White men in U.S. are dealing poorly with economic despair

Sadly, I don't think you'll get much productive discussion. This isn't really the place for it. I'll only leave one thought for you to think over. I won't post in this thread again.

First, I wonder if the lower economic status is the cause of the increased suicide rate, or if factors that lead to a lower economic status also lead to a higher suicide rate. For just one example, drug addiction clearly leads to both. I would suspect growing up in an abusive household also does. It could be that it is correlation, not causation. There are other factors that may be strongly correlated, but unfortunately I have learned that men's issues are a subject that has to be talked about and studied very delicately, so I don't expect to see a complex and rigorous analysis of the issues - though I am thankful to see people at least asking the questions. I am especially thankful that I do not have a drug problem and have worked very hard to successfully leave the bottom 20% bracket, which I was born to. Almost everyone who grew up in my neighbourhood is less fortunate. It is a very sad thing.

I'm heartened that you were able to secure a place in social housing - I've been a housing activist for a long time, and it really makes a huge difference in people's lives to at least have that security.

I was thinking about the spread of widespread drug addiction from large urban areas, often but not always of racialised populations, to the real epidemic of synthetic - and lethal - opiates in smaller towns and even the countryside, though of course that is not the only factor.

It is a delicate topic, because while "white men" do not have that unassailable edge over women and racialised people that was the case 40 years ago, patriarchy remains, and is one of the reasons this real problem can be manipulated by reactionary blowhards like Trump or Farage.But it is an important topic, and there should be a way of discussing it from a progressive (and pro-feminist, pro-racial equality) framework. Unfortunately, I don't think political consciousness always protects people (in this case, either men or women) from feeling like utter crap if we don't have enough work or are excluded from the labour force. There is too much ideological pressure from capital, including publicity.

Moreover, some of those projects would also create jobs - the right has done much to create prejudice against "makework" projects, but not all of those have been pointless. Community groups were able to develop under such schemes.

Alan, yes, the old Wobbly line "starving among too much" has returned with a vengeance, and the people who work at those shiny new restaurants (many go belly-up, by the way) can't afford to eat there. Trudeau represents a riding with a very high poverty rate, and my tenants' association is located in it (I live a few short blocks south of it, in Boulerice's riding). But there is a lot of poverty and hopelessless now in smaller towns as well, in particular former one-industry towns where the plant has delocalized.

As for investments, two other biggies are public transport and continuing education at all levels. And as you say, accessible healthcare, for both mental and physical aspects of health. So many private gyms. So few community facilities.

By the way, I'm not trying to deflect from the problems specific to men and in particular "White" or "Old-Stock" men. But probably men will do a better job of exploring them.

Maybe when homelessness and extreme poverty becomes a problem in rural towns (AFAIK,for example,In the suburbs of Montréal,people are still pretty sheltered and only experience urban problems when they come into the city) start rotting like our cities socially and economically,maybe people will wake the frig up.

I think the narrative of the poor being lazy,even parasites,is working very well. Is it any wonder that urban communities are almost always more liberal than it's regions?

In the city,you really feel the effects of gentrification,trade deals and austerity much more than you do in say a town like Ste-Julie (a random example) or Lac St-Jean.

There is a real war being waged on those living in poverty. I live in poverty (I'm on disability). Believe me when I say that persons such as myself live with an axe pendulum over our necks everyday. All it takes is a right wing government and gawd knows what will happen to myself and everyone in a similar situation as mine.

I over looked Trois-Riviéres and Shawinigan. Industrial towns. I'm sure they are hurting. They feel it but they don't see it as expicitly as you do in the big cities.

It boggles my mind that so many people in this country can't connect the dots that it's been right wing economics,not the poor or the immigrants or unions or anything resembling leftist economics. In fact,they can't see the clear picture that the 'good ol days' of the 50's,60's and 70's that we were governed by an economic system that was Social-Democratic policies. When governments passed Medicare and you were covered for almost everything,a strong social safety net,infrastructure spending,no free trade deals,not to mention that the 'golden years' was the Industrial Boon of the Post-War West.

They can't realize that you can't spell Conservative without beginning your sentence with CON. They've been conned and have bought the narrative that spending is bad and cutting everything people worked for to make those days so nostalgic is good.

As George Carlin brilliantly observed, "They don't want a population of people capable of critical thinking,they don't want well-informed,well educated people capable of critical thinking.They're not intersted in that,it doesn't help them."

"They don't want people smart enough to sit at the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago,they don't want that.You know what they want? Obedient workers.People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay,the longer hours,the reduced benefits,the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go collect it"

People are DUMB.

RIP George.