Working-age US adults are dying at far higher rates than their peers from high-income countries, even surpassing death rates in Central and Eastern European countries, and midlife mortality rates in the UK are not great either. A new study has examined what’s caused this rise in the death rates of these two cultural superpowers.
Life expectancy started to rise around 1840 at a pace of almost 2.5 years per decade and has continued to the present day. A 2021 study calculated that if the current pace continues, most children born this millennium will live to celebrate their 100th birthday. However, new research by the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science (LCDS) at the University of Oxford and Princeton University has revealed some troubling trends for those in midlife, particularly in the US and the UK.
“Over the past three decades, midlife mortality in the US has worsened significantly compared to other high-income countries, and for the younger 20- to 44-year-old age group, in 2019, it even surpassed midlife mortality rates for Central and Eastern European countries,” said Katarzyna Doniec, the study’s corresponding author. “This is surprising, given that not so long ago, some of these countries experienced high levels of working-age mortality, resulting from the post-socialist [economic] crisis of the 1990s.”
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The study demonstrates that most countries have experienced declines in all-cause mortality over the three decades to 2019. The notable exception is the United States, whose divergence from comparable high-income countries in age-standardized mortality rates of 25- to 64-year-olds has accelerated over time. Strikingly, for US females aged 25 to 44, all-cause mortality rates were higher in 2019 than in 1990. The country’s higher mortality was especially noticeable when it came to preventable deaths: homicides, deaths from transport accidents, and so-called ‘deaths of despair’ related to suicide and alcohol and drug use.
And they’re trying to raise the social security retirement age. Bitch, I ain’t gonna make it to 70.
So it’s all according to plan
The millennial midlife crisis happened at 25
That’s the plan. Demographics shows that age groups start seriously shrinking at 60-70. Half of the people who make it to 60 die by 70. And it halves again by 80.
Retirement past 60 was always more about the rich seeing them as less useful than it was about “golden years”. And not being able to access your Roth IRA until after the age group starts seriously shrinking is just fucking crap. Pumping money into the stock market that many people will never see again.
You can pull money out of your Roth IRA at literally any point. You already paid the taxes on it.
You cannot pull more out than you put in though. If you have and properly use a Roth IRA throughout your whole life, you can live for many many years without ever breaching that cap if you wanted to retire a little earlier. You’re just reducing your potential total.
“Deaths of despair.”
It’s a subtle thing. I like to browse bookstores and libraries. It used to be if I engaged someone in small talk we’d have a pleasant little chat about books. These days, the only people who want to chat are the employees.
As an introvert, I love this. Please leave me alone and let me browse. I don’t wanna talk about what I’m reading/interested in, I don’t care about your 5 cats at home, and I really don’t wanna hear about what you like.
Do you talk to people in the park? In the grocery? The point is that those little chats actually do a lot for people’s mental health.
If people say "hi"to me in passing, yes I will smile and say hi back, I’m not going to completely ignore people. Other than that, I just wanna be left alone.
Isolating is just not healthy.
Doesn’t really sound like isolation, though. Unless they are a hermit. But then they wouldn’t see a person to begin with.
The information should be out there.
Half the posts I see here talk about having ‘social anxiety.’
People need to make the effort to get into conversations that aren’t on screen.
I have AuDHD that wasn’t diagnosed until I was 61. My whole life most of my brain has been used to study people, their reactions, and beat myself up for failing to act/react to them in a socially-acceptable way.
I’ve had 4 major existential crashes (and more smaller ones) in my life where I stay alone almost constantly … mostly because I can’t handle having to give my whole self to people, all of the time, so they don’t see me as a freak.
The hell EVERYONE should do what you think we should do 'cause you are a know-it-all.
I don’t want to make the effort because it is not enjoyable to me. Conversations “on a screen” aren’t invalid just because you prefer to socialize in person.
I think you’re confusing not enjoying small talk with isolation
No, they do a lot for your mental health. They just stress me out. If I want to chat I’ll go chat with someone I know. I do not enjoy random people talking to me at all
Id love a chat but I’m also very socially anxious in public.
Beware of recursive patterns.
I’m anxious so I don’t socialize which reinforces anxiety so I don’t socialize which…
The mind can spiral in on itself and this can be difficult to recognize.
Or in short, always being comfortable is bad for your long-term health. Discomfort provides a great deal of value in the context of mental well-being.
You only get over stuff by doing them. I don’t expect everyone I talk to to be utterly fascinating; I just want to know if you’ve read a particular author.
I work four jobs. I don’t have health insurance. If I got sick I’d be fucked. Not surprising that people my age are dying at higher rates than in more civilized countries.
How’s that scheduling work? You doing a day per job or something? 4 hours per job at multiple sites per day?
I’ve seen people do two jobs in their youth but it’s very, very rare someone has more than a full time gig + part time weekends and maybe a night here and there.
I know professional workers who moonlight as teachers at local community college for a course some semesters, and then do a day a weekend at the rock climbing gym to stay in shape and help others share the joy of their hobby as an example. I guess you could do some uber or whatever on top of that but I don’t consider that to be a job given the context.
But we saved thousands of dollars along the way!
But rich people got richer!
Fascinating too that the study cuts off at 2019, right before Covid.
Wonder how it looks now?
Coincidence more than anything. It’s a 2021 study, and it takes time to write and publish the data collected.
If you’re doing a study you wouldn’t want COVID in it. It’s a confounding factor. Unless of course, your study is about Covid’s effects. It would be great to compare the periods of time.
