Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

What is going on, I was told right here by the bright armchair economists of HN that jobs are _never_ coming back, it's over and done.

> Professor Krueger suggests that the increase in opioid prescriptions could account for about 20 percent of the decline in men’s labor-force participation from 1999 to 2015, and 25 percent of the observed decline in women’s labor-force participation.

Joking aside. That is a scary statistic. Unless you've been through West Virginia or Rust Belt states, then it is believable.

>Professor Krueger suggests that the increase in opioid prescriptions could account for about 20 percent of the decline in men’s labor-force participation from 1999 to 2015, and 25 percent of the observed decline in women’s labor-force participation.

It seems likely that lack of work and resulting depression would drive drug use as well. Depressed people often "self medicate".

A friend was talking to a young girl in a school in WV.

  Friend: What would you like to do when you grow up?
  Girl: I wanna draw, like my daddy.
  Friend: Wonderful, is your daddy an artist?
  Girl: Naw, he draws a check every month.

(ie, her dad receives some type of welfare check every month (perhaps disability, unemployment, etc.), and this is what she aspires to do)

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