This is one of those posts that could easily run on for 3,000 words. So, in the dual interests of brevity and laziness, I’m going to keep it as short as possible.
Note: I have an initial feeling that all the following matters are interrelated, especially the issues related to the linked final story.
The robots are coming for your jobs. With issues like this lingering, growing, it’s no wonder people are fearful and depressed. This is a real developing trend.
One third of able-bodied American men between 25 and 54 could be out of job by 2050, contends the author of “The Future of Work: Robots, AI and Automation.”
“We’re already at 12% of prime-aged men without jobs,” said Darrell West, vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank, at a forum in Washington, D.C. on Monday. That number has grown steadily over the past 60 years, but it could triple in the next 30 years because of new technology such as artificial intelligence and automation.
It could be even worse for some parts of the population, West argued. The rate for unemployment of young male African Americans, for instance, is likely to reach 50% by 2050.
“That, my friends, is a catastrophe,” West said.
That’s the “C” word we’re looking for, yes. It’s as big a disaster as:
One-quarter of Americans never going outside.
A quarter of Americans spend almost an entire 24 hours without going outside and downplay the negative health effects of only breathing indoor air, according to a new survey claiming a new “indoor generation.”
“We are increasingly turning into a generation of indoor people where the only time we get daylight and fresh air mid-week is on the commute to work or school,” Peter Foldbjerg, the head of daylight energy and indoor climate at VELUX, a window manufacturing company, said in a statement.
VELUX commissioned the “Indoor Generation Report,” published Tuesday, that found 77 percent of Americans don’t believe that breathing air inside is any worse than pollution outside.
It’s unclear how dangerous indoor air is in the modern era — reports by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluating indoor air quality are from 1987 and 1989, which found that it is two to five times more polluted than outside.
Humidity, mold growth, inadequate temperature and being in close quarters with other people are all cited risks associated with poor air quality indoors.
It’s a big, beautiful world out there. I’m typing this outside as I add some of Nicaragua’s finest vaporized tobacco leaves to the air quality.
Something tells me that the younger people are driving up this statistic. Maybe that’s one reason why:
The Millennials are more stressed compared to older generations.
Twenty-seven percent of millennials said that stress often bothered them at work, compared to the 12% of baby boomers that said the same. Millennials were the group most likely to have stress interfere with their work. About a third of millennials (34%) said that they felt stress made them less productive, while only 19% of their older colleagues felt the same.
Why do millennials feel so stressed out? Increasingly insecure job prospects and overwhelming workloads, MHF believes.
“Millennials are more likely to have insecure contracts, low rates of pay and high entry-level workloads. The pressures they face in today’s employment market are very different to past generations,” MHF’s Richard Grange said.
Americans and other denizens of the West have been in a unique historical bubble since the industrial revolution. That bubble is bursting. The insecure economy is only part of the overall problem. And there is a problem:
Major Depression Diagnoses up 33% in 5 years. That’s a sobering report. Read it, especially if you’re under 35.
Major depression has a diagnosis rate of 4.4 percent in the United States, affecting more than 9 million commercially insured Americans.
Diagnoses of major depression have risen dramatically by 33 percent since 2013. This rate is rising even faster among millennials (up 47 percent) and adolescents (up 47 percent for boys and 65 percent for girls).
Women are diagnosed with major depression at higher rates than men (6 percent and nearly 3 percent, respectively).
People diagnosed with major depression are nearly 30 percent less healthy on average than those not diagnosed with major depression. This decrease in overall health translates to nearly 10 years of healthy life lost for both men and women.4
A key reason for the lower overall health of those diagnosed with major depression is that they are likely to also suffer from other health conditions. Eighty-five percent of people who are diagnosed with major depression also have one or more additional serious chronic health conditions and nearly 30 percent have four or more other conditions.5
People diagnosed with major depression use healthcare services more than other commercially insured Americans. This results in more than two times higher overall healthcare spending ($10,673 compared to $4,283).
We’ve got the numbers, they’ve got the rate of growth. Blue Cross.
This report, while eye-opening, is the product of the insurance industry. I smell money. Look at the information and graphs about pills. It’s interesting. These people and their pharma friends make big money pushing dope – for depression and everything else under the sun. That’s costly though it’s clear they’d like to avoid larger costs via payouts for associated auxiliary treatments. It makes sense for their bottom line. It makes little sense for the people.
As I stated at the beginning, all of this stuff is related. There’s a hard link between the mental issues and the heart/obesity/etc. physical epidemic. And with those and the fears, the indooring, the stress, and a thousand other factors.
Plainly put: American society is fractured, faltering, and increasingly trivial, idiotic, and insane. Plainer: it looks like decline. Already approaching 1,000 words, I’ll end here. More on this subject, I think, sooner than later – especially regarding the younger generations. I’m already planning a related piece for next week’s TPC column. For now, draw your own conclusions. Maybe step outside for a bit. Exercise. Kick a bot.
PERRIN LOVETT 
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