge would be to stop working, stop paying taxes, get IN the wagon and mooch your share. Don’t let the fuckers get you down.
bb, are you another person looking to provoke a smile so you have a reason not to blow your brains out that day? No, wait, you live to fuck with Stuck. At least his life has meaning, keeping you alive.
Funny how no matter what bullshit news comes down the pike, it is always somehow the fault of illegals and exacerbated by blacks or the other way around.
I say let’s blame women, they are the ones having babies and cluttering up the welfare rolls. Then they want a free education for their bastard kids, with school lunches and free busing. It’s time to collect on these state sponsored babies, put them to work to pay off their upbringing.
If we were to limit the number of women who could legally have kids, just enough to replace the ideal population of say, 150 million able-bodied workers. Then they could take care of us old folks properly so we don’t have to die at all. As Dylan once sang:
“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
The parallels to the collapse of the soviet union are interesting. It is clear that this is happening because our empire is collapsing as well. The irony is that we should be thankful and happy that this is happening. The reason it is depressing is because most people around us dont see what is happening, not really. So we have to bear an outsized psychological burden. Ignorance really is bliss I suppose.
Do you recall the doctor at a fertility clinic who impregnated some 40 women with his own genetic code? I’ve been considering the declining birthrate among heterosexual women.
Here’s my totally impractical solution: devise a delivery L shaped tube to be attached to the bottom of the toilet seats in nightclubs. When a young damsel sits, the tube pops up, shoots, Score!
She was going to go home with some loser who was only going to use a condom, why not beat him to the punch?
El Coyote , I guess you could say this site and the people on it (including yourself ) do give me something to look forward to daily out here on the road.I’m not lonely but I do get bored with sitting in between loads. I play with little bb and play on the internet. Then drive. That’s how it goes most days.
That likker will gitcha. That’s why I quit drinking every night when I go to bed. And I don’t drink again until I’m done with work the next day and have been back home for at least 15 minutes. I’ve adhered to that disciplined regimen since the reign of the Dark Lord began in ’09.
I know, it’s like the empty radio bands at night when sad little country music stations fill in long after the biggies have faded out.
I finished cutting the backerboard now it’s time to read up on some foolish shit BW may or may not have posted.
I swear, I have lost all patience with BW and now I just read out of force of habit the garbage that BW claims is southern talk but it’s not. Mostly it’s tard lingo passing as southern folksiness.
I doubt BW could fry a butterstick or make a decent lasagna out of some flour tortillas and some canned products. I’ll even spot you the bacon for flavor, BW.
Mahtomedi, I admire your discipline. There are some fine folk here after hours.
When this piece ran on ZH I asked myself if it would turn up here and I’m glad to see it has.
“The rise occurred primarily among men and women between 45 and 54 with no more than a high-school education.”
To me, that’s the main take-away point. And, extrapolating a bit, if so many are dying from substance abuse, how many more are there who are for all practical purposes rendered inoperable by it. I’d wager plenty. I’d guess that as a general rule this group falls in the middle or to the left on the Bell curve and pretty much by default has limited possibilities and limited imagination. Those among them who are devotees of the “god of little things” are the fortunate ones; those with frustrated visions of grandeur are the unfortunate, those who see only emptiness and frustration instead of looking toward the little things that can fill a life and the satisfaction that can be derived from doing so instead prefer to fall into a substance-induced stupor in which dreams take the place of reality.
Lack of meaningful work, failure to form lasting relationships, magical thinking… It all adds up and eventually the bottom line appears: zero.
This article is very sad, very scary as well. It’s what happens in an atomized society in which the ties that bind to family, community, perhaps religion, the possibility of obtaining meaningful work, a sense of self-worth, all this is lost. What will it take to bring it back?
Experts noted a sudden surge in deaths among white middle aged men starting in February 2009 with the launch of a very gloomy website called The Burning Platform.
Coincidence? I think not.
“Embrace The Doom” is now -” Death Where Is Thy Sting”
Admin- This is simply the result of embracing the doom AND a black Marxist leader. Fear and stress are a deadly combo.
Speaking of irate white men, do not delay in getting me my fucking McDonalds!
&imgrefurl=http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1798106_Got_invited_to_be_on_stage_at_TX_Presidential_forum__Six_R_candidates__Live_streaming.html&h=413&w=479&tbnid=cVG8q6pd-secYM:&docid=CgPmuKP0yliEFM&hl=en&ei=Kr86Vr25D4SF-gHYh4CwAw&tbm=isch&client=safari&ved=0CE4QMygVMBVqFQoTCL32ybue-MgCFYSCPgod2AMANg
Regarding the “no more than high school education” quote.
I move through a pretty wide circle, economically speaking. The ones that are in the best physical condition and are the most productive are far and away those with “no more than a high school education”- farmers, tradesmen, small business owners. They also seem sharper, smile more often and are ready to engage in conversation about a wide variety of topics. They are often parents and in stable marriages. The ones with college degrees, however- teachers, administrators, medical, government workers, corporate employees- are most often overweight and sad or certainly unhappy looking, least interesting to strike up conversations with- complaints about weather/health/people/gossipy crap and extremely one dimensional socially/politically and are most often single/failed marriage/not hetero/one or no children. The very wealthy are much closer in physical appearance (physically fit) to the “no more than high school education” crowd and have, quite often, “no more than (sic) a high school education”. They too are most often married, have multiple children, are intellectually curious and active, although leisure seems to be a big part of their lives as opposed to work.
Of course these are my observations in a predominantly White, rural region over a period of ten years, but I pay close attention to these details as opposed to just kind of noticing in an offhand way. I also do not come into contact with urban types or the very low income end of the spectrum so I may be far off with those “no more than a high school education” types.
@flash, those that place their faith in women. Regardless of education or childlessness, men who put women on a pedestal and make it their life’s purpose to satisfy their Cinderella dreams will find it hard to cope when they can no longer provide material goodies. Then they come up with the stupid idea that murder/suicide makes economic sense, a protest, if you will.
Hollywood has confused men’s sense of purpose and if they don’t read TBP they will never pull their head out of their ass in time to realize that. This place is a senior center without the mind-numbing bingo games. There is adult conversation and the opportunity to share and compare. To paraphrase P.Diddy, read TBP or die.
“I don’t find myself baffled. For the last few decades, cultural leaders have been waging a war on the weak. Their goal is to dismantle traditional norms and rules for family life. They push to dismantle gender roles and other foundational categories that ordinary people use to orient themselves and make sense out of their lives. They advocate for drug legalization and doctor-assisted suicide as well. The upshot: reliable guides toward a normal life are removed, and potentially destructive behaviors that rich people either avoid or discretely manage are normalized. The most vulnerable pay the cost.”
http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/11/deadly-progressivism
Funny, EC , I was thinking on this same subject in the AM .CBS decries easy access to gun porn for kids while OK with the deviance and debauchery dished up to kids by network television 24/7 …WTF?
CBES!
CBS Atlanta Targets Stores for ‘Gun Porn’ Magazines in View of Children
On November 3, CBS 46 in Atlanta continued their series titled, “The Gun Fight,” by lamenting that Walmart, Kroger, and Publix stores display “gun porn” on shelves that are easily accessible to children.
They describe “gun porn” as magazines with “photos of guns” which are “[displayed]… in the same carefully posed and lighted manner as the models in traditional pornography.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/04/cbs-atlanta-targets-stores-gun-porn-magazines-view-children/
El Coyote
I don’t know nuthin about yer but from yer broken fuckin spanglish I’m guessin yer one uh them lazy ass beaners sleepin all day and not doin uh gawd dammed thing all night except lickin sweat off yer pet goats anus. When Trump gits elected I’m gonna stand at the border and shoot mah middle finger at ever cattle truck hauling the turd people back where the come from, you know, that stinky ass country under Texas, I fergit what it’s called. Sorry, I got ter go now cuz mah son just rubbed some diarrea all in mah hair.
Hey, my English teach was named Myrtle.
Adopting a Southern sounding name don’t make your Yankee ass Southern. No Ma’am. Negative. And if your family has constant diarrhea, I know your no Paula Deen Southern Belle.
Spain is south of Texas, why do you think they call us Spanish? And south of Spain is Latin, that’s where Latinos come from. Now you know. That’s your cultural lesson for today.