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Comment by eva1984 | Hacker News Reader

eva1984

Why US is different from all the other countries in the charts? If author's hypothesis is right, that it is mainly about declining of economic status, I cannot see why other western countries would not follow a similar pattern.

And from the chart, US's (whites) death rates takes off starting from late 90s, where the economy was doing great, while other countries' death rates keep declining even during great recession.

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An article on HN last week discussed the idea of a class of people called the Unnecessariat (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11765581) where a large swatch of people no longer have a place in society thanks to declining manufacturing jobs (and potentially the automation of farming) in the middle of America and as such these people have been left to die by the state as they are surplus to requirements in the modern economy. This is less of a factor in European countries potentially because they are geographically smaller, have a lower population and more left/socialist leaning that the US.

The Unnecessariat also linked to a Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/08/we-dont...) describing the life and death of one of those who died too young, in rural Oklahoma. A good read, while of course so very sad that we can't see a solution to this phenomenon.

Read that one as well from the link. Both those articles combines for a very sad hour of reading. Reminded a little of the The Unexotic Underclass[1] - not totally the same but both areas of society not necessarily benefiting from advances in technology.

[1] http://miter.mit.edu/the-unexotic-underclass/

It's less of a factor in the EU because the average Joe here hasn't voted their own safety nets away (yet).

I believe people in the US are more mobile, so you can end up living in area where you are 1000 kilometers away from your children or family.

In Europe, people are generally less mobile (geographically) and countries are smaller, so you can still work in the city and still live in the vicinity of your elderly parents (let's say one-two hour drive).

Maybe less obvious, but people in Europe also tend to have more vacation (understatement), so it is much easier to visit your family more frequently.

As a European I am always surprised that people only see their family during Thanksgiving. I don't have data but looking at people I know, you see your family much more frequently there.

Not to mention that the definition of "family" is distinct too. If you ask an American, do you have family in this city, it is same as asking are you married/have kids. While people of other culture might answer, "yeah my mom is here".

>> particularly the breakdown of the traditional multigenerational Japanese family

According to the article. It's because grandparents no longer stay with family, and divorces.

Or maybe no one gives a crap about white males; they are just mysoginist, racist, oppressors.

From the article: "The study found that the death rate was increasing particularly quickly for white women."

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