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Suicide is on the rise for young Americans, with no clear answers (www.bbc.com)

submitted 7 months ago by TheBat@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] foggy@lemmy.world 104 points 7 months ago

... No clear answers?

I'm 35. I make enough to pay bills but a home is still out of reach for me and my gf, together we pull about 175k

When I was 21, expensive drafts were $5/16oz. Cheap ones were $1. Rent was ~$750/mo, utils and stuff brought you close to $1000. I worked 40 hrs a week in a kitchen making $15/hr. I got free food the burritos there were $9.99, fair at the time.

Today, someone makes the same wage, gets 12 hrs a week, the food isn't free when you work there a burrito is $17.99, and the apt I was in is $1750/mo

I wanted to die plenty in my 20s. I can only imagine the bleak hellhole they see and exist in.

...the clear answer is more opportunity, more money, more education, less burdens.

What the fuck happened? Like it was bad for me and my friends. Our parents pitied us. But now a draft beer is line $11 for 10 oz. A cheap McDonald's order is $15.

[-] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

It's clickbait. There was an article like this a while ago about teens and suicide and they were like, "we have no idea why this is happening!", even though for years people were saying social media was harming teens.

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 months ago

Social media is not the cause. There are so many problems that young people are helpless to do anything about. Congress's desire to restrict and censor internet access for minors has to be more impactful than social media itself.

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[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

This comment is clickbait if you think social media is only bad for teens

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[-] EatATaco@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

even though for years people were saying social media was harming teens.

And that article, had you bother to read it, pointed out that there was plenty of conflicting evidence as to whether social media was the cause, and warned that by mindlessly blaming social media because it is easy might lead us to overlook the real culprit.

But good on you for demonstrating it's point.

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 77 points 7 months ago

"no clear answers" 🤦

[-] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 44 points 7 months ago

That's how you know that no one important is invested in finding a solution.

[-] i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 6 months ago

We tried nothing and we're all out of ideas.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 54 points 7 months ago

It can't be the soul crushing capitalism, commoditization of everything (love included), and isolation guys, right? It's definitely not our corporate profits.

[-] Azal@pawb.social 33 points 7 months ago

Can't be added on with multiple "Once in a generation" natural disasters happening on a yearly basis with temp records breaking yearly, nations with the power to demolish the world rattling sabers over a fight that's been going before we were born, zero chance of moving upwards in the crushing capitalism, all the while the leadership is fighting over identity politics instead of acknowledging any of the problems. Surely none of those are add on factors.

[-] Beryl@lemmy.world 51 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think it mostly comes down to increasingly unfair distribution of wealth, which leaves people with no hope to better their standards of living.

Our civilization creates things with constantly increasing productivity, which should lead to better pay and less time spent working, and more time to live a fulfilling life. Instead, all this added wealth is funneled towards a few mindbogglingly rich individuals.

This happens with the help of a sizable fraction of the population, which has become convinced that their mediocre situation is in fact caused by even poorer and more miserable people, rather than the assholes siphoning everything and everyone from the top of their already obscene piles of riches. And there's no sign of this changing anytime soon. No wonder people are desperate.

[-] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 47 points 7 months ago

Our country sucks, what other answer do you need? The boomers fucked it up for the rest of us and now there's no joy, just constant struggle.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 30 points 7 months ago

*world

[-] ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

I can't argue with that.

[-] dhcmrlchtdj__@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago

Our society benefits those who manipulate and cheat, and punishes those who choose not to. Pretty simple

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[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 34 points 7 months ago

[-] stevedidwhat_infosec@infosec.pub 11 points 7 months ago

I’m not even gonna post the paragraph I was gonna post lmao well done

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

[-] eronth@lemmy.world 26 points 6 months ago

The only reason there's no clear answer is because it's several answers all together.

[-] eardon@lemmy.ca 25 points 7 months ago

It's the growing disparity in wealth.

I recommend taking matters into your own hands before taking your own lives.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 31 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It’s a lot of things. Climate hopelessness, a political system that seems hellbent on maintaining this negative feedback loop, yes, the economic situation, but also a soulless life under late stage capitalism where it’s proven over and over again you matter less than a line going up, we are commodified at every turn, our personality traits are nothing more than economic indicators or data points to sell us more shit…we live in a hostile world. And it’s hostile by humanity’s own making. And it’s soulless by our own making. Maybe humans used to die at 25 by a mountain lion attack more frequently, but some kind of purpose was found in that survival life. Depression and anxiety and a feeling of pointlessness are capitalism-made.

This problem seems so framed by experts as “why do these kids want to die?” When the question they should be asking is “what is society giving them to live for?”

[-] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 17 points 7 months ago

I'm on a train trip across the U.S. today, so I will add what I see out the window: A landscape systematically strip-mined of beauty, meaning, and sense of place in service of extracting maximum profit from the people who have to exist in it.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 12 points 7 months ago

Yup. That too.

We are detached from anything close to a life tied to meaning. All meaning was bought and sold. Our ancestors were turned into bricks to build the foundation of capitalism, and we aren’t even that important anymore. We’re the fuel that the massive engine of capitalism runs on. The machine is built. Now it’s running over capacity and more and more of us are needed to stoke the fires that keep the over-indulged engine running at max capacity to spit out some goddamn pitiful little line that means further excessive wealth for those who were born from the people who turned our ancestors into goddamn bricks.

And they ask, “why are kids so darn melancholy?!”

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Please point to the bootstraps I may pull to fix:

Income disparity

Inflation

Price Fixing

Expensive Medical Care

Rising rents

Increasing Fuel Costs

College Debt

Climate Crisis

Subsidized Oil,Gas,Corn,Beef,Eggs

Water Rights Crises

Because if they exist I will pull them.

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 7 points 7 months ago

Mutual aid. It has a real shot at working because it crucially isn't about pulling yourself up, but people getting together to lift one another up.

And longer term, a lot of mutual aid organisations have explicitly revolutionary goals.

[-] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

Agreed. A lot of these problems are generational and stem from a twisted view of individualism. The "I got mine" mentality.

My reply was more about the ambiguity of "take matters into your own hands." I cannot solve this with my own hands. I need help. Mutual aid networks provide that.

[-] Mrderisant@midwest.social 4 points 7 months ago

Do you have any particular examples you like?

[-] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Food not bombs is a decent name, although it's decentralised so every org will be different. If you search "food not bombs" + your city or state you're likely to find something. All these orgs are local and decentralised because it's a primarily anarchist method, but once you get in contact with one group they can point you towards others.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 22 points 6 months ago

capitalism is the answer.

[-] EvilEyedPanda@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

We're being robbed of stability, autonomy, and sleep. Economical demands are above our physical capability. Also the legal system is predatory. What's to live for?

Music is cool for the limited time I have where my ears belong to me. Maybe when I can afford furniture I'll be able to relax between shifts.

I'm saying all this even when I practically hit the jackpot with rent cost and work for a pretty decent company. I'll be ok but the rest of my life before this has just been a demonstration that life outside my control isn't worth anything.

[-] rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 months ago

Maybe because the world has become fucking shit? I could list dozens of answers and all of them combined are a clear answer.

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this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024

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