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posted by on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:03PM   Printer-friendly

Rural America is facing an existential crisis. As cities continue to grow and prosper, small towns are shrinking. That fundamental divide played itself out in the recent presidential election.

[...] The trend is clear: Rural America is literally fading away. It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. And the latest research from the CDC also shouldn't come as a surprise: Suicides in rural America (labeled as non-core) have increased over 40% in 16 years.

From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased everywhere in America. On average, across the U.S., suicides increased from 12.2 per 100,000 to 15.7 per 100,0001, an increase of just under 30%. However, in rural America, the suicide rate surged over 40%2, from just over 15 per 100,000 to roughly 22 per 100,000. Similarly, the suicide rate in micropolitan areas (defined as having a population between 10,000-49,999) went from 14 per 100,000 to 19 per 100,000, an increase of around 35%.

On the flip side, major cities saw much smaller increases in suicide rates, on the order of 10%. The graph depicts a clear pattern: Suicide rates are highest in the most rural parts of the country, and they slowly decrease as urbanization increases. As of 2015, the suicide rate in rural areas (22 per 100,000) is about 40% higher than in the nation as a whole (15.7 per 100,000) and 83% higher than in large cities (12 per 100,000).

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:46PM (39 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:46PM (#486531) Journal

    The current failure is in preparing children to be self-supporting in life not in there being no jobs.

    The two are not mutually exclusive. Outside the U.S. in parts of Europe, I see kids getting a double serving of both. It's getting worse as education is cut back again and again, both secondary and tertiary. That harm is amplified by the teachers having to spend more and more of their time dorking around with unnecessary, unproductive, and irrelevant administrivia. On the jobs side, businesses and governments are cutting back for so long that it's been a slow death spiral, yet they can't or won't see it.

    In today's ideological, screw the facts and data, climate neither the schools nor the jobs are going to get the investment they need to get bootstrapped and back onto the right path.

    There are also the politically charged issues of overpopulation and incapable parents.

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:00PM (38 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:00PM (#486544) Homepage Journal

    It's not the lack of book-learning that's killing the jobs prospects of kids today, it's the absence of shop classes and vo-tech. Frankly, kids could get by just fine if they learned everything up to and nothing after sixth grade, as long as they had a marketable skill. Knowing how to balance a checkbook and make/stick-to a realistic budget would be helpful as well. We're just utterly failing to teach them things that are actually useful.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:21PM (6 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:21PM (#486563) Journal

      While kids might be able to support themselves with only a sixth grade education and some vocational training for a skill, but they will never have the best paying jobs. But the world needs all kinds of jobs.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:56PM (5 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:56PM (#486649) Homepage Journal

        True, we're just telling kids nowadays that damned good paying jobs in the trades are beneath them and that they should go to college so they never have to get their hands dirty. It's insane.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:40PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:40PM (#486691) Journal

          That's a good point. Someone who is not the brightest bulb, but is skilled at some trade should be able to make decent money and have a decent life. A good paying job that they can do well and maybe even enjoy is something to be desired. Even if it is not the best paying job.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @11:34PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @11:34PM (#486817)

          Failure to get a degree will normally remove a male from the marriage market.

          This wasn't the case in times past. Degrees were uncommon, and they were especially uncommon for women. Most jobs were unavailable to women. Women needed men; men had purpose in life.

          Generally, women don't want to marry down. They'd rather stay single, letting their fertile years go to waste. Mating with a male who seems inferior is just not accepted. Once past the fertile years, women become invisible.

          Men aren't too comfortable marrying up either. This type of marriage is more prone to fail. Many men, probably even those who would deny it, do not feel right in this situation. Men have a need to be the provider.

          The trades may bring in some money, but the lack of status (for the marriage market) makes them pretty worthless. Why bother?

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 31 2017, @12:57AM (2 children)

            Erm... you must associate with a vastly different species of females than humans. Every last one I've met has been nearly overjoyed at the prospect of changing their man, up to and including his financial and educational standing. And all he generally needed to get them to that point is a smidgin of confidence in himself and a lack of desire to be the hell away from her.

            You do have a point about the uncomfortable men though.

            And, for the record, you'd make far more as a plumber/welder/electrician with twenty years experience than you could as a dev/network admin except in extreme, <1% cases or situations where you've chosen a lower paying job for personal reasons.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 31 2017, @03:43AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 31 2017, @03:43AM (#486914)

              > Every last one I've met

              What's the common denominator there?

              FYI, its called assortative mating and its the result of women moving towards equality in the workforce. There are now plenty of women with equal financial means for men to marry, so the opportunity for poor women to marry up is mostly gone.

              Its also why marriage rates among the poor are so high, marriage is an economic privilege and if you are poor you can't afford it. Since poor women can no longer marry up, all they are left with are poor men. Taking on financial risk of a partner who is himself not a good earner is a bad bet. So poor women stay single even when they have children. That doesn't mean poor fathers are out of their children's lives, far from it actually. They just aren't a financial risk to the mother.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:19PM (13 children)

      by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:19PM (#486608) Journal

      What I wrote applies also to the vocational lines as well, I am sad to observe.

      Anyway, skills, vocational or not, are not marketable these days. That's just the reality and kids can see through any bullshit people tell them about an education helping them. It's more like a lottery with the education (or training) being the entrance fee. More and more can just look around and see skilled and experienced people, young and old, having a hard go of it. So an increasing number of kids who see that, just cut their losses and stay home playing video games or loitering in the downtown's shadier districts.

      About the life skills like bank accounts and budgets, that's supposed to come from the parents. Permits are required to keep animals, even dogs, in many areas or even to modify a house. That requirement should apply double for even thinking about having kids.

      --
      Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:50PM (11 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:50PM (#486638) Homepage Journal

        Beg to differ on the skilled labor situation. Finding good help is as hard as it's ever been in the trades. Reason being, everyone thinks they'll go to college so they don't have to work hard later. Their parents actually encourage this way of thinking.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:55PM (9 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:55PM (#486647)

          Believing a caricature of someone means you are an asshole that would rather signal virtue than understand people.

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:57PM (8 children)

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:57PM (#486650) Homepage Journal

            That would be a proper zinger if it were remotely accurate. Try again another time.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:13PM (7 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:13PM (#486659)

              You have the worst comebacks, I can only blame a deficiency in education and practice with critical thinking.

              everyone thinks they'll go to college so they don't have to work hard later. Their parents actually encourage this way of thinking.

              Maybe if you hadn't used the word "everyone" you could possible make an argument about it not being accurate. But "remotely accurate"? Try again you mental giant!

              • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:17PM (6 children)

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:17PM (#486664) Homepage Journal

                I guess you missed the day they discussed generalizations and their function in the language in English class. Oh well.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:24PM (5 children)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:24PM (#486668)

                  Caricature: exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics

                  Generalization: a general statement, law, principle, or proposition

                  Your statement was not a generalization, it was a caricature. There are plenty of young people who want to work, and a small minority that fall into your generalization. Once you apply a generalization incorrectly to a larger population it becomes a caricature.

                  Maybe you should switch to a primarily fish diet? I hear the omega-3s are good for the brain.

                  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:41PM (4 children)

                    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:41PM (#486676)

                    The guy literally brags about not learning anything in school.
                    Nearly every post he makes demonstrates that he's not lying.

                    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:50PM (3 children)

                      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:50PM (#486680)

                      Explains so much... Gee I wonder why a well rounded education is a good thing? If you'd like a real world example just read TMB's comment history! lol

                      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:55PM (2 children)

                        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:55PM (#486702) Journal

                        Yeah, and when he's clearly wrong he'll shit out another 3 or 4 posts consisting of nothing but some lazy fallacious one-liner, if you're lucky, or just resort to calling you SJW or something else equally horrible in his mind. He's obviously got the brains to code, but can't do jack shit else.

                        --
                        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:18PM (1 child)

                          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:18PM (#486780)

                          Could also be he's one of those people that gets sadistic glee out of trolling people. Never overlook that, its the new favorite past time for angry nerds online!

                          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:37PM

                            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:37PM (#486788)

                            He clearly thinks trolling people is an accomplishment.
                            At best its just a pyrrhic victory.

        • (Score: 1) by charon on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:06PM

          by charon (5660) on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:06PM (#486711) Journal

          Finding good help is as hard as it's ever been in the trades.

          You're absolutely correct about this, with the proviso that it's not just trades. I work in retail, and there are plenty of people in my store who are just warm bodies.

      • (Score: 2) by rondon on Friday March 31 2017, @02:51PM

        by rondon (5167) on Friday March 31 2017, @02:51PM (#487097)

        So if a parent is lacking life skills that are needed, the child should never have the opportunity to learn them? I find that reasoning to be poor at best, and intentionally harmful to the poor at worst.

        Otherwise, I agree with your overall sentiment.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by slinches on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:27PM (6 children)

      by slinches (5049) on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:27PM (#486618)

      The school system sucks for multiple reasons, but that isn't the root cause of the issue. The most fundamental issue is that fewer kids have good family support and role models who set high expectations. Even in more affluent neighborhoods, it has become common for a kid's parents to be split up and have little to no extended family nearby. Without that sort of support, better schools will only make marginal improvements. The problem is societal. We need to implement/reinforce social structures that encourage parental/familial involvement in children's lives and that they are fully invested in their success.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:44PM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:44PM (#486632) Homepage Journal

        Abso-fucking-lutely.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:26PM (#486670)

        How can you possibly enforce this? By telling them you know better and its for the good of the country? OK you - stay in your unhappy marriage, don't apply for that job in another State, buy from the expensive local store, don't have teh butsecks, pray to the one true Allah. Next in line.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:09PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:09PM (#486683)

        Correct, societal problems indeed!

        Welp, the answer is lessen wealth inequality and provide social programs so that taking your kid to the doctor doesn't become a "will I make rent this month" type of question. Make it so that even the poorest family can survive on a single FT job. Take away people's security and it has a ton of negative consequences. No time for kids and increased psychological stress, bad for the marriage and bad for the required patience and understanding when trying to raise children. Required mobility for decent jobs also means that people must leave their social circle so that they have no familial support available.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:53PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:53PM (#486700)

          Damn straight! Anybody who offers, or takes, ANY job of ANY type for ANY reason that doesn't pay a full living wage for the worker's whole family? GO TO JAIL!

          Need someone to sweep in front of your store for fifteen minutes every morning? Full wage and bennies or GO TO JAIL!

          Want someone to clear out a drainage ditch? Full wage and bennies or GO TO JAIL!

          That'll fix that there economy and get us to full employment right quick, yes sir...

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:21PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:21PM (#486781)

            Yup, the world is black and white, you've got it, that is exactly what I meant.

            Fix yer brain doodads, they seem to be broken.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by slinches on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:55PM

          by slinches (5049) on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:55PM (#486703)

          I'm glad we can agree on the type of problem we're facing, but I don't think your proposed solutions will be effective since they don't directly affect the core issues. Wealth inequality isn't a significant driver in whether parents care about their kids and improved health care cost/accessibility will be at best a secondary effect. I agree that a family should be able to be supported comfortably on a single income, but I'd rather approach that from the cost side rather than increasing the minimum wage, which makes it harder for young adults to transition into the workforce. Instead, if we stopped encouraging everyone to go into crippling debt and live within their means, more households would be financially healthy. But the biggest thing is that we need to promote strong core families and support structures directly. I think this is one area where we've lost in rejecting traditional gender roles. Now the expectation is that there are two breadwinners and no caretakers. Instead of splitting the caretaker responsibilities, we've eschewed them entirely and now we're seeing the consequences. Housewife (and househusband) should be a highly respected role in our society and we need to change our attitudes to make that happen. As an additional encouragement, there could be a shift in the tax incentives for families that rewards the full time caretaker role more and dual incomes less.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:34PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:34PM (#486623)

      Conservatives have been crying about this for years, but it simply doesn't add up. Maybe its cause you're old now and have been out of the job market for a long time. The overwhelming vast majority of young people are perfectly capable but there is a massive problem of unemployment that is being quietly hidden. Sure there are areas in need of skilled applicants, but then you run into the problem where not everyone can afford the 1.5-3 year programs to get certified, or employers reject people because it would be too hard to train them.

      Yes some young people reject jobs they don't want, yes some young people are bad at budgeting and such, but those are straw men that make you feel more comfortable with our fucked up society. It is like the various people I have met who have zero clue about mass surveillance or the shenanigans of the CIA. The truth is just too awful for them to bear, it takes years for their minds to accept the overwhelming horror of what is actually happening.

      So go ahead, keep blaming the victims of a system that is steadily removing funding from the programs you so wish to have.

      We're just utterly failing to teach them things that are actually useful.

      So very wrong. Kids learn plenty of useful things, but I agree we should have more vocational programs. Maybe we should stop trying to destroy the government and defund education then? It has been a downhill road for a long time now, but the current POTUS is tanking it worse than ever with Devos all but committing to cutting education funding even further. We could discuss bad allocation of funds, but don't kid yourself about why education is so bad right now.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:41PM (4 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:41PM (#486629) Homepage Journal

        You should pay attention to who you're talking to. I'm neither conservative nor retirement age.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:50PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:50PM (#486639)

          That is your reply? The least important aspect is what you glom on to???

          Maybe its cause you're old now and have been out of the job market for a long time

          There was a "maybe" in there and the point was that you don't know about the current struggles of young people trying to get into the job market. I do know enough about you, not your precise age but you run your own business supposedly so you are on the wrong side of the problem to understand what applicants go through. Your rhetoric is always about irresponsible kids not doing enough and you just ignore the actual problems.

          Good job being self-centered as if my slight mis-characterization of you is the really important part.

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:58PM (2 children)

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:58PM (#486652) Homepage Journal

            The rest of it wasn't really worth a response.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:17PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:17PM (#486665)

              Oh ho! Dismiss what you don't like Mighty Ostrich.

              • (Score: 1, Troll) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:06PM

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:06PM (#486713) Journal

                Yeah he's not doing too well on that front today :) I reckon I've just about exhausted him; keep hammering at him and he may have a stroke.

                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:02PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:02PM (#486707)

        The US is (give or take some fiddly details about precisely how you measure it) the single country in the world that pays the most, per capita, on its school age kids.

        If you wriggle the numbers just right, including vocational schools and so on, and selectively ignore some facts about purchasing power parity, you can make it look as if the USA is number two in per capita costs.

        So, of course, the US of A has the gosh-darn bestest educational outcomes in the world, amirite?

        Wait, what, I'm not right? Second? Third? No?

        Oh.

        OK, so then the question becomes: how can we spend smarter, not harder? Because throwing buckets-o-cash at it sure as hell hasn't worked. And in fact, maybe we should stop throwing those buckets-o-cash until we have a better plan?

        No, that's crazy talk. This is America, we'll spend until it hurts! That'll fix it!

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Thursday March 30 2017, @09:05PM

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday March 30 2017, @09:05PM (#486746) Journal

      This.

      Take my high school experience. I went to a public vocational school, Thomas A. Edison Vocational and Technical HS in Jamaica, NYC. It had some great vocational programs including Automotive (one of the best there was), Business Equipment Repair, HVAC, Carpentry, Plumbing, Machine Shop, and Electrical Installation. For their technical classes they had Electrical Engineering, Bio Medical, Publishing, and one or two others. I took Electrical Installation, training to become an electrician or technician. You were also given great career opportunities out of school as they had hooks into the Local 3 Electrical Union, MTA, LIRR, Con Edison, and a few other big companies.

      By the time I got there the Machine and HVAC shops were gone and divided up into classrooms. During my first year they lost some funding for the vocational programs. So they merged part of electrical installation, plumbing and carpentry into one program called General Contracting. My shop teacher, a licensed master electrician, was furious they did this and said "There is no such profession as general contracting. Those kids are getting ripped off. They should sue the school" On the positive side, the Automotive and Electrical Installation shops were going strong. My shop teacher then got the school to relocate an entire robotics lab to our shop class in senior year. They inherited the lab from Jamaica High across the street. They tried to start a technical program but it failed to launch. I spent half a year getting that system working and even setup a fancy demo for open house. Either way, my experience was nothing but positive in that school. I learned a whole lot of things and worked on some interesting electrical equipment. I heard it went to shit about 10 years later but today is back on its feet sans half of the programs (progress, right?).

      The problem revealed to me by my shop teacher was one of funding and paying experienced teachers. First off, technical and vocational shops are not only expensive to maintain but are also a huge liability insurance wise. As funding is cut, the first things to go are the more costly technical and vocational shops. Then you have the problem of getting competent teachers. People with technical experience aren't going to settle for $40-60K/yr when their profession pays double or more. My shop teacher had his own gig and used the school system for its pension and health benefits. He already had his own business and ran it while teaching. Once his kids were old enough, they ran the business while he was teaching. He now lives in a 10k square foot home in North Carolina with two three car garages for all his toys. He did teaching the right way. But not everyone has that mentality or family willing to pitch in and do the same. That man had a huge Impact on my life and was an amazing teacher. I wish there were more teachers like him in this world. We would be a lot better off.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:38PM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:38PM (#486789) Journal

      We're just utterly failing to teach them things that are actually useful.

      You mean... like... doing something useful instead of wasting their time on SN?
      Some 6000+ people in this world don't know it themselves, how do you expect to teach their children?

      (grin)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday March 31 2017, @09:24AM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Friday March 31 2017, @09:24AM (#486998) Journal

        I'll have you know I have tens, if not hundreds of useful projects in some state of compeletion (or commencement. Or planning)
        Alas, I learned all the "actually useful" skills for these projects from my grandfather and father, but I learned *how to ask questions* and *how to learn* partly from school.
        But then I didn't go to school in the US.

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex