[Revi]

This recent study shows that the death rate among white Americans 45-54 is way higher than the rest of the developed world. White non college educated death rates are way higher than among African Americans and Hispanics.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34714842

[ROCKMAN]

IOW the good life kills. Not many poor folks die by driving their $120k Beemer into a tree or going down in flames in their Lear or Gulfstream. It's amazing Gore is still alive. LOL

[Keith_McClary]

This also happened in Russia a few years ago.

[yeahbut]

IOW the good life kills. Not many poor folks die by driving their $120k Beemer into a tree or going down in flames in their Lear or Gulfstream. It's amazing Gore is still alive. LOL

Shocking news Rock: there are poor white people too, and it's this demographic, particularly in the South, that is contributing to this trend (unique to the US in the developed world). Suicide, alcohol and drug addiction(particularly hillbilly heroin and actual heroin), poverty, wealth disparity, unemployment, financial stress and associated declining mental and physical health are all suggested as contributing factors. Keith's reference to a similar trend in Russia in the nineties is interesting, poverty and alcoholism were big factors in their increased death rate IIRC.

[PrestonSturges]

This has been a thing for 15 years. What the last 2 elections show is that life expectancies are plunging in the areas that voted for Romney AND McCain, that is to say the areas that vote Republican by 20+ point margins. There are probably some Republican strongholds with lifespans shorter than Mexico and even many less developed countries. And that doesn't even count the higher rates of infant mortality.

Regulars here have seen the maps before and are invited to look up the information for their own damn selves.

[ROCKMAN]

pstarr - Could be: I've heard rumors that most old people eventually die.

[Plantagenet]

This has been a thing for 15 years......

Yup.

Up through 1998 white death rates were decreasing. The increase in the death rate for middle-aged white started in 1999 so the increase in the death rate for middle age white has taken place over the last 16 years.

Between 1978 to 1998, the mortality rate for U.S. whites aged 45 to 54 fell by 2 percent per year on average, which matched the average rate of decline in the six countries shown, and the average over all other industrialized countries. After 1998, other rich countries’ mortality rates continued to decline by 2 percent a year. In contrast, U.S. white non-Hispanic mortality rose by half a percent a year. No other rich country saw a similar turnaround.

Also, the increase in the white death rate has nothing to do with privileged white yuppies crashing their Beemers into taco trucks. The increase in the white death rate is occurring among poor to working class whites---not college educated affluent whites.

The least-educated are worst off: All-cause mortality among middle-aged Americans with a high-school degree or less increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2013, but there was little change in mortality for people with some college. The death rate for the college-educated fell slightly.

boomers-deaths-pnas

[Revi]

"Deaths from drug overdoses among people aged 45 through 64 increased 11-fold between 1990 and 2010, and nearly 90 percent of people who try heroin for the first time these days are white. (Most found heroin through prescription painkillers, which treat the chronic pain this age group struggles with, but can also make it worse.)"

From the Atlantic article.

It sounds like most of the deaths are attributable to drugs, alcohol and suicide. This is like an epidemic! What is going on? I live in one of those places where there are lots of unemployed white people and can see it happening.

[careinke]

Only one condition is 100% terminal......Life.

[Plantagenet]

Here's the actual data as plotted in the PNAS study showing the uptick in white death rates in the US since 1998

[PrestonSturges]

It sounds like most of the deaths are attributable to drugs, alcohol and suicide. This is like an epidemic! What is going on? I live in one of those places where there are lots of unemployed white people and can see it happening.

Also untreated heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, COPD etc etc

Matt Bevin just got elected os governor of Kentucky by promising he would "absolutely" end Medicaid expansion. "No question about it," he said. "I would reverse that immediately." But the reality is that more than 400,000 people would be kicked off of Medicaid.

[Cog]

Somehow I could have predicted that prestonsturgeon would blame mortality rates on Republicans.

[Oneaboveall]

What you once may have sensed has now been documented: Something has gone dramatically and tragically amiss with white working-class America.

Among middle-aged white Americans with a high school degree or less, the death rate from drug and alcohol overdoses quadrupled in the 14-year period between 1999 and 2013. The suicide rate in that group rose by a heartbreaking 81 percent. Death by diseases associated with alcohol abuse rose by 50 percent. That’s an awful lot of pain and tragedy.

So let’s move from the hard science to an exploration of possible causes, where by necessity we are on less stable ground. Given the nature of this epidemic, we can’t go looking for the equivalent of the virus that we now know causes AIDS. We have to ask: What has happened to white working-class Americans in the time frame at issue that might account for such an extraordinary change not just in their lifespans but in the quality of life as well...

That question bring us inevitably into economics, and from there into politics. During the time frame in question, earnings for those with a high school diploma or less have fallen significantly thanks to a combination of technology and overseas competition. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by lower-paying service jobs. Jobs that require no more than a high school degree and that also pay a decent wage and provide health insurance have all but vanished, as have the pensions that once gave working-class Americans cause to hope for easier days to come.

In short, it is hard not to see a historic leap in drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide as an epidemic born of hopelessness.

http://jaybookman.blog.myajc.com/2015/1 ... -revealed/

[Newfie]

Somehow I could have predicted that prestonsturgeon would blame mortality rates on Republicans.

Well at that rate they may not be around much longer anyway.

So...how you feeling lately?

[onlooker]

https://rwer.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/e ... -3-graphs/
Very telling article of the psychological and physical status of typical white middle age Americans. A toxic brew for sure. Low paying undesirable jobs and job insecurity, drugs widely available both legal and non-legal, a disillusioned outlook as in what happened to America all contributing to this epidemic
I guess suddenly the American dream is turning into a nightmare. My opinion is that now when economic dislocation is becoming so common, those who are not adaptable to living with less and at peace with their circumstances are the ones most likely to suffer. This even while the populace is still relatively unaware of the you know what storm headed our way. When people recognize what is headed our way what then? I shudder to think.

[Keith_McClary]

study-shows-white-americans-dying-at-high-rate-t71980.html

[PrestonSturges]

The decline is sharpest in white women, who have lost three years of life expectancy in some regions. That's the kind of number that attracts the attention of epidemiologists around the world. In contrast, life expectancy of black women is stable.

Anyway, with the closures of Planned Parenthood in the conservative areas where people are dying, we'll see greater numbers of deaths from AIDS and illegal abortions.

[MD]

This has been a thing for 15 years. What the last 2 elections show is that life expectancies are plunging in the areas that voted for Romney AND McCain, that is to say the areas that vote Republican by 20+ point margins. There are probably some Republican strongholds with lifespans shorter than Mexico and even many less developed countries. And that doesn't even count the higher rates of infant mortality.

Regulars here have seen the maps before and are invited to look up the information for their own damn selves.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
YEEE HAAAA

[Cog]

Somehow I could have predicted that prestonsturgeon would blame mortality rates on Republicans.

Well at that rate they may not be around much longer anyway.

So...how you feeling lately?

Republicans own most of the governorships, state legislatures, have solid majorities in the US Senate and Congress. I would say talk about their demise is a bit premature. Were the Dems in that position, I would never hear the end of it.

From my perspective, things could not get much better. Preparing to retire to the free state of Tennessee while the Dems make their plans to wreck the US economy by electing either a socialist or a criminal.