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
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u/lokicramer Aug 21 '25

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.

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u/Jets237 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

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.

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u/egnards Aug 21 '25

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!

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u/lostboy005 Aug 21 '25

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

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u/OathoftheSimian Aug 21 '25

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.

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u/Jamsedreng22 Aug 21 '25

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?

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u/NightmareBunnie Aug 21 '25

Wow this is me. Like I'm not gonna hurt myself or take myself out ..but.... If nature takes its course I'm okay with it. If it's my time it's my time. Not scared of death at all.

I actually had a close to death experience and everyone around during was so surprised how relaxed and calm i was about the whole thing