Suicides Increase When Conservatives Are In Power. Why?
I was on Twitter yesterday when I saw someone had made a claim that suicide rates increase when conservatives are in power. It seemed like a strong claim to make. I was skeptical so I began to dig through research on this topic and found a disturbing trend.
Studies on Conservatism and Suicide
Studies that spanned the entirety of the 20th century found a clear correlation between conservatives in office and suicide rates. A 2002 study from the Epidemiology & Community Health found that significantly higher suicide risk was associated with conservative government tenures compared with social democratic incumbents in Australia. Results from the study are pasted below and show conservative governments being a strong predictor of increased suicides.
When both Federal and NSW State governments were conservative the relative risk of suicide for NSW men was 1.17 (p<0.001) and for women 1.40 (p<0.001) compared with both governments being Labor (1.00). A statistically significant linear trend (p<0.001) in suicide risk was evident across the continuum of Federal/State government combinations, from both Labor (lowest), to mixed (intermediate), to both conservative (highest).
In plain English, the results above showed that the more left leaning the government was, the lower suicide rates became. Another study of the 20th century in Europe came to a similar conclusion.
During the 45 (Tory) years of excess suicide mortality identified above some 238 431 people died as a result of suicide. If the excess is 17%, then the conclusion is that roughly 35 000 of these people would not have died had these Conservative governments not been in government. This is one suicide for every day of the century, or more appropriately, two for every day that the Conservatives ruled.
These studies were revealing, but I could not find any peer-reviewed research (or any research for that matter) that specifically looked at the US. So I did my own research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows five years of suicide data from 2014–2017 and, randomly, 2004. In all five years, there was a clear trend between states with the highest and lowest suicide rates.
The table below shows the top 10 suicide rates of all US states in 2017 and shows the top 3 states are deeply conservative, with 8–10 states being conservative leaning.
Now let’s look at the states with the lowest suicide rates. Incredibly, the lowest 9 states on the list are all states that are deeply liberal, with the only exception being Texas with the 10th lowest.
So based on these findings can we conclude with certainty that Conservatism leads to an increase in suicide in the US? With certainty, we cannot. There would still need to be more research done to validate these findings, but I did find something I think is worth mentioning.
A 2006 study from The Journal of Socio-Economics looked at public policy from 1982–1997 and found that when government spending on social/welfare programs increased suicide rates decreased.
We show that the share of health and welfare in total public spending are strong predictors of suicide rates and yield estimated coefficients that are both statistically significant and economically meaningful.
In short, when the Government provides less resources for their people it increases economic anxiety and despair which leads to increased suicide rates. And we know economic anxiety is a contributor to suicide, as recent studies show an increase in the minimum-wage decreases suicide rates.
Concluding Thoughts
I will make one thing clear… The point of this article is not to smear conservatives. If you share this article with the intent to smear conservatives and lift up democrats… I’m afraid I have some bad news. Democrats aren’t going to be exonerated in this article.
Studies show that austerity policies make suicide rates worse in the US. For those who are unaware, austerity can best be defined as decreasing government spending or increasing taxes (or both) in an attempt to control public debt. Despite clear evidence cutting government spending kills, when the Democrats took control of the House this past January one of their first orders of business was enacting PAYGO.
The Democrats passed PAYGO in relative stealth despite an outcry from progressives. PAYGO makes it so that in order for an increase in government spending to occur there must be a cut in spending somewhere else. This may seem like common sense to the average person, but PAYGO is incredibly dangerous. In times of recession government spending is usually increased to help keep the economy and its citizens afloat. PAYGO not only handcuffs the governments ability to help average Americans deal with recession, but it also kneecaps progressive policies the country overwhelmingly support like medicare-for-all. This is a disturbing trend that shows Democratic leadership, lead by Nancy Pelosi, continue to latch onto the progressive label while passing Republican policies that hurt everyday Americans.
It’s also important to note that suicide is a serious issue and cannot be solely contributed to conservative policies and conservatism. Suicide is a deeply complicated issue that should not be weaponized as a political attack.
Throw me a follow on Twitter for more political talk. I frequently get into arguments so grab ya popcorn.
