Economy depresses, suicides rise

The suicide rate is higher than it should be, and it’s money’s fault.

Money truly is the root of all evil, and yet, it makes the world go ’round.

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that suicides tend to rise during recessions and fall during economic expansion.

This proves what state our financial situations are in. It shows what kind of mood we are in, as well.

I know when I’m broke, I feel a tad more grumpy.

But researcher Eve Moscicki asserts, “It may be that when people who are more vulnerable to suicide to begin with lose a job or get a pay cut, it adds one more stressor.”

The trend of spiking suicide rates statistically shows rises during bad business cycles, with the largest number of suicides occurring during the Great Depression.
 
The latest data for suicide rates is from 2007, which shows suicide accounting for 34,598 deaths. Since 2001, in our post-Sept. 11 nation, suicide has generally increased — though it fluctuates — compared to the late 1990s and the year 2000, in which suicide was at its lowest.
  
Feijun Luo, the study’s lead author, stated, “Economic problems can impact how people feel about themselves and their futures as well as their relationships with family and friends. Economic downturns can also disrupt entire communities.”

This further proves how dependent our society is on money and wealth.
 
Everybody wants to be rich. But isn’t just getting by enough to be happy?
 
The fact that business cycles, jobs and how much we get paid have become the key ingredients to success and, therefore, happiness is an awful truth about our society.
 
Money has made us materialistic, greedy, bitter and depressed.
 
I blame the capitalistic ideals that place pressures on becoming part of the system: get a good job, get paid, become wealthy.

There is a class mentality that our nation has put emphasized  by way of celebrity, which makes the lower classes envious of equal lifestyles that are virtually unattainable. 

But the most vulnerable to suicide are those between the ages of 25 and 64 years old because that is the ripe workforce demographic.
 
Especially in the younger workforce, there tends to be a greater anxiety of starting up one’s life, gaining independence and beginning a family. And this all depends on having a good career and making money.

It is no wonder, then, why this age group is affected by recessions and economic downturns — their whole lives are upheld on a stable flow of money, which affects their lifestyles, their self-worth.

Too bad we can’t be happy without money. Imagine a world where no one cared about money, but rather, just about getting by with essentials like a roof over their heads.
 
I guess it would be a whole different world, one in which people didn’t kill themselves because of the socially constructed monetary system.

I guess we wouldn’t be in a recession either, because spending wouldn’t be so outrageous. But in reality, we want-want-want, and we have to work our asses off if we want to live simple, middle-class lives.

Money’s nice to have, but I’m not going to suffer trying to become wealthy or beat myself up over not having any dough when times are tough.       

— mfiandt@indiana.edu