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White men in U.S. are dealing poorly with economic despair
October 17, 2016 - 10:51pm
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/07/suicide-rates-rise-butte...
I have hearing about this (at least rumblings) for years.
I was wacthing morning joe its a talk show 6:00 Am on MSNBC. They brought in a guest talking about life spans and suicide specificaly of white men. Men those in bottom 20 income range have life span of 71 and those in top 20 income range are at 88 years. They compared what is happening to collaspe of soviet union where the life span into 60's for men.
Sadly, I don't think you'll get much productive discussion. This isn't really the place for it. I'll only leave one thought for you to think over. I won't post in this thread again.
First, I wonder if the lower economic status is the cause of the increased suicide rate, or if factors that lead to a lower economic status also lead to a higher suicide rate. For just one example, drug addiction clearly leads to both. I would suspect growing up in an abusive household also does. It could be that it is correlation, not causation. There are other factors that may be strongly correlated, but unfortunately I have learned that men's issues are a subject that has to be talked about and studied very delicately, so I don't expect to see a complex and rigorous analysis of the issues - though I am thankful to see people at least asking the questions. I am especially thankful that I do not have a drug problem and have worked very hard to successfully leave the bottom 20% bracket, which I was born to. Almost everyone who grew up in my neighbourhood is less fortunate. It is a very sad thing.
Thank you for candor, personally I think its a valid concern but I did wonder how it be received on rabble. I am a white guy, in 40's, and live in poverty. If wasn't for the fact that live in social housing i wolud be living in my car again. I have met quite a lot of people that experience poverty on a daily basis and really takes a toll on people. My story is a opposite to you as I started in a middle class and ended in poverty. I am immune to destrutive self doubt that many people in poverty fell at times when they come reflect that personal failure is the reason for thier economic condition. Since I am leftist i reconigze that strutucal issues make it impossible for signifacant part of the population leave poverty. When I say the following I am sure it in humour or not. But the government should mailing guides to marxs works. If people believev that system geared to make you live in poverty it allows people stop the self blaming themselves for thier condition.
I'm heartened that you were able to secure a place in social housing - I've been a housing activist for a long time, and it really makes a huge difference in people's lives to at least have that security.
I was thinking about the spread of widespread drug addiction from large urban areas, often but not always of racialised populations, to the real epidemic of synthetic - and lethal - opiates in smaller towns and even the countryside, though of course that is not the only factor.
It is a delicate topic, because while "white men" do not have that unassailable edge over women and racialised people that was the case 40 years ago, patriarchy remains, and is one of the reasons this real problem can be manipulated by reactionary blowhards like Trump or Farage.But it is an important topic, and there should be a way of discussing it from a progressive (and pro-feminist, pro-racial equality) framework. Unfortunately, I don't think political consciousness always protects people (in this case, either men or women) from feeling like utter crap if we don't have enough work or are excluded from the labour force. There is too much ideological pressure from capital, including publicity.
The bottom line is our CITIES are rotting. Sure,there are a lot more condos and gentrification has given neighbourhoods better restaurants,buit wages remain stagnate and unemployment is very high.
I see it everyday. People sleeeping on the metro floors and benches.There is no excuse for people living Third World existances in a so-called First World country.
Is there a solution? Of course there is. It's quite easy. But don't wait for it.
I too live in a social housing project. It took 10 YEARS for me to get a social housing unit. What the fuck is that? Especially with many social housing units sitting empty.
I think there is a different reality to urban realities and rural realities. And our cities,especially Montréal,Toronto and Vancouver, need a serious investment from both the federal and provincial governments to tackle the social decay and extreme poverty that is destroying lives. A sick society,and we have been one for 30 something years,inevitably dies.
So a gauranteed minimum income,investing in social and just plain affordable housing,a $15/hr minimum,investing in mental health care....I'm probably omitting some things but I hope everyone gets the jist of what I said.
Moreover, some of those projects would also create jobs - the right has done much to create prejudice against "makework" projects, but not all of those have been pointless. Community groups were able to develop under such schemes.
Alan, yes, the old Wobbly line "starving among too much" has returned with a vengeance, and the people who work at those shiny new restaurants (many go belly-up, by the way) can't afford to eat there. Trudeau represents a riding with a very high poverty rate, and my tenants' association is located in it (I live a few short blocks south of it, in Boulerice's riding). But there is a lot of poverty and hopelessless now in smaller towns as well, in particular former one-industry towns where the plant has delocalized.
As for investments, two other biggies are public transport and continuing education at all levels. And as you say, accessible healthcare, for both mental and physical aspects of health. So many private gyms. So few community facilities.
By the way, I'm not trying to deflect from the problems specific to men and in particular "White" or "Old-Stock" men. But probably men will do a better job of exploring them.
I am more than happy suggest that we can refocus this thread to poverty issues leave gender and race behind.
I am from small to medium town, fta and nafta devastated this city. The city was geared to the automotive industry and this city took many hits over 30 years. The city had a population of 43,000 but we lost a factory thats at its peak employed 3,000 that was in the 2000's. Today the biggest private provider of work is under threat due series of corporate mergers, hits keep coming the to economy.
I have personal economic theory that i am confident to share at this point. This is about the importance of government to small and medium communities. These communities exist becasue of governement. Let give an example we have a college(provinical government), hospital(p+n), assosrted government functions, and municipal government, and schools. This heart of the economy in my city, and if government pulled back, there would no city to speak of. The irony is we have 2 mp/mpp conversatives to represent this area. I willing to bet that this economic situation is repeated all over, government makes these cities/town viable. I do not if unspoken directive of government or just happenstance, i am willing to leans to its coordinated policy.
Maybe when homelessness and extreme poverty becomes a problem in rural towns (AFAIK,for example,In the suburbs of Montréal,people are still pretty sheltered and only experience urban problems when they come into the city) start rotting like our cities socially and economically,maybe people will wake the frig up.
I think the narrative of the poor being lazy,even parasites,is working very well. Is it any wonder that urban communities are almost always more liberal than it's regions?
In the city,you really feel the effects of gentrification,trade deals and austerity much more than you do in say a town like Ste-Julie (a random example) or Lac St-Jean.
There is a real war being waged on those living in poverty. I live in poverty (I'm on disability). Believe me when I say that persons such as myself live with an axe pendulum over our necks everyday. All it takes is a right wing government and gawd knows what will happen to myself and everyone in a similar situation as mine.
A long time ago, I spent several months in Lac St-Jean (ah, young love!) St-Julie is a bedroom community at least to some extent, but there is a lot of poverty in Lac St-Jean, a resource-industry (and agricultural) region. Perhaps the poverty is less obvious because there is less conspicuous consomption? (Though in regions like that, people with money buy very expensive SUVs, trucks and other vehicles). http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/saguenay-lac/2015/07/13/001-villes-pl... And with depopulation, it is easier to find some kind of dwelling.
The poverty is more obvious in the Mauricie region, in Trois-Rivères and Shawinigan. There are some very rundown and sad-looking urban neighbourhoods, like in Mtl 30 years ago.
I over looked Trois-Riviéres and Shawinigan. Industrial towns. I'm sure they are hurting. They feel it but they don't see it as expicitly as you do in the big cities.
It boggles my mind that so many people in this country can't connect the dots that it's been right wing economics,not the poor or the immigrants or unions or anything resembling leftist economics. In fact,they can't see the clear picture that the 'good ol days' of the 50's,60's and 70's that we were governed by an economic system that was Social-Democratic policies. When governments passed Medicare and you were covered for almost everything,a strong social safety net,infrastructure spending,no free trade deals,not to mention that the 'golden years' was the Industrial Boon of the Post-War West.
They can't realize that you can't spell Conservative without beginning your sentence with CON. They've been conned and have bought the narrative that spending is bad and cutting everything people worked for to make those days so nostalgic is good.
As George Carlin brilliantly observed, "They don't want a population of people capable of critical thinking,they don't want well-informed,well educated people capable of critical thinking.They're not intersted in that,it doesn't help them."
"They don't want people smart enough to sit at the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago,they don't want that.You know what they want? Obedient workers.People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay,the longer hours,the reduced benefits,the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go collect it"
People are DUMB.
RIP George.
Looking at the Globe & Mail about Ken Wiwa's death, I came across this quote from Martha Stewart:
“I love the whole idea of a tiny house. I think all of us probably spend too much time indoors, in too big, spacious places,” says Martha Stewart.
Nothing like awareness of those around you. Yes, she does own houses in rural Maine and in a place called the "East Hamptons" which is real-estate agent speak for a part of Long Island, but also an apartment in NYC. As we know, all New Yorkers live in "too big, spacious places".
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/decor/lessons-from-m...
I love the idea of compact houses and flats as well, but it actually takes a fair amount of $$$$ to fit them out efficiently with built-ins, Murphy beds and such.
Looks like someone is listening.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/double-affordable-housing-spending-to-wip...