Above: "Gone," a wood engraving by Albert Abramowitz (1879-1963), created while he was in the WPA, ca. 1935-1943. Today, in our age of sadistic capitalism, suicides and other deaths of despair are becoming more frequent. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Suicides and other deaths of despair rising in the United States
According to recent data from the CDC, "More than 150,000 Americans--a record number--died due to alcohol, drugs and suicide in 2017" (New York Post, March 5, 2019).
Suicides and other deaths of despair have been going up for a number of years now. This should come as no surprise, of course, because the ruling elite have pounded the middle-class and the poor into the ground with merciless, neoliberal, winner-take-all capitalism over the past several decades. Wages have stagnated to please shareholders; citizens have been loaded-up with debt while Congress severely restricted their debt relief options; unions have been demonized and union participation has dropped (thereby replacing steady fixed pensions with roulette wheel 401Ks), and so on.
Here are two charts from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, covering suicides and drug overdoses from 1999-2017. Look at the staggering increases in raw numbers and rates per 100,000:
Suicides:
Drug Overdoses:
And here are America's suicide rates, per 100,000 people, since 1900:
1900: 10.2
1901: 10.4
1902: 10.3
1903: 11.3
1904: 12.2
1905: 13.5
1906: 12.8
1907: 14.5
1908: 16.8
1909: 16.0
1910: 15.3
1911: 16.0
1912: 15.6
1913: 15.4
1914: 16.1
1915: 16.2
1916: 13.7
1917: 13.0
1918: 12.3
1919: 11.5
1920: 10.2
1921: 12.4
1922: 11.7
1923: 11.5
1924: 11.9
1925: 12.0
1926: 12.6
1927: 13.2
1928: 13.5
1929: 13.9
1930: 15.6
1931: 16.8
1932: 17.4
1933: 15.9
1934: 14.9
1935: 14.3
1936: 14.3
1937: 15.0
1938: 15.3
1939: 14.1
1940: 14.4
1941: 12.8
1942: 12.0
1943: 10.2
1944: 10.0
1945: 11.2
1946: 11.5
1947: 11.5
1948: 11.2
1949: 11.4
1950: 11.4
1951: 10.4
1952: 10.0
1953: 10.1
1954: 10.1
1955: 10.2
1956: 10.0
1957: 9.8
1958: 10.7
1959: 10.6
1960: 10.6
1961: 10.4
1962: 10.9
1963: 11.0
1964: 10.8
1965: 11.1
1966: 10.9
1967: 10.8
1968: 10.7
1969: 11.1
1970: 11.8
1971: 11.7
1972: 12.0
1973: 12.0
1974: 12.1
1975: 12.7
1976: 12.5
1977: 13.3
1978: 12.6
1979: 12.4
1980: 11.9
1981: 12.0
1982: 12.2
1983: 12.1
1984: 12.4
1985: 12.4
1986: 12.9
1987: 12.7
1988: 12.4
1989: 12.3
1990: 12.4
1991: 12.2
1992: 11.9
1993: 12.0
1994: 11.8
1995: 11.8
1996: 11.5
1997: 11.2
1998: 11.1
1999: 10.5
2000: 10.4
2001: 10.8
2002: 11.0
2003: 10.9
2004: 11.1
2005: 11.0
2006: 11.2
2007: 11.5
2008: 11.9
2009: 12.0
2010: 12.4
2011: 12.7
2012: 12.9
2013: 13.0
2014: 13.4
2015: 13.8
2016: 13.9
2017: 14.5
Data from: (1) Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service, "Vital Statistics Rates in the United States, 1900-1940," Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947; (2) U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, "Vital Statistics Rates in the United States, 1940-1960," Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968; (3) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Vital Statistics in the United States, 1939-1964," accessed March 6, 2019; (4) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Vital Statistics in the United States, 1965-1979," accessed March 6, 2019; (5) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Vital Statistics in the United States, 1980-2003," accessed March 6, 2019; (6) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Fatal Injury Reports, National, Regional and State, 1981-2017," accessed March 6, 2019.
The New Deal helped prevent suicides and continues to do so today
As you can see from the data, suicides spiked to record rates after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, reaching a record high of 17.4 per 100,000 in 1932. The New Deal began to lower those rates immediately. Social scientist David Stuckler and epidemiologist Sanjay Basu credit this to increased government spending to help the people ("How Austerity Kills," New York Times, May 12, 2013).
Suicide rates dropped further again from about 1943 through 1971, never reaching 12 per 100,000. Even from 1972 through 2012, the rate only went above 13 once. Over the last several years though, it's been routinely over 13, and it was 14.5 in 2017, the highest it's been in three-quarters of a century.
Since economics, finances, and employment (or lack thereof) are significant factors in the overall suicide rate, it makes sense that New Deal policies prevented the type of suicide explosions that Americans witnessed from 1907-1915 and from 1929-1932. Over time, federal policies like FDIC, unemployment insurance, and protections for unions, stabilized American life. And recent research indicates that Social Security may be an effective barrier against suicide spikes too (see, e.g., "Social Security: Suicide Prevention Tool," Pacific Standard, March 17, 2017).
But it seems like the more we move away from the New Deal, replacing it with tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, funding neglect, and Ayn Rand-style sociopathy, the more miserable we are. So, the question is: Is it worth it? Is the constant pursuit of private fortune, above all else, worth watching our fellow citizens kill themselves in ever-greater numbers? I think a lot of Americans have answered this question with a verbal silence and an internal "Yes." And if I'm right, that is truly terrifying.
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort."
--President Franklin Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
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