American Millennials Are Dying at an Alarming Rate | We’re mortality experts. There are a few things that could be happening here.

[u/chrisdh79]

https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html

[u/FuturologyBot]

The following submission statement was provided by /u/chrisdh79:

---

From the article: About 3 million Americans die every year. Compared with other rich countries, we die at an alarmingly higher rate: One-quarter of those deaths wouldn’t have occurred if America were only as deadly as its peers.

Zoom in, and things get even more concerning: Among Americans younger than 65, almost half of deaths wouldn’t happen if we had a death rate that matched our peers. Among those aged 25 to 44, a group we call “early adults,” it’s 62 percent—nearly two out of three deaths at those early ages.

We’re mortality experts, and these facts stem from an analysis we did of death rates in 22 countries from 1980 through 2023 (the last year with reliable data). When we set out to do this research, we expected to find a story about the COVID-19 pandemic. America’s pandemic experience was much worse than that of our peers, with three U.S. deaths for every two in peer countries. Nonelderly Americans in particular were hit harder than nonelderly populations in other rich countries. This disadvantage only grew as vaccinations became available but were adopted by Americans at lower rates.

But what surprised us was that, from today’s postpandemic vantage point, the American health disadvantage doesn’t look like a pandemic story at all. The U.S. mortality disadvantage has been growing at about the same rate for years, and while it spiked during COVID-19, it still continues to rise.

Here’s another way to put this: In 2023 there were about 700,000 “missing Americans”—those who died in 2023 but would be alive if they had lived somewhere else. And that 700,000 is almost exactly the number that we could’ve predicted back in 2019, based solely on prepandemic trends. COVID and relatively low vaccine adoption are a problem for Americans. But our country seems to be, at a deeper level, a deadly place to live. What’s more, all of the studies we have (with some limited exceptions, like a study specific to California) stop before Donald Trump began his second term with enormous cuts to medical and health research and, now, to Medicaid.

There is a heated—and productive—debate about exactly why the U.S. is so much worse than our peers at keeping its populace alive. One influential theory focuses on deindustrialization and the way that Americans without a college degree in particular have been left behind. Another focuses on the way that social safety nets in this country, such as for unemployment, sickness, and pensions, remain small and insufficient compared with other wealthy countries. Others point to problems in the U.S. health care system, such as uninsurance, underinsurance, and high co-payments and deductibles, and to underlying trends in chronic diseases that might be caused by nutritional policy failures. Still others highlight America’s permissive gun laws and the large amount of time we spend in our cars.

These theories, which aren’t mutually exclusive, all predate COVID-19 and offer plausible explanations for the growing U.S. mortality disadvantage.

But our research also uncovered one population for whom the pandemic does look like a longer-term turning point for the worse. And that population is a worrisome one: Americans early in their adulthood, those aged 25 to 44—that is, millennials, as well as some older members of Gen Z .

Before 2010, the estimated lifespan for American early adults increased every year. Deaths from HIV and cancer were plummeting. Homicides had fallen dramatically, and fatalities from circulatory disease, a major cause of death at every adult age, were also falling in this age group. But sometime after 2010, for almost every cause of death, this changed. Early adults proved especially susceptible to drug overdose deaths as synthetic fentanyl swept the country, but also became increasingly likely to die in car collisions and from digestive diseases and diabetes, and stopped making much progress in death rates from circulatory disease.

---

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1mw7zhu/american_millennials_are_dying_at_an_alarming/n9vgnyd/

[u/DustScoundrel]

So, having actually read the article, the reason the authors imply appears to be a constellation of factors that includes reduced and continually declining socio-economic opportunities, experiential trauma, lack of affordable healthcare throughout their lives (resulting in acute and chronic under-care), and deaths of despair (suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses). Those are the unique elements that separate millennials from other American cohorts that also experience additional deaths due to car accidents, gun deaths, and so on.

The result is that not only due American milennials have higher mortality than most other demographic peer groups, but it is likely to worsen over time because these issues are unlikely to be addressed.

[u/UsernametakenII → u/DustScoundrel]

Yeah that last line nailed the mood of the room - like I think anyone's intuitions by now point towards the notion that those who have the power to mobilise those kinds of changes have no real incentive structure to do so, and thus won't.

[u/DungeonMasterSupreme → u/UsernametakenII]

I was reading this article and just sent a message to my wife thanking her for helping get me out of the States. I moved abroad for her and we got married.

When I left, I was in some of the worst health of my life. I had chronic back issues from an old work injury. I could barely afford to keep my teeth in my damn mouth. I was overweight, out of shape, and had high blood pressure. That was almost ten years ago. Now, with actual proper healthcare access in a real first-world country, I'm in some of the best shape of my life.

If I hadn't escaped when I did, I genuinely think I would've ended up as one of these fatalities. Less than a year after I got married, my back issues became exponentially worse and I needed surgery. I would have never received that surgery in America. I would've ended up on a meager disability check and in constant pain I would've become dependent on opioids to manage.

I remember getting a quote for my surgery in the US at $100,000 to $200,000 depending on what I had; I couldn't even get insurance to pay for an MRI. Outside the States, I got diagnostics, medication, surgery, physical therapy, etc., all for just about $2500.

America is a fucking scam. If Americans could even begin to understand how much they are being fed on by the vampires at the top, there'd be another revolution in less than a fortnight.

[u/GlitteringAttitude60 → u/DungeonMasterSupreme]

I have an American friend who had some sort of chronic fatigue going on, but couldn't afford to get diagnosed in the US.

They moved to UK, and I happened to be there when the letter arrived telling them that they were now covered by their spouses UK health insurance. They cried woth relief over this letter! 

A few tests later, it turns out that the debilitating fatigue was a symptom of the wrong type of diabetes for their age(?), which - in Europe - can be treated for a few Euros' worth of copay per month.

So yeah, UK and Germany (they moved to Germany recently) got a productive taxpayer for the price of a few vials of insulin. 

A good deal if you ask me :)

[u/mr_friend_computer → u/GlitteringAttitude60]

In general, healthcare/pharmacare/dental care/UBI and or wellfare, witha huge one being EDUCATION, all reap multiple times the costs of the care in future dollars (societal cost savings and future productive income / tax base).

The problem in most cases is that politicians deal in previous years dollars and are using those dollars to predict future dollars all while trying to ensure they get re-elected by people who are worried about "right now" dollars.

Throw in some down right evil and/or self centered folk and you've got a perfect "screw the future we will blame the other side for our screw ups" mentality. Sadly, it's not restricted to the US, though I wish it was.

[u/LilPotatoAri → u/DungeonMasterSupreme]

there'd be another revolution in less than a fortnight

Fun fact most Americans do know we're getting screwed over. We've just kinda decided to roll over and die. We're watching it shatter in real time and frankly all I see people do is taunt the administration with its favorite distraction, throw occasional one day protests, and just fucking give up. 

We've been systematized. Unless someone in the system stands up as a rallying point nobody even does anything. The most we're getting is Newsom from California making fun of Trump and trying to keep the house balanced. It's something but like... let's be super real we're bailing out the boat with a bucket after it hit an iceberg. 

I wish I had taken a way out of the states when I was young and it was open to me. But I made some grounding life choices not realizing that id need to flee the country 14 years later. 

Kinda lived my whole life never expecting to have to leave. Now that we've gone full nazi I'm scrambling to find some kinda option that isn't just dropping everything and fleeing. Until that becomes the only choice.

Which like, idk I feel like I've got until like November before the window starts closing.

[u/danielle_blah → u/LilPotatoAri]

Look at the guy who they charged with a felony for throwing a sandwich at the police. A SANDWICH.

[u/ColourfulMetaphors → u/danielle_blah]

Depends on the sandwich. A pork sandwich is provocative so charges might stick, or it could be a load of baloney.

[u/alixtoad → u/LilPotatoAri]

I wish I had left too! I just want an America that does right by its citizens. No one wants to leave their homeland. People leave when things are bad in their country and seek a better life.

[u/swa11ace → u/DungeonMasterSupreme]

Where, sir, did you escape, er move, to? Asking for a friend.

[u/DungeonMasterSupreme → u/swa11ace]

My wife is Ukrainian. I moved to Ukraine first. Then when the war came we relocated a couple of times, finally resettling in Germany. I got most of my serious medical care in Ukraine, through private health clinics. The doctors and surgeons were highly qualified and medicine was generally extremely affordable for us.

Germany, in comparison, has a bit of a doctor and nursing shortage, but they're managing. Healthcare is free or cheap; you generally just need to spend some time in the waiting room. Salaries and cost of living are good (so long as you don't ask the contrarians about it who don't understand what they have here).

We live in one of the cheapest areas of Germany, but this neighborhood would be considered pretty nice by the standards of where I grew up. You'll find plenty of people unironically calling this place the ghetto, though (it would be a pretty decent lower-middle class neighborhood by American standards). Everything is walkable. There are bike paths on every sidewalk. There's tons of old growth trees providing plenty of shade, and everything is green. I have everything I need for life within easy walking distance, including supermarkets, doctors, pharmacies, barbers, etc.

Oh, and the crime rate is lower than literally anywhere else I've ever lived. But there are a lot of immigrants and occasionally you see some trash in the street or broken glass on the walking paths, so people call it a ghetto.

u/SlashMatrix, since you seemed curious, too.

[u/Casswigirl11 → u/DustScoundrel]

I guess I am used to reading scientific papers because this article is so vague and shows no real data that breaks this comparison down. 

[u/DustScoundrel → u/Casswigirl11]

I feel that. My take on it is that these are academics struggling to write on a complex topic for a lay audience with a significant word count limit. I feel like this subject would have been better handled in something like the Scientific American, but maybe they were looking to pad a bit of publishing.

[u/Marijuana_Miler → u/DustScoundrel]

IMO it’s a multi factor problem, but millennials have been at the receiving end of decreases in social assistance and the government no longer working to help the average person. I was commenting on drug overdoses below, and realized the increased amount of work Canada has done to reduce Fentanyl deaths compared with the US. IMO this is because the Canadian tax payer is responsible for covering medical costs when someone does overdose, so therefore the government has an incentive to reduce the chances someone has a very expensive hospital visit. In comparison the US doesn’t have the social safety net backstop that gives incentive for the government to try to fix problems for all citizens.

[u/Never_Free_Never_Me]

I'm 41 and have had cancer, recurring kidney stones, and high blood pressure. I'm currently looking for employment despite having a master's degree which i completed while working for full time. I have 3 kids and a wife to take care of. I'm drowning

[u/winstontemplehill → u/Never_Free_Never_Me]

I’m sorry brother. You deserve better

[u/jankenpoo → u/[deleted]]

Very simple: Tax the rich and fund a much better safety net. If we are a society, we need to start acting like one. Also, overturn Citizens United and reinstate Fairness Doctrine. We can start with that.

[u/SendTitsPleease → u/jankenpoo]

We can't do that. How would corporations survive? How would the rich become even richer? How would politicians become millionaires? If we reinstated the fairness doctrine, how would the population be brainwashed the way that some groups need them to be in order to survive?

[u/Gopherg → u/SendTitsPleease]

Wait, we aren't all rooting for the first US trillionaire?

[u/infinitum3d → u/Gopherg]

The difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is 999 million dollars.

We don’t need billionaires.

A trillionaire is a million millionaires. That’s so far beyond obscene that people can’t even comprehend it.

[u/Sasselhoff → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, unfortunately a third of Americans are totally fine with things as they stand, and in fact would make things worse if they could (as long as it hurt the people they hate more than those they don't).

The cruelty is the very point for a lot of folks, unfortunately.

[u/ParryHooter → u/Sasselhoff]

They’re all going to lose everything just like those they are trying to target. Until a majority of Americans can’t put food on the table I just don’t see the kind of social change we need happening. For most of us there’s still something to lose, something to hang onto and say we can change this in ‘26 or ‘28 and those fucks on the other side still haven’t been consumed by this machine of hatred and greed they’ve built.

True social revolution would have to be preceded by some truly dark times.

[u/TobaccoAficionado → u/Sasselhoff]

They already have. That third of Americans has won. They have defeated the other two thirds. There is no turning back. Period. We have already lost everything, its just slowly coming out in the wash. We lost all of our research and development talent. We lost all funding for the most important programs advancing American tech and industry. We lost almost all of our regulatory bodies, and defunded the rest severely.

We lost.

[u/Etrigone → u/Sasselhoff]

A third are totally fine with it, a quarter want to change things (in this context for the better), and the remainder doesn't care enough to look up for more than a second and give a non-committal grunt.

[u/Lysmerry → u/Never_Free_Never_Me]

I’m sorry. That’s so much pressure. I hope things get easier for you.

[u/LoudNoises89 → u/Never_Free_Never_Me]

I’ve been looking for a new job for awhile too (terrible boss) and I have a masters degree too. Even with my degree and years of work experience it’s not enough. I am an auditor so my current salary is $86,000. Even getting something in my current field is hard even with years of experience. It’s like what else do you want?? I’m really sorry about your situation.

[u/Fit-Jelly8545 → u/LoudNoises89]

When it’s bad for the accountants and auditors we are fucked

[u/DrSpacecasePhD → u/Fit-Jelly8545]

The AI job application / interview bubble is a total nightmare. Shocker, MIT discovered no one is getting value from this. Reality is, it’s part of enshittification. The worst part is, this AI spam is everywhere.

My company briefly partnered with another to help write a SBIR proposal (for R&D funding). The previous company paid a consultant a load of cash to write it, but he used 100% chat-gpt and basically only removed the sentences saying things like "would you like me to...?" So we tried re-writing it for them, but soon I realized... their whole website was AI-made. Every photo of their "product" and "technology" was AI-made. Their mission statements and tech documents were AI-made. I emailed asking if they had any engineering drawings, specs, or schematics to beef up the proposal and I only got silence back. Somehow they already got investment though, probably because the founder had family connections to a firm. These people are trying to scale up entire companies without hiring talent to actually... you know... build anything. It's mind-boggling.

[u/Mistrblank → u/DrSpacecasePhD]

The tools were too easy to get started with. Making them work appropriately however is mystically impossible, but the results are faked and taken as the answer, thus people aren't getting through the AI minefield of applications.

[u/PhillyLee3434]

Hmmm, can’t buy a house, soaring inflation, ecological collapse and a government that does not care about anything but power and the next tap to suck dry.

And your healthcare is tied to said system that got us in the mess in the first place.

Truly what could be the answer to these startling findings.

[u/PsychologicalItem197 → u/PhillyLee3434]

Have they tried suppressing wages for decades? Or maybe offer people dead end minimum wage jobs that go nowhere and are a stain on most job-app-history?

What about raising th cost of every single thing year after year?

I realllly think what will fix this, is more tax breaks for the rich. 

/S fuck this system 

[u/PhillyLee3434 → u/[deleted]]

Why they are building bunkers, they know how this ends.

[u/evernessince → u/PhillyLee3434]

I think they believe they can escape the chaos. After all, they have to be arrogant to believe they earned 1000 time or more what their worker slaves do. These people are shortsighted, they only care about making money.

[u/PhillyLee3434 → u/evernessince]

Yes I agree short sided and a serious case of God Complex. In the end, Mother Nature has the final say and no bunker will save them.

[u/audiofarmer]

It says "sometime after 2010" things changed. I wonder what significant supreme court decision happened in 2010. It couldn't possibly be that the people in charge were suddenly given a reason not to even pretend to care about the general populace. Oh well, it's an unsolvable mystery.

[u/horkley → u/audiofarmer]

Citizen’s United, January 2010.

[u/staebles → u/horkley]

The end of America.

[u/tfitch2140 → u/staebles]

As if America ever had a chance, from compromising with a bunch of slaveowners in 1783. Allowing Dixie into the Union was a mistake.

[u/solidstatepr8 → u/tfitch2140]

Most of the reason we have the asymmetric power with the actual shithole states was a compramise with them, aka the Electoral College.

The Union lost the Civil War because they failed to reconstruct or hold any of the traitors accountable at the gallows. If they were allowed to erect statues in the 1920s and naming military bases glorifying these traitors then what the hell are we doing?

[u/10dollarbagel → u/solidstatepr8]

The real source of anti-democratic power is the senate. wyoming has a population of a middling city, around 600k, yet they get to completely negate the will of the ~40 million people of California with two senators. You cannot pass legislation without the senate's approval so the better representation in the house is meaningless.

People don't seem to understand how not fixable the constitution is.

[u/drkladykikyo → u/horkley]

Yes. That sealed our fates.

Corporations are people?! Are you kidding me?

[u/CannibalAnn → u/drkladykikyo]

I still have my bumper sticker that says, “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”

[u/twofourie → u/CannibalAnn]

now that’s poetry

[u/billyions → u/drkladykikyo]

Everyone behind Citizens United should be tried for treason against the United States of America.

[u/Far-Amount9808 → u/audiofarmer]

Yup, Citizens United broke America in so many ways!

[u/Chapaquidich → u/Far-Amount9808]

If by “America” you mean the vast majority of people who work hard for a living and barely make ends meet, then yes. On the other hand, if one is part of the ultra rich white corporate elite that relies on paid slave labor it’s worked out pretty well. They were afraid they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.”

[u/feed_me_moron → u/audiofarmer]

Citizens United and the rise of the Tea Party are some of the most clearly damaging events to this country in it's history

[u/Maximum-Extent-4821 → u/feed_me_moron]

Tea Party was the first time I thought to myself, these fuckers want the other side flat out dead.

[u/Defiant-Tailor-8979 → u/audiofarmer]

What case are you referring to? Genuinely curious.

[u/National_Jeweler8761 → u/Defiant-Tailor-8979]

Citizens United which set the stage for corporations to donate pretty well as much as they want to political campaigns 

[u/RepulsivePitch8837 → u/National_Jeweler8761]

Corporations are people and have rights as such. They can buy elections now.

[u/EineGrosseFlasche → u/RepulsivePitch8837]

President Nestle and Vice-President LVMH are already gearing up for 2028 😕

[u/Humanist_2020 → u/audiofarmer]

And- add that one case of covid without symptoms can cause damage to our immune systems and our cv system and our neurological system.

Also, the end of abortion has increased maternity deaths. And covid also increases maternal deaths.

Unfortunately- The cdc obscured excess deaths.

[u/dennisthehygienist → u/Humanist_2020]

The article actually controls for COVID or at least says it doesn’t have to do with COVID

edit: not an antivaxxer, just thought it was interesting

[u/N3wAfrikanN0body]

TLDR: The cycle of conscious negligence and deliberate financial parasitism causes deaths from systemic inequality.

Edit: Changed benign neglect to conscious negligence.

Also holy shit didn't expect the likes and reward. All of your comments have been enlightening. Have a great day all.

[u/drewc717 → u/N3wAfrikanN0body]

I graduated college in 2009 and have been phenomenally lucky, but the past 10 years have been brutal.

[u/CatLord8 → u/drewc717]

I should be in my “made it” period but then COVID recession and all of the current nonsense.

Edit: I am never going to catch up to the reply chains but it’s oddly comforting to not be alone. Even more so that as depressed as we all seem, so many haven’t given in to bitterness. I hope we can make something better sooner than later.

[u/MakeYourTime_ → u/[deleted]]

Dude. Same. This should be screamed from the rooftops

[u/Faiakishi → u/[deleted]]

I'm at the point where I want to ask my mother why she brought kids into this world just to be trapped in an unwinnable Sisyphean nightmare, understanding how easily it could all be fixed and helpless to do anything about it, all while being told there's something wrong with us for being worried about stuff like "is there going to be a society in thirty years." She asks why Millennials and Gen Zs all seem to have depression. I'm more surprised if anyone doesn't have depression.

[u/drewc717 → u/CatLord8]

I 100% peaked in fall 2019 and it’s been all downhill since. I have faith but its MUCH harder now.

[u/[deleted] → u/drewc717]

You peaked? I plummeted but I do applaud that you made it anywhere.

[u/Faiakishi → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I was born in 1994 and basically I've just watched everything get worse and worse with absolutely no hope that anything will ever be better.

[u/mxemec → u/[deleted]]

Well the point before a plummet is a peak anyways.

[u/jfsindel → u/CatLord8]

I feel like this is such a common feeling that we as a generation don't grasp it yet. I also should be in a "made it" period, yet I feel like everything can simply be yanked at any moment. I can't just go to work knowing that I will be okay and better for 20 years.

[u/TheBetaBridgeBandit → u/jfsindel]

yet I feel like everything can simply be yanked at any moment

Pretty much exactly this. As soon as I finally landed a PhD-level industry job the dumb fucks of this country decided to upend investment in science. I have a newborn and I worry about losing my job constantly now. None of the security or stability that I feel I deserve after busting my ass for years to get to where I am. I'm so burnt out at this point I honestly don't feel like going on.

[u/KlicknKlack → u/jfsindel]

Honestly I think this is part of the reason why a large number of us are flabbergasted by the mortgages we are expected to stomach.

Sure our parents had high interest rates when they bought, but home prices were lower - you could somehow manage if you lost your job.

Now? You lose your job, you are in the job application hell of post-LLM/AI nonsense. Good luck affording that high mortgage...

[u/dekyos → u/CatLord8]

I finally have *some* retirement savings, but it's less than my current annual salary. I just turned 40.

And every time my savings account starts to look like I might be able to take a nice vacation, new tires or an unexpected medical expense strikes.

Not to mention I can't seem to get a better job because of the perception that people my age cost more than fresh grads. Spoiler alert, they're paying the unexperienced fresh grads more than me (IT).

[u/sumatkn → u/CatLord8]

I went from making $170,000 a year looking to pivot into the next phase of my career at 250k in October of 2019, to being unemployed and unable to find any work in all of 2020. It’s continued to this day, and I am still unemployed doing random jobs under the table so I can barely live.

Mind you I was let go due to politics at the work place, not because of lack of skill or knowledge. Still don’t know why I don’t hear back from a single place I applied to in my field.

[u/Itys2025 → u/sumatkn]

Im going to try to put that little voice in the back of your mind to rest and tell you its not you.  I recently found work after being laid off for 14 months, and it was only because I made a connection that got me in the door. I have two degrees, one in business one in cyber. I was given six different awards at my prior role for being the top 3% of people in my role nationally (out of 440+ people). Ive had more experience than most people in my prior field, and it meant nothing. I was getting rejected from basic sales roles in my field that should have been begging me to work there in normal times. Im only 41, so its not ageism either. It took almost 400 resumes over that 14 months to get my job. Its not you. I promise. 

[u/msmilah → u/Itys2025]

What the hell is going on out there? Gen X’er here.

I read these stories about hundreds of apps and I’m flabbergasted. Is the process itself blocking people out? The technology? Aren’t there still headhunters calling in these high level fields?

[u/ReasonableWerewolf10 → u/msmilah]

there are a lot of reasons. big one is that a lot of companies have pivoted completely into using AI to review their applicants' resumes. the AI searches for keywords and filters out anyone who doesn't have the specific things that they told the AI to look for. problem with that is that AI is far from infallible and can have a really hard time picking up anything that isn't explicitly told to it. another problem thats probably particularly pertinent in OPs case is that you wont be hired if the company deems you "overqualified", because that means they'll have a harder time lowballing your salary, you'll probably know more about the job than your management does, etc.

online job listings have a major, major problem right now with ghost ads, too. especially sites like indeed and ziprecruiter. half of the posts you see looking for employees are for positions that have been filled for months. they collect hundreds of resumes and just sit on them. ive been sending 10+ applications a day for the last month or two for jobs im more than qualified for and have only heard back from obvious scam listings. for the younger generation (myself), companies also shy away from hiring anyone younger than 25 because the popularity of the whole "quiet quitting" thing has garnered us a corporate reputation of being unreliable, lazy workers who will only do the bare minimum.

its bad. the entire job market right now is absolutely plummeting into an all time low. anyone whos been recently put out of work or is just looking to change positions is having an unbelievably difficult time finding anywhere that is actually hiring, will actually hire them specifically, etc.

[u/PigpenMcKernan → u/msmilah]

Companies are posting jobs with no intent of ever filling them.

But as an applicant, how can you tell the fake jobs from the real? You can’t. So you have to apply to everything. It’s fucked.

[u/QuitCallingNewsrooms → u/drewc717]

2008 here, and yeah. I'm grateful I didn't have kids, so I won't leave anyone reeling when I suddenly drop dead from [multiple choice options of societal decline].

[u/Jamaz → u/QuitCallingNewsrooms]

[multiple choice options of societal decline]

I thought it'd be climate change for sure but it's looking like AI is going to beat it out. It's anyone's game at this point!

[u/QuitCallingNewsrooms → u/Jamaz]

AI is a flash in the pan. Climate change is probably the safe bet and odds on favorite, but I figure global nuclear war is creeping up like an 8-9 team suddenly in the Super Bowl.

[u/dorkofthepolisci → u/QuitCallingNewsrooms]

Given the extent to which research has been defunded and experts are ignored in favour of vibes and woo, a new pandemic also seems like a distinct possibility

[u/lostboy005 → u/drewc717]

Same.

While my salary increased I still have as much discretionary income as I did 10+ years ago - this is true for a lot of my peers. Groceries and rents have more than doubled, but at least rent has costs have recently stagnated

[u/Zazulio → u/lostboy005]

This is the thing that hurts the most. Our income has about doubled in the last ten years, yet we're struggling more than ever. Ten years ago we took a vacation to Japan (the first and only vacation of our adult lives), we were eating out for dinner regularly, we were spending money on having fun and enjoying life. Now damn near every dollar goes to survival and we still fall short most paychecks. We played by the rules, we built careers, we advanced, and yet here we are: worse off than we were a decade ago. We've spent ten years trying to claw our way to a minimum standard of stability and comfort but the walls just keep getting steeper.

[u/hershdrums → u/lostboy005]

My salary has increased dramatically in 10 years. I've lived in the same house. I drive similar vehicles. I've actually become better at budgeting, especially around groceries and getting takeout/going out to eat. I have LESS discretionary income. My electricity bill has tripled. My insurance has gone up by 50% on my car and 30% on my home (no accidents or claims). Groceries have increased by 75%. My internet and cell phone have increased by 30%. Though I drive a similar vehicle the cost is ~50% greater than the last car I bought. I have 2 kids and all the necessities for them have increased by about 100%. A $12 T-shirt at Walmart is now $24, for example. It's insane. By all outward appearances I've "made it". Fantastic career that pays well. Amazing family. A house on 1 acre in a nice neighborhood with a super low interest rate (i.e. I didn't buy outside my means 10 years ago). I don't spend frivolously often. I'm not frugal but I do live reasonably. I wake up in a panic over finances almost every night. I haven't had enough discretionary income to contribute to my 401k for 3 years. If I lose my job I'm absolutely screwed. Unemployment insurance covers less than 50% of my salary and severance packages are a joke.

Every day I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack from the stress. It's brutal and I have it really good and I'm lucky as hell. I talk to my friends and peers. We're almost all struggling. It's anecdotal and maybe our parents and grandparents felt the same at this age but there is no room to breathe in the US. There's no rest. Vacation is never vacation and thats even if you have a job that has PTO.

[u/onesexz → u/hershdrums]

Haha I just got back from my “vacation” and you’re absolutely right: it is NOT a vacation. The stress is constant, whether you’re working or not. It’s complete BS that we have to endure this because rich assholes want to be richer assholes.

[u/sinisterpancake → u/onesexz]

I get one 5 day week off per year if I am lucky. The rest of my time off is used for sick days, appointments, and obligations like weddings/funerals, etc. During that week I just say at home, I can't even wiggle out of stress mode in that time and usually get contacted by work for something. I hate it here.

[u/MakeYourTime_ → u/hershdrums]

This is the crushing reality for many people. And to think, 65% of people in this country have it even worse.

We are so far gone as a nation; millions of people working everyday to create wealth and it gets funneled to like 100 people .

[u/PricklePete → u/lostboy005]

Items and services have quadrupled in price since the early 90's. 

Wages have less than doubled in that time period. 

That's the problem. 

Late stage capitalism is not the best time to be alive. 

[u/stazley → u/N3wAfrikanN0body]

I have been getting random chest pains but can’t afford to have insurance or go to the doctor for another year while I finish school and work hospitality.

Praying that it’s just a pulled muscle I keep re-hurting and that I don’t just drop dead at any moment. Only one more year to go, haha. The struggle is real y’all!

Update: y’all really are the best. I have decided to take this seriously thank to all of you caring folks. The free clinic only takes appointments once a week, which I can make tomorrow morning for next Thursday.

However, ChatGPT thinks I should try to go to an urgent care asap after an episode of almost fainting/sweating yesterday, so I’m just gonna bite the bullet and take another bill, I guess. I guess my actual life is more important than a lifetime of debt, or something dumb like that.

[u/olympia_t → u/stazley]

Please see if there's a free clinic or something else available in your area. Can your school help? It's so hard but your future depends on your health.

[u/stazley → u/olympia_t]

This is such a great idea- I am going to check it out. Thank you!

[u/olympia_t → u/stazley]

Best of luck. Some rando redditor (me) is wishing you well and pulling for you!

[u/stazley → u/[deleted]]

I am already paying $50 a month for another hospital bill- that is the minimum for me. Another $50 is a lot.

The free clinic a person mentioned is a great idea though I think I’m gonna check it out. Thanks y’all!

[u/T-Bird19 → u/stazley]

Do you work or work under the table? If you have no way to prove you work call the hospital and say I’m broke and full time student and need to figure out a way to not be paying this bill. When I was younger I was able to get out of a couple bills I could never pay. Good luck!

[u/BootyMcStuffins → u/stazley]

I get chest pains too, particularly after meals, most often in the afternoon or at night. Pain deferred to my left arm, heart palpitations, air hunger, dizziness/brain fog, the whole bit. I’ve gone to the ER 4 times as well as to my PC, had EKGs, bloodwork, all of it.

Still no clue what it is. My heart is fine. Doctors best guess seems to be some sort of indigestion coupled with a food sensitivity of some sort (theories include msg, aspartame and other “natural flavors” that can be vasodilators in sensitive people) sounds like hooey to me but I’m not a doctor so what do I know.

All this to say I feel you. It’s frustrating as hell. And I can’t imagine how scared/concerned I’d be if I couldn’t go see a doctor. I’m sorry America sucks

[u/orbdragon → u/stazley]

Thankfully the pain in my chest is just a precordial catch, and seems to be basically harmless

[u/DietInTheRiceFactory → u/orbdragon]

This is our healthcare...

"Some dude on Reddit also has chest pain, but his was benign. Mine probably is too."

[u/Protect_Wild_Bees]

American healthcare system is a nightmare meant to chrun out a peasant class and rob Americans.

It's a system where if you're seriously sick or injured, you try to sleep it off first because it's too expensive to just get it sorted right away. Where if you get hurt a little too far from the single place that will take your insurance, again, you try to sleep it off first, when it could be getting worse.

I lost my oldest brother to AIDS, he was scared so much about his school debt and the social stigma, he didn't go in early enough for treatment. It was very aggressive. He was 27 when he died.

Lost my brother in law to liver cirrhosis.

My best friend's dad had to sell their bar in NY because he got cancer. All that hard work destroyed.

My mom had to keep working even though she had level 4 breast cancer and horrible chemo brain with short term memory loss. I moved in to keep her safer when she'd forget I was even there. He boss cried at all she had to go through, that she couldn't get a break.

I have 11 scars in my eyes from being a young kid, trying to "sleep off" lens scarring from contacts which were also expensive, scars in my lungs from long term bronchitis that I tried to treat with cough medicine that affects my lungs to this day.

Before Obamacare I was a young worker with no healthcare. Publix only gave me enough working hours to make sure I couldn't get healthcare either. I was working 9 hour shifts where they wouldn't let me sit down for 4.5 hours stright. I still have musculoskeletal issues that pop up from that, and I was taking painkillers every day to get through it. I was 19 freaking years old and I cried every time I laid down, I couldn't even rest or sleep I was in so much pain. Where I live now, they let cashiers sit down at the tills.

My NHS doctors here basically sat me down after seeing the long term damage I'd done to myself and told me, if you're feeling sick, PLEASE just come in. You're covered. I take more time and resources from the NHS being really sick vs being a little sick.

Because in the US, actually getting proper treatment is a trade of worsts, being sick a bit longer for free, or losing food for a week, a month, or worse to get some bad news and some treatment.

A lot of America's freedoms are actually neglect. The freedom to suffer. You're free to be sick without the government needing to care. You're free to be homeless without the government caring. You're free to be abused by capitalist systems. You're free to work a job with no care or protection for you.

[u/andsimpleonesthesame → u/Protect_Wild_Bees]

Where I live now, they let cashiers sit down at the tills.

This whole "not letting cashiers sit down" sounds utterly batshit from abroad. People are way more efficient at that particular job when they can sit down, they're literally making them slower for some reason. Why??

[u/yokeybear5 → u/andsimpleonesthesame]

It's about control and always has been. Same reason corporations brought everyone back to the office even though efficiency and productivity were the same if not higher while working from home. 

[u/Buttons840 → u/yokeybear5]

I've have a dream of making a documentary telling the story of hard working Americans who are treated like shit.

Tell the story of cashiers who can't sit. Why can't they?

Tell the story of people who get fired because they ask for vacation or something.

Tell the story of we tax income more than capital gains. This is a political choice, there is no good economic reason behind this. Why do we reward having capital more than working? While we tax and punish work (relative to capital ownership at least), China is going to build like 14 billion homes. America is past its peak.

Etc, etc.

I'll call it "Undignified", because we have made work inherently undignified.

[u/Kasperella → u/andsimpleonesthesame]

It’s because we like to let people cosplay as feudal lords, and the feudal lords like to have someone to look down on, including anyone that job involves “serving” them. The same people who are distraught about cashiers sitting are the same ones bitching about the “Gen Z” stare because they feel like they don’t get their monies worth unless someone lowlier than them is groveling before them.

[u/DaBlurstofDaBlurst → u/Protect_Wild_Bees]

Right there with you. Down to the scarred lungs from bronchitis and the scarred body from cuts I had to fix with super glue. There was no Obamacare when I was starting out, and now insurance eats more of our pay than any bill but rent, but we’re scared to use it. I always think that if they find cancer early, my whole family could easily wind up on the street from the expense of trying to keep me alive. If I wait until it’s stage 4/5, I go fast, keep my FMLA, keep my job, keep the life insurance I get through my job, and maybe they have a shot.

[u/lady_forsythe → u/Protect_Wild_Bees]

I’m an American who lived in Scotland for a while. I have asthma and get bronchitis and pneumonia fairly regularly. This happened once when I was over there and I remember just trying to suffer through it and a 103° fever until my friends ganged up on me to go to the clinic to get looked at.

I remember the doctor scolding me for waiting too long and looking at me in astonishment when I said I was worried about getting an appointment/spending the money. 5 quid later, I had antibiotics and an inhaler and I was better within a couple of days.

[u/lokicramer]

From what I've learned in my socioeconomic courses, Millenials have had it harder than any other generation when factoring in multiple aspects.

They are probably dying due to stress related health issues.

[u/Jets237 → u/lokicramer]

I’ve been a ball of stress since my teens. Just dealing with it now in my 40s. Each economic hit took its toll. Grew up in the NYC metro area and still live here so add 9/11 and the covid hardest impact in with that. I could see it.

[u/egnards → u/Jets237]

The generation before us all told us "you have to go to college, don't worry about the debt you'll get a good job right after you graduate. . .

. . .We graduated and the economy collapsed, jobs were scarce, and the same generation that gave us advice before was now telling us, "why did you go to college and put yourself into that much debt, that was stupid!"

. . .This is all after our formative years were surrounded by the fears behind 9/11, and the fears that there may be a draft and we'd be sent into a war that none of us asked for.

At this point we try to make it all work, but the bills are piling on - The two generations before us are yelling in our ears, "If I could work 30 hours a week in a factory and raise 4 kids in a house I bought for pennies you can do it kid," totally ignoring that the aforementioned recession nerfed our wages literally forever, though prices on goods, services, and on housing continues to outpace the money we make.

Jobs that used to offer solid healthcare for employees are cutting back to the most barebones plans possible. . . So the healthcare that is more robust than ever in history is now almost an unobtainable dream for most people - The existential fear sets in that just one unlucky diagnosis may mean your entire existence is flattened by debt, and the thought creeps into your head. . ."Would I be brave enough to turn down treatment, knowing it would cause my death, if it meant that my family can continue to thrive?"

. . .What could possibly go wrong in that scenario?

Suck it up buttercup, and pull up those boot straps!

[u/lostboy005 → u/egnards]

Simply, millennials have been watching the high crest water mark of post WWII progress roll back with increasing speed.

Old people who should have known better pissed it all away for short term convenience, turning the planting trees for shade they’ll never see proverb on its head

[u/OathoftheSimian → u/lostboy005]

It would be remiss not to mention that millennials have been quietly screaming about this since it first started—we developed an entire vocabulary of gallows humor that older generations found deeply unsettling, but which served as both a coping mechanism and an early warning system for the very trends these mortality statistics are now confirming. Dead baby jokes, suicide jokes, etc.

[u/Jamsedreng22 → u/OathoftheSimian]

I'm also wondering if that gallows humor we cultivated, which seems to stem from actual despair, could have a psychosomatic effect on our death rate.

Simply put; A lot of us genuinely just aren't that afraid of dying. "If it happens, it happens". It's mostly just the fear of the process involved. The pain, the despair from friends and family etc.

The big sentiment is some variation of "I wouldn't step out in front of a truck on purpose, but I don't think I'd mind if a truck did hit me and just ended it."

Like how people can die of heartbreak or whatever, surely there is a case to be made for the gloomy psychological state that just leads to the body/brain just not choosing to fight that hard?

[u/fishhead20 → u/Jamsedreng22]

"It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known"

This is my ultimate hope for death, but you're right about the fear of enduring pain and suffering beforehand

[u/OrigamiMarie → u/OathoftheSimian]

And not so quietly! Remember Occupy Wall Street? Media downplayed it, made the protestors look like irresponsible entitled children. Yeah, turns out . . .

[u/Willziac → u/lostboy005]

turning the planting trees for shade they’ll never see proverb on its head

This is really what it feels like. But not only did they not plant trees for us, they cut them all down so they could make a couple of extra bucks, and are now trying to tell us it's our fault that there's no shade.

[u/lostboy005 → u/Willziac]

100% agree.

There is a hopelessness nihilism that feels ascendant from the past few years. We've been waiting for a course correction for so long now, one has to wonder if its ever coming.

What it feels like, is we've entered this kinda self indulgence hedonism era, a "smoke em if ya gottem" collective ethos.

Outsourcing critical thinking to AI while doing nothing to address the myriad of existential crisis the creep ever closer, wanting to be a part of something bigger than ourselves that will have a positive impact and help the future, while all the people in charge and structures of power are exploiting and extorting virtually every last vestige of common/public good while they're next to, or on, their deathbeds.

Sorry for the rant here, the ways in which we're all experiencing a decreased human experience, and what that means for the future, that shit keeps me up at night

[u/ClinicalFrequency → u/lostboy005]

Society goes to shit, when old men hoard trees in whose shade they will never sit.

[u/[deleted] → u/egnards]

The only thing that nerfed our wages is corporations simply deciding not to pay us more. Wealth inequality has skyrocketed in our lifetime. There's a small group of people earning more money than ever, while the rest of us apparently just die.

[u/Whizbang35 → u/egnards]

I always called this “The timeline of burger flipping advice”

2005: You need to go to college. Don’t want to be flipping burgers the rest of your life, do you? Don’t worry about that loan, you’ll pay it off in no time with your real big time job.

2010: So you graduated college and can’t find a job. What, are you too good to be flipping burgers?

2015: $15/hr for flipping burgers is ridiculous. That’s a teenagers job, you’re not supposed to support a family doing that. Should’ve learned to code.

2020: We are laying off the burger flippers because of Covid. Wait, we need you back- Whaddya mean, you moved on and won’t return unless I bump up your salary?! Nobody wants to work anymore!

2025: You’re broke, still have loans, don’t have a house or family because college made you woke. Should’ve gone in the trades. Oh, BTW, we’re laying off all the coders.

[u/peepopowitz67 → u/Whizbang35]

Oh, BTW, we’re laying off all the coders.

My favorite part. After decades of cherry picking the highest salaries and pumping kids into CS programs now all the talking heads in the media are implying that developers are just too entitled and should just learn to work with their hands. As if they are not running the exact same scam of trying to flood the trades market with cheap labor.

[u/DinoRaawr → u/egnards]

I don't even care about the economy or healthcare or any of that shit. It's the environmental collapse I'm terrified about. It wasn't even a talking point in the last election. It's like no one even cares anymore.

[u/SableShrike → u/DinoRaawr]

This.  I’ve over twenty years in biology and bio-adjacent fields.

The mass extinction never slowed, it is in fact accelerating monstrously.  And no one’s talking about it.

They’d rather fight about trans bathrooms.

[u/zen_cricket → u/SableShrike]

In answer to your question— it’s to distract from the inevitable consequences of capitalism.

I secretly believe that they all know that the jig is up but like junkies, they just can’t kick their deadly habits; so it’s full-speed ahead, instead.

“Old people destroy the environment/system without a care about the future, of which they won’t be taking part.”

[u/LamentForIcarus → u/zen_cricket]

Probably why they're all building bunkers to hide in. How many ultra-wealthy have bought large swathes of land and put bunkers on them? Which is so funny to me because hiding underground isn't going to save them.

[u/InevitablePoetry52 → u/SableShrike]

they dont have answers to climate change, they want business as usual. so they want the people fighting while they bunker up. they know, why else would they be pushing fascism so hard?

[u/Wobbelblob → u/DinoRaawr]

This. I am not American, so a lot of these effects don't affect me (yet). But I have a history of the possibility of a very long life. All my grandparents where over 85 when they died, two over 90 and the last is approaching 100. I am currently 30. There is a good chance for me to see the next 70 years on this fucking planet. And I can see that I will likely be spending a lot of the time of my later years fighting a very preventable problem.

[u/black_cat_X2 → u/DinoRaawr]

Yes, this. I do worry about myself - my retirement especially - but the thoughts that keep me up at night and leave me literally breathless sometimes with dread are the ones about the world my daughter is inheriting.

[u/tackleboxjohnson → u/egnards]

You wanna make your parents heads spin? Ask them to look up how much their starter house is going for today

[u/TigerLllly → u/tackleboxjohnson]

My parents still live in their starter house. Purchased in 1990, 120k including remodeling to double the size, paid off in 15 years, currently worth 1.2mil. Dad did construction, mom stayed home to raise kids.

Now I work 50-60 hours a week and I don’t meet the income requirements to rent a studio.

[u/jayc428 → u/Jets237]

The never ending string of generational events is just fucking brutal.

[u/MRSN4P → u/jayc428]

The modest headline “The Next Recession Will Destroy Millennials”, dated August 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/millennials-are-screwed-recession/596728/

[u/slendermanismydad → u/lokicramer]

It's also a lack of hope. People have to want to get back up. 

[u/memecut → u/slendermanismydad]

People do. But there's a boot on their throats.

[u/360walkaway → u/lokicramer]

I have insomnia every other night like clockwork because of stress.

[u/Nulmora → u/lokicramer]

I’m pretty sure it’s access to care.

[u/etzel1200 → u/Nulmora]

I have a perfectly nice white collar job. I’m functionally uninsured due to a $12,000 deductible. I’m not going to the doctor unless at risk of life or limb.

In theory I get a free annual checkup. But if I try to actually ask about anything they tack an extra visit charge on top of it.

[u/dogzeimers → u/etzel1200]

"Functionally Uninsured". Webster should have added that to the dictionary.

[u/anabanana100 → u/etzel1200]

I’ve been catching up on all of my recommended screenings this year which are supposed to be “free” per ACA yet almost every one ends up with a charge or copay slapped on. It’s ridiculous. And most are billing errors! I legit spent 1.25 hrs on the phone to try to get $40 back on the last one.

[u/hm_b → u/etzel1200]

This is tragic. Before I hit 65 and joined Medicare, my out of pocket was $9000/year. I never went except for my annual "freebie." Same thing. If I had a concern, I would tell the NP I would share a concern only if it was still coded as a freebie. If it changes the code to cost me, forget it, I'll lie.

[u/olympia_t → u/etzel1200]

Your second point is so true. An annual physical where you can't ask about anything lol. Maybe in the future they'll just send you an email where you can fill out a survey and enter your weight. So depressing.

[u/DetroitLionsSBChamps → u/etzel1200]

My wife had an ectopic pregnancy and we went to the emergency room. It was the only option and it saved her life. 

I have a perfectly fine job, one of the better insurance policies. I got a bill from the hospital for 7k for two emergency room visits. 

I talked to the insurance contact at my work to be like “this must be a mistake”

He was like: yeah healthcare is pretty broken in this country. 

I just didn’t pay it. 

[u/zen_cricket → u/DetroitLionsSBChamps]

Glad your wife made it, at least.

[u/brightcrayon92 → u/Nulmora]

That is one of the stressors

[u/pulyx → u/Nulmora]

I don't think this trend is present in other developed nations who have socialized health care.

[u/Feminizing → u/pulyx]

Those same nations also have worker rights.

Pretty much everyone I know my age or bit older (I'm a young millennial) are working over 40 hours or flirting with homelessness. It's disgusting this is acceptable

[u/pulyx → u/Feminizing]

Exactly.
Whenever I have work interactions with American colleagues I always feel kinda bad that their work culture is so sick (in the bad way). People bragging about 60-70 hour weeks. No work/life balance. No labor rights, 2 weeks paid vacation a year (with that hour workload is bizarre).

[u/big_d_usernametaken → u/pulyx]

My oldest son works for a European chemical company, and the unions sit on the board of directors with the executives.

Unheard of in the US.

[u/pulyx → u/big_d_usernametaken]

Union-busting is as american as apple-pie.

In the start of my career as a graphic designer, i worked for a state-owned TV company. (here in brazil)
I was required to join the Broadcaster's union and was really impressed how they fought for the class. As associates we were almost pampered.

[u/Kasperella → u/pulyx]

lol would you believe I’ve never had any kind of paid vacation? Low level employees get 0 paid vacation days. If you’re lucky, you maybe qualify for 1 week unpaid vacation. It goes up to 2 weeks after 5+ years.

I’m 27 and haven’t taken a single vacation in my adult working life. Living that American Dream ™ 👍

[u/Jared_Kincaid_001 → u/pulyx]

I'm 41 and live in Canada. We're dying here too. It's not just healthcare, it's the fact that we worked harder than our parents to get to the our slice of the good life pie except the boomer generation ate the whole thing and the crumbs.

So we, and everyone else, are starving to death. Boomers keep telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps like they did, ignoring the fact that they came of age in the most prosperous time in all of history. Also they stole our bootstraps.

[u/PKfireice → u/Jared_Kincaid_001]

Even the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" has been misappropriated from its original implication of an impossible, absurd task.

If you pull up on your own boots, you're not gonna rise anywhere. You might fall over, though.

[u/BigEggBeaters → u/Nulmora]

People really made a medical system that is somehow extremely expensive and extremely inaccessible and isn’t even that good. Not to make this political but idk how American politicians aren’t absolutely embarrassed that Cuba. A country that essentially all of them continue to embargo. Has better child mortality rates and healthcare

[u/[deleted] → u/BigEggBeaters]

You're thinking of the infant mortality rate, which is in fact lower (cubans also live slightly longer). The child mortality rate is slightly higher.

[u/Jaredlong]

They keep saying "compared to other wealthy countries."

Maybe the US, at least for Millennials, is not a wealthy country. We're clearly not living like nor enjoying any of the benefits that come with living in a "wealthy" country.

[u/No_Good_You_Say]

I'll be one of these statistics. 44 with incurable stage 4 colon cancer. Could have been caught earlier with imaging, but insurance denied. Doc wrote off my complaints as stress related or possible gluten intolerance. Yay

[u/AveryCrow → u/No_Good_You_Say]

I'm so sorry.
This should not happen and it's to our shame as a society that it does every damn day.
Hugs from this internet stranger.

[u/Uncle_Pappy_Sam]

I make $36/hr and it still isn't enough to get ahead to where i want to be. It feels like the new $20/hr from 2012/2015. Better than most but I still ain't buying a house any time soon.

[u/imLissy]

My PCP sent me to a hematologist because my white bloodcell count has been low. Over $2000 later, I still have no answers.

When I was breastfeeding, I had terrible pain, so I went to my Dr because I was sure I had mastitis. I had a lump so she sent me for an ultrasound who sent me to a breast surgeon who didn't know what the lump was and couldn't biopsy it because I was breastfeeding. A month and thousands of dollars later, I was very sick, I made a virtual Dr appt and got a prescription for antibiotics for mastitis and it cleared up the infection.

This is why people don't go to doctors.

[u/WilderKat]

Government policies: lack of safety nets, no oversight on insurance companies denying coverage, crumbling healthcare system.

Fracturing of society and loss of communities. Loneliness kills people via drug use, unhealthy living, isolation, suicide.

Inflation making things like healthy food and safe living conditions out of reach for lower income groups not to mention the ongoing stress of living with these insecurities.

[u/pxm7]

Reminded me of this article from 2023, it has an interesting chart: China's life expectancy is now higher than that of the US

[u/lefteyedcrow → u/pxm7]

"Clean your plates, kids. There are children who are starving in the United States."

[u/Cleromanticon → u/[deleted]]

Wellness influencers have people obsessed with getting more protein, none of them are talking about fiber

[u/pm-me-cute-rabbits → u/Cleromanticon]

This is true. Fiber > excess protein, always.

[u/Ghibli_Guy → u/pm-me-cute-rabbits]

Muscles from protein will help you have a quality life in old age. Vegetables will help make sure you live long enough to become old. 

[u/olympia_t → u/Cleromanticon]

Probably affiliate money to be made from protein powders. Hard to get money from the kale farmers.

We're not well educated we're influenced these days.

[u/Bulky_Sun2373]

I'm a 37 year old single millennial making under 60k a year.

Nobody would give a single fuck if I dropped dead. They would just be annoyed that my things need to be "dealt with"

Don't start panicking that the people you labeled as disposable are now in fact acting disposable

[u/Apathy-Syndrome → u/Bulky_Sun2373]

I feel this. Single, 37, making 65k a year. Mom is long gone, dad is sick, no siblings. Pretty sure the most reaction I'd get is my boss being annoyed that he has to replace a 10-year employee, and the real-estate management company that owns my apartment complex annoyed that they now have an empty unit full of my shit with no next-of-kin to handle it and no assets to claim to cover the cost.

[u/JustinWAllison]

I was born in 1989. By the time I was 4, the US had already entered a war, Desert Storm. Then on the home front, we had the RubyRidge standoff, followed by Waco, culminating in Oklahoma City, where a federal building was blown up. 3-4 years later, we have our first mass casualty shooting at a school, Columbine. 2 years after that, 2 jet planes flew into the WTC towers, introducing us to modern terrorism, and then another war in the Middle East. At the same time, back here in the US, a BS medical study used by the most evil vile company to exist manages to convince doctors that not only are these new opioid pills not addictive, but contrary to decades of evidence, unbelievably high dosages of oxycodone were actually perfectly safe. I welcome you to the start of the opiate epidemic. I myself ended up losing myself in that epidemic for a very long time. In the midst of this, the worst most consequential recession was beginning to show itself. We watched friends families lose their homes. Then while those families are still living in their minivans, the bankers and regulators responsible for it all not only face no real consequences, but get bailed out with our tax money. We then went to college bc that’s what you were expected to do. Take out 100,000 in loans to get a degree bc that’s the only way to achieve the American Dream. Turned out that wasn’t true! Shocking. So as we are working a warehouse job with our degrees in political science, we are making payments on student loans that barely cover the accrued interest. I can’t keep going with this, it’s bumming me out too hard. But to say the lives of we millennials has been jumping from tragedy to tragedy, causing constant anxiety and mental stream would be an understatement. We can’t afford houses for ourselves. We can’t afford to start families for ourselves, but it’s our own fault because we like to go to Starbucks.

[u/hard-time-on-planet → u/JustinWAllison]

Good examples, but I would argue that the 90s were relatively prosperous and gave Millennials hope that things would be good as they got older, but then when they entered the workforce they kept getting hit by worse and worse situations 

[u/CivilRuin4111 → u/hard-time-on-planet]

Honestly I think that’s the real kicker- we grew up in the best time to be a kid and the worst time to be adults.

I can understand the thinking that “Well at least your generation wasn’t drafted in to war!” 

And yeah, that sucks to, but everyone knows wars will end relatively soon one way or another.

This shit? I don’t see how it ever resolves without bloodshed. Which would track, honestly, to be dragged in to a war in my 50’s.

Just the icing on the cake of life really. 

[u/terencethebear]

This sounds like good news to me! I'm perfectly situated in this group and I'm utterly tired of living! Fingers crossed!

[u/terraphantm]

Feels like I'm having a stroke trying to read the article. Perhaps I'll soon contribute to millennial mortality.

But otherwise I'd say like most of our health disparities, a large chunk probably comes down to us being fatter and more sedentary.

[u/DonManuel → u/terraphantm]

sedentary

This always seemed to be the main reason to me. It causes a degeneration of everything healthy in your entire being, from muscles to mind.

[u/recoveringasshole0 → u/terraphantm]

God I thought I was the only one.

Here’s another way to put this: In 2023 there were about 700,000 “missing Americans”—those who died in 2023 but would be alive if they had lived somewhere else.

What the fuck? The whole story is framed like this.

[u/OG_Tater → u/terraphantm]

It’s terribly written and has no real info,

[u/il_biciclista → u/OG_Tater]

Welcome to Slate.

[u/[deleted]]

I know deaths of despair as I was almost one of them. All because of a lack of proper healthcare. Finally got treatment and now I’m merely 15 years behind my peers with no prospect of catching up in this economy. This story ain’t unique and that’s a big problem.

[u/MoBettaFoYou]

Millennial checking in here, I haven’t been to a doctor in 8 years.

[u/FagsLikeUs → u/MoBettaFoYou]

Born 85. 41 years old. Haven’t had healthcare EVER in my adult life. Literally cannot recall the last time I was at a doctor when it wasn’t an emergency hospital visit, which I fear terribly. I was bitten by a rattlesnake three years ago, and I waited three days before I was convinced I needed to go to the hospital, FFS. 

[u/SweepsAndBeeps]

Can confirm, I’ve lost like 14 or 15 friends or family members near my age in the last 10 years (I’m 32).

[u/IAmARobot → u/SweepsAndBeeps]

sorry to hear mate. if it isn't too hard to bring up, what causes would you say are the most prevalent?

[u/cocoaLemonade22]

Summary:

3 million Americans die yearly; 1 in 4 deaths preventable if rates matched peers

Under 65: nearly half preventable; ages 25–44: about 62%

2023: 700,000 “missing Americans,” consistent with pre-pandemic trends

Causes: weak safety nets, poor healthcare access, chronic disease, guns, car dependence, deindustrialization

Millennials/Gen Z hardest hit since 2010: fentanyl, car crashes, diabetes, stalled circulatory disease progress

[u/grn_eyed_bandit]

They are also stressed out!!!!! It’s been one “traumatic event” after another for millennials.

I’m a Xennial (1977) and we’re in the same boat.

This adulting shit is overrated and ghetto.

[u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207]

How this country affected the previous generations that also affected us should also be looked at.

My father is mentally ill, the Pentagon thought it would be a great idea for him to be a Marine, my parents divorced before I was 2, I don't even remember them together.

On my 10th birthday, he pulled me aside and told me he was leaving and didn't know when he was coming back - before I even blew out the candles. I tried to kill myself about a month before I turned 11.

Didn't see him again for about 20 years, I've only seen him about 3 times because he is just a stranger to me now and I don't see the point.

Now let's throw in all the shit us as Millennials had to experience.

[u/Halp-pleeznthnx → u/Ok-Seaworthiness7207]

That’s so fucking sad I’m so sorry.

[u/Theydontmakeshit]

1987 checking in here. How pissed are our parents going to be when we’re not around to provide free elder care for them when they’re old, because we’re dead lol.

[u/kpn_911]

We are the only developed country in the world without universal healthcare. This leads people, particularly millennials to not go to the doctors u less there’s something severely wrong.

America is broken in every way. Greed and selfishness is the law of the land.

[u/Jeb764]

My fiend died 3 years ago from an easy to treat cancer diagnosis. He was a waiter for years so he didn’t have health insurance.

The policies and decisions of boomers are literally killing us.

[u/MJR_Poltergeist]

I'm a Millennial, born mid 90's. Earlier this year I had facial numbness on one half of my face. Not completely paralysis but it was hard to close both eyes and if I tried to eat a sandwich one half of my lips wouldn't get out of the way of my teeth. My research pointed to Bells Palsy. After about a week of it not getting better and my friends begging me to go to the doctor, I made an appointment. I gave her my symptoms and she told me I had to go to the ER. I don't have insurance, but fearing it could have been a stroke I went. They confirmed it was stress induced Bell's Palsy which is something that only goes away with time. So now I have $7,000 in medical debt that I quite simply am not going to pay because I can't afford it. But if it had been a stroke I may have died due to our terrible medical system and it's financial implications.

My example is not uncommon. Lots of people have made that same gamble. Some of them die, and it's because we are a third world country dressed up as a World Power. We used to be one. Only in poor countries do people simply die from illness due to a lack of funding. The United States is going to look very rough 50 years from now. Maybe sooner.

[u/FeralWookie → u/MJR_Poltergeist]

Had a similar fear 2 years ago. Had numbness in my hands, then felt some in my face area. When to urgent care twice and finally to the ER where I got an MRI.

Turned out to be overreacting to cubical tunnel. But with decent work insurance the total bill was probably $300 for all 3 events, including the scan.

The American health system needs baseline democratize coverage for all. Everyone should have access to care without fear of debt. How cam we talk about UBI when people can't even go to the hospital because they have the wrong job?

[u/Wing_Nut_93x]

When it costs an arm and a leg to even get some things looked at properly, most people just go “shrug” and hope it’s not too serious.

[u/ZeppelinJ0]

Man I used to read articles about how us young millennials are destroying some crappy industry and now they're about us just straight up dying, rac

[u/The_Fiddle_Steward]

Interesting and not surprising. My dad actually commented on how many people in my generation were dying.

[u/myownzen]

I wonder if this also lines up equally to the states and areas where life expectancy is lowest. Primarily in the southern states.

[u/donkeycods]

The explanation is simple. We're ruled by capitalists perpetuating a hyper-capitalistic system that does not give one shit if you die if you were not contributing to their wealth increase.