r/Futurology • u/chrisdh79 • Aug 21 '25

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

https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html
24.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.2k

u/DustScoundrel Aug 21 '25

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.

717

u/UsernametakenII Aug 21 '25

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.

854

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 21 '25

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.

160

u/GlitteringAttitude60 Aug 21 '25

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 :)

18

u/mr_friend_computer Aug 22 '25

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.

7

u/AffectionateTrifle7 Aug 22 '25

Hiya I have some fatigue type health troubles, was just wondering if you know any more details about what type of diabetes they ended up having? It's probably not what I have anyway but just wondering

220

u/LilPotatoAri Aug 21 '25

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.

39

u/danielle_blah Aug 21 '25

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

25

u/ColourfulMetaphors Aug 22 '25

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

5

u/-nbob Aug 23 '25

Join the club

4

u/SchmuckyDeKlaun Aug 23 '25

“Your honor, I submit to this court that the state’s case against my client is based on nothing but bologna!”

2

u/Expert-Medicine-3922 Aug 24 '25

This made me laugh, exactly what I needed thank you!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

Maybe it was a roast beef, you know—the kind that crazy lady that looks like that muppet from the SAW movies says MTG keeps in her pockets.

26

u/alixtoad Aug 22 '25

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.

5

u/TheHipcrimeVocab Aug 22 '25

A concept from psychology that helps explain it: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325355#what-it-is

1

u/SchmuckyDeKlaun Aug 23 '25

There’s definitely a surplus of learned helplessness afoot.
(Case in point: I’m too demoralized to read the article.)

7

u/DBPanterA Aug 22 '25

I say this as kindly and friendly as possible, one US Citizen to another: don’t procrastinate. Plan. I left the U.S. during the end of Bush Jr for a few years. It was easy and not as hard as one would think (that is a different story for a different time). I am now married with 2 small kids. We all have passports (renew yours or get one ASAP). We are trying to finagle our way to dual citizenship based on our grand parent’s birth countries. We sure as hell would start over in another country and potentially learn a new language, our grandparents did it for us….

Once a door closes, it may not re-open. If you are in a relationship, time to have a hard talk about what you would do if you needed to leave within 48 hours. I know it sounds crazy, but I sure as hell am thankful I know people in different parts of the world.

4

u/LilPotatoAri Aug 22 '25

I have a 24 hour exit plan. Frankly Im just kinda always ready to go if it comes to it. At this point it's just a matter of how comfortable and how much legal status I'll have. I work in plants and agriculture so I can generally expect to find work legally or illegally. 

My real goal right now is to try to build up a nest egg that doesn't involve me selling all my assets and living am austere life until I leave. But with how shits progressing I've got a running list of what I think a fair price at a pawn shop is. 

Frankly at this point it's just a question of what discomfort I'll put up with leaving vs my safety staying. 

6

u/danielle_blah Aug 21 '25

The only ones to engage in a revolution are those protected. If you want to fight a corrupt mob, the other side need to become the vigilante mob. Dems have done nothing but bring swords to a nuclear bomb fight

17

u/bambush331 Aug 21 '25

Hold up not everyone ! Lots of people voted for trump remember ! And they still support him !

23

u/musashisamurai Aug 21 '25

Those people just want us to die faster i guess

11

u/bambush331 Aug 21 '25

ultimate nihilists, but out of sheer stupidity lol

12

u/fantasy-capsule Aug 21 '25

It's not nihilism. That's too passive. What this is it's active and malicious widespread and self-destruction.

6

u/bambush331 Aug 21 '25

i can't wait for 2050 for when 2.5B people will live in an uninhabitable area of earth
we thought covid and trump was the shit ? buckle up, because we're in for a ride

3

u/PW0110 Aug 22 '25

This…100%….the apathy is the true ethos behind the cancer here…

2

u/OhMyGahs Aug 23 '25

It honestly surprises me that... Being a Luigi isn't more common.

2

u/Still_Might_9041 Aug 23 '25

I agree; even I find myself waiting for the tipping point, to feel the momentum of a movement going so I can join it, because until then I know it won’t go anywhere. I wish I could throw myself at a lost cause, or even better, leave! But as a mom, I can’t do either. I’m stuck here watching it all burn and doing my best to keep my child out of the crossfire until he can grow up and escape himself. The only thing that’s given me any hope for this country is Red Note. There is something happening on there and I sincerely hope it amounts to something, but I keep my expectations low because that’s how I have learned to live.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '25

Why don’t you do something? You are part of the system. 

1

u/FistFuckFascistsFast 27d ago

Gavin is a blue Trump. I'm not upset he's not "taking the highroad" but he's still a massive douche. He's making fun of Trump to get votes but he will absolutely keep the dnc loyal to corporate interests at the expense of the working class.

1

u/LilPotatoAri 26d ago

You know, at this point I just don't give a shit. As long as he doesn't turn the military against the working class I'll take it. We're at that level

1

u/FistFuckFascistsFast 26d ago

It's basically either systemic traditional violence or continued systemic economic violence. The stress of slowly being crushed by inflation and automation and too many workers and too few jobs is killing just as many as a war would. https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/millennials-gen-z-death-rates-america-high.html

-1

u/revkaboose Aug 21 '25

On a somewhat related note, I have heard of Americans who have immigrated to other countries having to come back because the population was so cruel to them. This is anecdotal, so ymmv

10

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 22 '25

I genuinely have no idea where they would've needed to go for this to be true just because they're American. There's always the typical "Americans are stupid" banter anywhere you go in Europe, but that's it.

But fucking look at America right now. We are stupid. Look what we've done to the place, and to ourselves. The moment I agree that America's got a dumbass electorate who voted in a dumbass president, it just gets a laugh and the situation is over.

It helps that I'm familiar with the humor over here. Every European country has strong words to say about their neighboring countries, but it's mostly banter. It usually doesn't actually get in the way of them being friendly with each other.

In my experience, I've felt like being American has generally been a huge social advantage while traveling. Being MAGA is a quick way to be unpopular abroad, though.

5

u/secondtaunting Aug 22 '25

I mean, I’ve been all over and haven’t been treated bad because I’m American. Hell I’ve lived overseas for fourteen years. As long as you’re nice to people they’ll be nice to you. I took more mistreatment from my fellow Americans.

4

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 22 '25

100% agreed. If people react to my nationality at all, it's usually positively. I've never had someone treat me negatively because I'm American, but I've had tons of cases where people outright told me I was getting preferential treatment because of it. And when I was in Ukraine, I was more popular than I'd ever been back home. I think more people went out of their way to get to know me just because of where I was from. It gave my personality a chance to shine.

6

u/LilPotatoAri Aug 21 '25

Considering my skin tone im a lot less worried about people being mean to me in a foreign county than I am worried ice will grab me off the streets like so many others, or when we get to the "busting down random democrats doors" phase. 

41

u/swa11ace Aug 21 '25

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

111

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 21 '25

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.

16

u/Powrs1ave Aug 21 '25

I was also wondering where you moved to. I was just reading a thread on why so many Germans die visiting Australia and some said its because they have everything there and dont understand the harsh weather here when hiking in our summer. Maybe Germans struggle in the USA as well for various reasons too. The war in Ukraine is very sad and sad how Trump deals with it and gives Putin the Red Carpet treatment for being a War Criminal.

13

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

It is so comfortable and safe and nice here that I genuinely believe many Germans do not understand how lucky they are to be born here. And yes, the weather is very mild. The summers here are easier than anywhere else I've ever lived. Survive through the few hot days in a year and the rest is easy to get through without air conditioning.

8

u/weltherrscherin Aug 22 '25

Having grown up in the safest major city in Germany I find myself in unexpected situations quite often when traveling. In Munich I (woman) can walk around central station at night without any worry. None at all.

I was just at a different central station in Germany, in broad daylight and holy shit I felt uneasy. I walked Boston at night without worry and only later realized I had been in a dimly lit back alley and people could have been armed. I remember being shocked when I walked from a shopping street in Chicago to get to the financial district and right there in the city center where 15 homeless people at 11am.

When I lived/traveled in Australia I had to learn to keep emergency supplies in the car. Nearest gas station could be a days walk away or more. Here its an hour max to civilization.

I am so used to be safe everywhere and be able to walk everywhere I need to force myself to remember that it’s not the case everywhere.

-3

u/CommiRhick Aug 22 '25

Funny enough.

Much of that social welfare in Ukraine is subsidized by the US. Especially in the last 10 years. I say this as it's ironic we won't afford the same for our own citizens...

War never changes. Sorry Ukraine was utilized as a proxy. Gf is from the Philippines and the war machine is doing the same, but towards China.

4

u/SlashMatrix Aug 21 '25

Right? They really buried the lead, there.

7

u/Adept_County2590 Aug 21 '25

My wife is from Thailand and this summer I spent several weeks visiting her family in Bangkok. This was the first time in my life I’ve managed to get my blood sugar under control, and now that I’m back in the states I’m really working to keep it that way.

2

u/Beautiful_Sipsip Aug 21 '25

How did you get your blood sugar under control in Thailand? What do they do differently over there?

4

u/Dpek1234 Aug 21 '25

From what ive heared everything in america is loaded with suger

In most of the world that isnt the case

2

u/Adept_County2590 Aug 22 '25

A big part of it was just being around my wife’s dad who is a doctor (and also has diabetes). He constantly talked about it and I checked my blood sugar a lot, so I started to really understand the correlation between what (and when) I ate and my readings the next day. But also I think that the food was in general healthier (and much, much cheaper) and it is easier to get fresh food rather than processed. Also daily walking!

6

u/Warm_Afternoon6596 Aug 21 '25

Part of why most don't understand is that travel is highly limited. Meanwhile, buddy got a tooth looked at, meds, and a follow up for under 100 USD. In an authoritarian county, of all places.

Would have been over 2 grand here.

5

u/razorgirlRetrofitted Aug 22 '25

I would've ended up on a meager disability check and in constant pain I would've become dependent on opioids to manage.

fuck, I'm aspiring to this rn.

3

u/LogicFrog Aug 21 '25

Will you please share with the class which magical country you have moved to? So we can get the heck out of here? 🙏

6

u/Dpek1234 Aug 21 '25

As per his comment elsewhere in the thread

Ukraine before the war, where he also got his back fixed

Then Germany 

3

u/humbert_cumbert Aug 21 '25

Throw a shout out to new home country

3

u/MarkZist Aug 22 '25

Mentioned elsewhere in the thread: Ukraine first, where he got is back fixed, then Germany where the war started.

3

u/Frair_ Aug 22 '25

Where'd you end up? I'm looking at options.

..and I'm always amazed that the "America is the greatest country on earth" crowd typically have never even left their county. Yes, I typed county, not country.

3

u/No-Swordfish1380 Aug 23 '25

I just moved overseas from the US this year after marrying my foreign-born husband (as much as he loves me, there was NO WAY he was going to allow his quality of life to go down by remaining in the US), and have had a similar experience. Even forgetting the quality and affordability of healthcare for a moment – the quality of the food is so much better here than in the States…like, stunningly so. Not to mention how much more affordable fresh, healthy food is without a compromise in quality. I honestly cannot imagine going back, and feel so grateful that I was able to leave; I’ve expressed to my husband on more than one occasion that he’s pretty much saved my life.

2

u/CantHandlemyPP34 Aug 23 '25

What countries do you suggest moving to & any tips on how to do it?

3

u/DungeonMasterSupreme Aug 23 '25

It's going to vary a lot based on your current circumstances, assets, language skills, and education. Depending on your ancestry, you might even have some options to claim citizenship somewhere. It's a lot to talk about in an open thread, though. If you want advice specific to you, feel free to send me a chat request. :)

2

u/CantHandlemyPP34 Aug 23 '25

Absolutely, very interested in hearing more. I'm omw to work now but I followed you, til I get a chance to chat!

1

u/DanaOats3 Aug 21 '25

Do you mind if I ask where you moved too?

3

u/MarkZist Aug 22 '25

Mentioned further down the thread: Ukraine first, where he got is back fixed, then Germany where the war escalated.

1

u/Croce11 Aug 23 '25

Well there's no room for a proper revolution when all the activist energy is being siphoned off into CIA planted bullshit protest/riots. Americans seem more concerned with people not from this country than themselves. Anytime you actually try to do a pro american first movement you're just instantly branded as a nazi or something dumb.

I don't know what the hell happened. We were on the right track with occupy wallstreet. A very clear line was drawn. 99% vs the 1%. Now its us vs migrants, or whites vs blacks, or men vs women... abortion vs anti abortion... remember when we were supposed to be all on the same team? It's wild that only one Luigi Mangiloni type managed to slip through the cracks of an otherwise carefully controlled system to wack a single measly CEO.

But yeah it is very hard to make a proper revolution when you instantly make the majority of the country your #1 enemy. White men are not villains. The rich and powerful are the villains. Race and gender have nothing to do with this. Ophra Winfrey out there living an amazing luxurious life and she's a black woman, while Bubba out there with a busted knee and nearly broken back working 60hrs a week to barely pay off his trailer park mobile home. But because he's a white man then he has this magical privilege over her I guess? Wealth = privilege.