No one ever talks about an increase in the suicide rate, but it’s got to be going up. I read too many stories like this:
SANTEE — A distraught man who told neighbors he was going to kill himself set his Santee home on fire Saturday and then threatened to shoot anyone who came near the burning building, authorities said.
[…] Neighbor Ruth Taloza said the man who owns the home came over earlier in the day to give her children and a friend an air compressor. The smell of gas hung in the air, said Taloza’s visiting friend, Stephen Orman.
When Taloza walked across the street to thank the man through his open garage door, he told her that he and his wife were being evicted from their home.
“He told me they’re being kicked out of their home and they were both laid off from their jobs,” Taloza recalled. “They had tried for a lower loan rate and were denied.”
He also told her his wife was sick with cancer. Their conversation ended, and he closed the garage door.
A sad story. There is undoubtedly a long backstory. He probably felt that if the bank wouldn’t deal fairly with them, the bank shouldn’t get the fruits (the house) of his labor. Sad story.
Suicide plus fire. They will be increasing for the same reason that small farmers in India are committing suicide from the pressure of debt and losing their land.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-28/suicides-among-borrowers-in-india-show-how-men-made-a-mess-of-microcredit.html
This is way more than a sad story; this is the first sign of a national social crisis.
Zorro had his “Z”; Larry Summers has his suicide rate.
Nobody ever talks about the suicide rate. Like abortion, it’s a great taboo, despite the fact that it’s really common.
What we’ll be hearing about will be the standoff, the suicide by cop, or other suicides that cause a ruckus. We’ll never hear about the people who quietly end it in their own homes.