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For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

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Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#121

Post by DaniFong »

pkaye wrote: post #93
gremlinsinc wrote: post #2

I wonder what would happen to the suicide rate with medicare for all, and creating a max-wage that is (avg of contractors + employees * 150), or something similar, w/ additional 'bonus' multipliers for increasing # of U.S. hired. UBI would also probably help. As a freelancer I've had some really slim months and depression hits hard when money is tight. There's a very direct correlation between income security, insecu…

There is nearly a 2x difference in rate between white and native americans vs blacks, asians and hispanics. I'm wondering if there is a good understanding of that difference. I don't think it is just economic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States#/...

That stood out to me as well, indeed the numbers vary a lot nationally and ethnically.

How are you supposed to study it, though? Not exactly a good situation for an exit poll.

Imaginably the government could be in a position to grant a gift, and help, to offer a moment of respite from whatever is causing the most distress -- that might help some people...

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#122

Post by aaron_m04 »

godelski wrote: post #61
emptybits wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re/ medicare for all ... Canada has universal health care yet a very similar suicide rate to the USA.[1] Canada doesn't have a livable minimum wage either. Each province sets its own. There is talk of UBI experiments. [1] https://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2011/02/us-vs-can...

But there's other factors there. Do we know if there was a change after Canada switched to universal health care?

Yes, like Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#123

Post by MuffinFlavored »

wcarron wrote: post #111
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Livable to what extent? You should be able to afford food (what quality of food? do good people also believe everybody deserves to eat filet mignon/comparable on occasion?), transportation (which in some cases means car + gas + maintenance + insurance) + housing (what kind of housing? rent a room in a low cost area? have your own single family home?) + family (should you be encouraged to have 3 children aka mouths to…

> "do the minimum and be rewarded?" In my experience, the lower you are paid, the harder you are worked. Cooks, janitors, sanitation workers, mail(wo)men and amazon delivery workers, waiters, teachers, mechanics, construction workers, etc. all work longer hours in more emotionally and/or physically taxing jobs, with worse pay and work environments than any dentist, accountant, lawyer, CEO, sales person, or software e…

> Wages are inversely correlated with how hard you actually have to work, perversely

You are right.

Why are cooks + janitors paid so little? Because that's their worth to the economy. A ton of people are willing to do that job because it is an "easy skill" with a low barrier of entry.

How do we get unskilled labor on STEM paths? I totally understand unequal opportunity not allowing everybody the same options, but at what point do we say "people aren't created equally, most cooks/janitors wouldn't be great engineers for reasons X, Y, Z"

Are the reasons because they never had the chance, or is it genetic?

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#124

Post by filoleg »

samatman wrote: post #67
seibelj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSRIs saved my life, I don't like such wild claims. Don't be afraid of psychiatric drugs if you are hurting.

These things are not mutually exclusive: > studies showed that children and adolescents taking antidepressants were almost twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts or to attempt suicide, compared to patients taking a sugar pill. http://www.center4research.org/antidepressants-increase-suic...

Not arguing either way, as I don't think I am knowledgeable enough on the subject to do so, but I feel like there is a lot of potential to confuse correlation and causation. It simply could just be that "children and adolescents taking antidepressants" are already in a high risk group that is 3 times as likely "to have suicidal thoughts or to attempt suicide", and antidepressants reduce that number to "twice as likely".

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#125

Post by Domenic_S »

samatman wrote: post #67
seibelj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSRIs saved my life, I don't like such wild claims. Don't be afraid of psychiatric drugs if you are hurting.

These things are not mutually exclusive: > studies showed that children and adolescents taking antidepressants were almost twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts or to attempt suicide, compared to patients taking a sugar pill. http://www.center4research.org/antidepressants-increase-suic...

Ironically, this happens because the medicine is working. FTA:

> When a person’s depression starts to lift, he or she may feel less hopeless and helpless. That sounds like an improvement, but when people feel less helpless but still feel depressed, they may think about suicide as a way out, whereas before they were too immobilized to make a suicide plan. For that reason, a decrease in the symptoms of depression can increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or actions.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#126

Post by aidenn0 »

0000011111 wrote: post #47

I see income inequality as a key issue here. I recently read the "Triumph of injustice" and came away with a changed view in our tax system. After reading the book, I now believe that any household with a net worth over $100 million should be subject to both an income and capital gains tax of 99%. In short folks with income come and or net worth at levels that surpass their ability to buy a life of finical security f…

I think 99% is an overkill. If you assume 7% ROI and 2% inflation then a 70% top marginal bracket (combined with unifying capital gains and income) would make it very hard to maintain wealth.

To get rid of these high levels of inequality we don't need to make it impossible to be rich, just make it very hard to be rich and let nature take its course.

Note that in my lifetime the top marginal tax bracket has been over 70% so it's not even that radical of a change.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#127

Post by 0xffff2 »

henryfjordan wrote: post #86
anonuser123456 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. People won't work for less than their worth. So a minimum wage doesn't accomplish much except set a price floor that excludes low value add workers from the economy.

If you were starving and I offered you a job washing dishes for $2/hour, would you take it to be able to afford some rice+beans tonight or would you rather not eat tonight? You're worth more than $2/hour. We need minimum wage laws to protect people from being crunched by capitalists exploiting labor market inefficiencies.

> You're worth more than $2/hour.

Says who?

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#128

Post by mnm1 »

codingslave wrote: post #12

Really doubt this. Instead I would look into the connection between anti depressants/anti psychotics and suicide. There's research of strong connections, but immunity is claimed by the drug companies, "because they were already depressed/mentally unhealthy when put on the drugs". Mental health professionals and managers at large drug companies need to start going to jail for over-prescribing psychiatric drugs. The ne…

I couldn't agree more about psychiatric medication but that doesn't mean there aren't multiple causes. Also, drug addiction in many cases is caused by low wages and terrible economic conditions so addressing the addiction needs to address the underlying issues which are low wages and a terrible economy for normal people.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#129

Post by kangnkodos »

tombert wrote: post #94
OscarCunningham wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that's accurate, we should set the minimum wage to infinity.

I don't think anyone is suggesting we set the minimum wage to be particularly high, just enough to have a reasonable living wage. In the case of the linked studies, it was an increase of somewhere around 20-30%. I figure you made your comment to demonstrate that the reasoning doesn't work on the extremes, but that only really works as a rebuttle if someone were seriously suggesting something extreme.

The US minimum wage is now $7.25. Raising this to $15.00 is an increase of 107%.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#130

Post by Domenic_S »

ceejayoz wrote: post #89
simonsarris wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest you look at current income figures and try to come up with a plan where juicing the rich works. There's a reason Germany's 42% tax bracket starts at... €55,961 If you want to pay for these things, you need to bring your idea of who's gonna get taxed way, way down to earth.

> There's a reason Germany's 42% tax bracket starts at... €55,961 Oooh, is the reason "because a lot of services are publicly delivered instead of privately", because I'll bet it is. I pay $30k/year for private healthcare here in the US; a $2200/month premium and an annual out-of-pocket of $4k. I'd happily accept a 10% tax hike to make that go away, and that doesn't even account for my kids' eventual college costs...

Where's the remainder of your premium going to come from when you're only paying 10% salary for it? Private insurance companies sure aren't going to reduce their prices.
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