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Economic Crisis Makes Killing More Popular
The Business Insider ^ | 7/8/09

Posted on 07/08/2009 11:32:14 AM PDT by FromLori

Oh great. The "don't kill people" bubble is popping

Sometimes when writing about the second great depression gets too dreary, we try to distract ourselves by reading the work of Melissa Lafsky, a science writer at Discover magazine's blog. It usually a good way to get our minds off of the latest financial catastrophe.

But not today.

Today she is informing us that rises in unemployment similar to those in the current economic crisis increase homicide and suicide rates. Researchers at the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have established the connection between unemployment and killing. In the upcoming edition of the Lancet, a very important medical science magazine, they will publish a paper titled “The Public Health Effect of Economic Crisis and Alternative Government Policy Responses in Europe: An Empirical Analysis.” Here's what they find:

The authors looked at how economic changes have affected mortality rates in 26 European Union (EU) countries over the past three decades, and identified how governments might reduce adverse effects.

They found that for every 1% increase in unemployment, there was a 0.8% rise in suicide rates at ages younger than 65 years—or between 60 and 550 extra suicides per year across the EU. Murder rates also rose 0.8%. Both these effects were greatest at working ages…If unemployment rose by more than 3%, suicide rates for those aged under 65 rose by 4.5%, and deaths from alcohol abuse by 28%.

Well, that's a bummer. Fortunately, it's not a zero sum game. Traffic accidents decrease because of unemployment, partially off-setting the rise in killings.

"Always a glass-half-full bunch, those researchers," Lafsky writes.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; murder

1 posted on 07/08/2009 11:32:14 AM PDT by FromLori
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To: FromLori

Euthanize the unemployed — to save lives.


2 posted on 07/08/2009 11:35:33 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (I don't believe anything anyone says about anything anymore.)
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To: FromLori

Looks like the Death Wish series will get remade now...


3 posted on 07/08/2009 11:35:34 AM PDT by MNlurker
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To: FromLori

My kill rate rises in direct correlation to the frequency of those annoying “Fios guy/cable guy” television commercials.


4 posted on 07/08/2009 11:39:57 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

The green nazis would like us to kill ourselves to save the planet and BO is basically supporting a Eugenics like health plan but they would argue that your comment is insane go figure.


5 posted on 07/08/2009 11:41:51 AM PDT by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: FromLori
"...but they would argue that your comment is insane go figure."

Only because they also want to euthanize insane people.

6 posted on 07/08/2009 11:44:29 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: FromLori
If unemployment rose by more than 3%, suicide rates for those aged under 65 rose by 4.5%, and deaths from alcohol abuse by 28%.

Yeah, I was gonna say it's not just killing. How about heart attacks?

7 posted on 07/08/2009 11:46:56 AM PDT by john in springfield (One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe such things.No ordinary man could be such a fool.)
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To: dead

And how do you do around those cars with booming “music?”


8 posted on 07/08/2009 11:48:48 AM PDT by john in springfield (One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe such things.No ordinary man could be such a fool.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

And leftists have already, through their “experts”, classified conservative thought to be “anti-social”.

Folks, if you haven’t realized it yet, leftists want you dead. I’m _dead_ serious. This is what they do, what they want to do. It’s part of the ideology.


9 posted on 07/08/2009 11:49:50 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, save Bowman for later)
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To: FromLori

“the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine” This group also advises that if you DO kill someone, make sure you wash your hands and apply mosquito repellent before leaving the premises.


10 posted on 07/08/2009 12:29:25 PM PDT by radioone
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