Deaths of Despair
Basics
- Also called "Diseases of Despair"
- A term describing Statistical Anomalies in things such as Drug Abuse/Overdose, and Suicide as Indicators of Larger Socioeconomic Issues
- Mainly a USA phenomena, when other Developed Nations such as countries in europe go through similar economic depressions, the data differs in a significant way
- Granted CITATIONS NEEDED
Causes
- Loss of Identity
- Lack of Community
- Lack of "Future"
- Lack of unions, and apparently effective political ways to bring about change
- Quoteing the wikipedia bit:
"The factors that seem to exacerbate diseases of despair are not fully known, but they are generally recognized as including a worsening of economic inequality and feeling of hopelessness about personal financial success. This can take many forms and appear in different situations. For example, people feel inadequate and disadvantaged when products are marketed to them as being important, but these products repeatedly prove to be unaffordable for them. The overall loss of employment in affected geographic regions, and the worsening of pay and working conditions along with the decline of labor unions, is a widely hypothesized factor.
The changes in the labor market also affect social connections that might otherwise provide protection, as people at risk for this problem are less likely to get married, more likely to get divorced, and more likely to experience social isolation. Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton argue that the ultimate cause is the sense that life is meaningless, unsatisfying, or unfulfilling, rather than strictly the basic economic security that makes these higher order feelings more likely.
Diseases of despair differ from diseases of poverty because poverty itself is not the central factor. Groups of impoverished people with a sense that their lives or their children's lives will improve are not affected as much by diseases of despair. Instead, this affects people who have little reason to believe that the future will be better.
As a result, this problem is distributed unevenly, for example by affecting working-class people in the United States more than working-class people in Europe, even when the European economy was weaker. It also affects white people more than racially disadvantaged groups, possibly because working-class white people are more likely to believe that they are not doing better than their parents did, while non-white people in similar economic situations are more likely to believe that they are better off than their parents."
- Some examples are:
- Some people in former "coal towns" given that The Coal Industry is Dead and Not Coming Back , thus the identity as miners/a coal town is dead, and non-revivable
- Small Farmers being bankrupted via Agribusiness Takeover of Farming leading to small farms essentially being obsolete, with their days numbered
Solutions?
- Makign Community Centers, and clubs etc (granted this doesn't entirely work, if you are busy working multiple jobs a day to get by)
- Unionize your workspace
- Even just small community events/gatherings
- Granted this doesn't adress the entirety of the inequality
- This could potentially be helped via
- Unions
- Registering People to Vote
- Educating people on the political process, and what they can do, especially at a local level
- This could potentially be helped via