Mortality Rates For White People In The U.s. Going Up, While Down In Other Western Countries

Mortality Rates for White People in the U.S. Going Up, White Rates Are Going Down in Other Western Countries

I don't know that I agree with the author's tie-in relating the results of this study with American politics, but he makes some good points.

I am not surprised that middle aged white people in this country are killing themselves at higher rates that those of other races, or than those in other countries.

For one thing, our generation was the first that was unable to leave their children with a life that was better than their own. There are exceptions of course, but things look pretty bleak and, while there are things put in place to lift those of other races, these are largely not available to white people.

Those of us in our sixties or older have seen the beginning of it but, for the most part, the generations before us were likely to be living in their own home by the time they reached middle age, but that's not the case today.

A lot of other things enter into it as well. Today, even if you own your own home, it's a lot easier to lose it than in the past, as property taxes are often higher than mortgage payments were in the past, and cities are quick to seize properties today.

I read of a man in New Hampshire, I think it was, who had gone in for surgery at the VA. There were some complications and he was hospitalized for four months. He returned to find that the city that he lived in had condemned his house and demolished it. Neighbors were complaining that it wasn't well maintained and the lawn hadn't been mowed.

More so than in previous generations, people in their forties or fifties have been unable to leave their children with a better future, and they are looking at retirement in the near future, realizing that they don't have a retirement plan, and there are constant election-driven fears about Social Security being taken away.

For the most part, safety nets are not available for white people who are not privileged, largely because the talking points assume that every white person is privileged.

Rather than providing healthcare, as people were led to believe, ObamaCare simply requires that people purchase health insurance policies whether they can afford them or not, or face ever increasing fines.

Yes, you can accurately point out that the standard of living for the average person in that age group is much higher than it was a hundred years ago but, as far as a person's state of mind is concerned, that is irrelevant because they aren't comparing their standard of living with that of a hundred years ago. Rather, they are looking at the fact that their parents did better than their grandparents, yet they are facing a reduction in their standard of living and looking at the likelihood of even less for their children.

I have never lived in any other country so I can't speak to those comparisons, but I think that a person's frame of mind has to do more with hope than actuality, and there is less hope today than there has been in previous generations.

 

The article that I referenced was about white men and women.