• 52fighters@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Universal healthcare might help but it is also–

    1. Auto accidents driven by car culture.
    2. Higher drug and alcohol abuse rates.
    3. Higher suicide rates driven by access to firearms.
    4. A culture of unhealthy eating that leads to obesity, heart disease, and increased risk of cancer.
    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      Don’t forget the wage slave mentality: forced long hours, extreme stress in a fast pace work environment, the non-existent vacation days, and at-will employment

    • just_the_ticket@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Point 3 is just wrong.

      Japanese don’t have easy access to guns and yet Japan has one of the highest suicide rates.

      Same with Uruguay, highest suicide rate in America without having easy access to guns.

      • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Apples and oranges. Japan has an insane work culture that leads to burnout and depression, and therefore more suicides. Not sure why Uruguay has such a high suicide rate, but they also have a completely different culture than both America and Japan. The method in which you take your life is less important if you are intent on taking your own life. Guns make it super easy.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Access to firearms increases the rate of suicide. He may have worded it poorly but the point stands. The fact that other countries have worse rates of suicide without firearms notwithstanding, because if they had access to firearms, it would be even higher.

    • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Don’t underrate the amount of walking Europeans do compared to Americans. That casual exercise makes a huge difference. Europe is much more urban than the US and they generally walk a lot more than we do.

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      As pointed out, guns are a means to suicide, not the cause. While I do believe in gun control, until we have physician assisted suicide, guns are some of the most reliable ways for people to have a say in when their life ends.

      Take away the guns(the this specific circumstance, not talking about other gun related issues) and the suicide rate will maybe go down, but the rate of unsuccessful, excruciating, and possibly disfiguring/disabling suicide attempts will absolutely go up.

    • lapingvino@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      About point 4, there is this really weird phenomenon that people going one way or the other replicate the same results without consciously changing the way you eat. Americans eating “unhealthy” in Europe get better and Europeans “eating healthy” in the US get worse.