| inbluevt | Date: Tuesday, 2013/05/21, 8:08 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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EARLY last month, a triple suicide was reported in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche, Italy. A married couple, Anna Maria Sopranzi, 68, and Romeo Dionisi, 62, had been
struggling to live on her monthly pension of around 500 euros (about
$650), and had fallen behind on rent.
Because the Italian government’s austerity budget had raised the retirement age, Mr. Dionisi, a former construction worker, became one of Italy’s esodati (exiled ones) — older workers plunged into poverty
without a safety net.
On April 5, he and his wife left a note on a neighbor’s car asking for forgiveness, then hanged themselves in a storage closet at home. When Ms. Sopranzi’s brother, Giuseppe Sopranzi,
73, heard the news, he drowned himself in the Adriatic.
The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since
the 19th century.
People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.
In the United States, the suicide rate, which had slowly risen since
2000, jumped during and after the 2007-9 recession.
In a new book, we estimate that 4,750 “excess” suicides — that is, deaths above what
pre-existing trends would predict — occurred from 2007 to 2010. Rates of
such suicides were significantly greater in the states that experienced
the greatest job losses. Deaths from suicide overtook deaths from car
crashes in 2009.
Read further
From the Times May 12, on the Opinion pages, altho why I don't why there. This article starts with facts that are part of the the book the authors have just published. This is, alas, a read and weep story.
Link to the book at Amazon
Message edited by inbluevt - Tuesday, 2013/05/21, 8:10 PM |
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