Capitalism Kills. US Youth Suicides On The Rise

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

As we have stressed on this blog many times, US capitalism is in crisis. Politically, the era in which two capitalist parties (the Democratic Party originally the party of the slaveocracy) that have dominated US society for over a century is coming to an end. The US economy, as powerful as it is cannot provide decent housing, health care, public transportation or education for millions of its citizens. On a global scale capitalism is threatening environmental catastrophe and ending life as we know it. These conditions will only worsen in the period ahead as the economy enters recession or possibly a deeper slump.

Recent statistics on youth suicide are alarming and linked to the crisis in the public school system and this general crisis of US capitalism. The suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 years old rose 56% between 2007 and 2017 a year in which 2,200 teens age 15 to 19 died by suicide.  For black children ages 5 to 12, the suicide rate was found to be two times higher than white children.

For all ages and ethnic groups, suicide rates rose “….. 30% from 1999 to 2016. In 2017, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among those ages 10 to 24” according to a recent CDC report.

An interesting point is that according to the CDC report, school shootings “account for less than 2% of all youth homicide deaths in the US” the Wall Street Journal reports and have very little influence on the national trend.

Naturally experts struggle to find the cause of this human crisis. Maybe it’s a “rise in depression” , perhaps drug use, stress, access to firearms. These are all claimed to be “contributing factors” by experts. Social media, smartphone use, sleep depravation, are all sought out as causes. Never is capitalism and the alienation resulting from this system of production ever considered.

In some communities, it doesn’t take rocket science to understand that the young see that the community around them is not conducive to generating high expectations; it’s hard enough if your folks have a somewhat decent job or perhaps three jobs in order to make ends meet and can provide a little more comfort and opportunity but for the poor it’s extremely difficult and a credit to humanity that people maintain dignity at all under these conditions no matter who they are.

Drugs, crime, liquor stores, unemployment, homelessness, police repression are all around you and if it appears that it’s always people that look like you that are in desperate straits coupled with the dominance of an alien class ideology that affirms we are in control of our own destiny------it’s just a mater of making the right decisions------there is a strong tendency to blame oneself for conditions that are not of our own making. It’s my fault, our fault. Much like the victim of domestic violence who the perpetrator convinces is the cause of the assaults.

Someone wrote on social media the other day after a cop shot another black person in their own home, that black folks need a new emergency number; 911 is not working. In addition to poverty, there is the institutionalized racism that black folks and other people of color have to deal with. What sort of society do we live in where a whole section of the population takes time to teach their young children how to behave when approached by a cop as so many of them have been shot and killed by the very force that is supposed to protect citizens. What or how does this influence the consciousness of young people in this situation? What’s it like for a person of color, to live under a regime where the leading figure is a outright racist?

Even among the middle class, US society can be very stressful as the pressure to keep what one has and the fear that one is only a few paychecks from homelessness is immense.  Insecurity, constant fear and unease must be the norm. The inherent human tendency toward solidarity, kindness and collective activity has to be undermined, broken. People have to fear everyone around them and at all times, foreigners. The US we are led to believe is a nation under siege.  We are constantly reminded to thank our military for defending us, when the US military is not a defensive force but an offensive one. What country could invade the US? It would be committing mass suicide.

But the crisis of suicides among the youth is just one more reflection of a system that gives them no hope for the future. Fear, endless wars and the dark cloud of mistrust; this is what lies behind the mass shootings, the suicides, the general crisis that people sense in society.

When a plant wilts we first check the soil in which it grows. Is there enough water, nutrients; is it the right soil? Same if we lose fish in our aquarium. We check the water.

We are not supposed to think of ourselves living in a particular social system a system of production. Problems are personal, individual, a product of a character flaw or greed in the abstract. Again, self blame. It’s never rooted in the system.

Racism is a problem not because individuals are racist but because the social system we live in is. Racism doesn’t “begin in the home”. What does that mean? How far back in a family do we go to find out which parents started the racism? No, racism is an integral part of our society. It is a conscious divide and rule strategy that plays an important role in undermining working class unity. The ruling class is wary of it, try to keep it on the back burner, always simmering but sometimes the crisis breaks in to the open and it becomes very costly and an obstacle to profits and capital accumulation.   

They try to “manage” it but it is too useful a tool in their arsenal for the ruling class to eliminate it. Racism is as natural to the capitalist system as poverty is. As Malcolm X said, “You can’t have capitalism without racism.”

I remember reading about the Oakland General Strike of 1946. You can go to the Oakland public library and research it there. The police chief at the time noticed that despite thousands of people being out of their homes and in the streets, there appeared to be less crime. One would think home breakings would have increased but the opposite was the case. Fighting the real enemy, the real cause of our oppression, is a healthy activity in more ways than one. The union played that role for me personally.

As I write this Sunday morning, there are massive protests in Chile led by youth. 

Strikes are beginning to rise in the US and workers will learn through this experience that they have to change the course of and the present leadership of their trade unions; always a difficult task but a necessary one.
 

There are protests in Hong Kong and Russia, led by youth and also in Lebanon, and throughout the world the young people are rising up against climate change, the greatest threat facing the planet and our existence on it,

Suicide is an act of desperation, an escape from what one perceives as unsolvable problems. Yes, there is such a thing as mental illness. But who would not get sick in a society like ours, especially the young?

As a movement grows and draws in to it all the elements and victims of the so-called free market the youth will feel less inclined to escape from the system and instead see a way to change it.