This is interesting. We can use the analogy of the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind where he is king; so we should live where we feel we are at the top of the pack. We may just not kill ourselves then.
HI, I do think this is a very interesting issue. Personally I don’t try to keep up with the Joneses, I do feel however society puts those sorts of pressures on individuals and families to “keep up”. As I said, I don’t try to keep up financially speaking with others, plus my neighbours in the main are working class.
From my own point of view, which is the only experience I can truly speak of, I believe there is much more pressure from society to “fit in” socially and economically participate, rather than in the sense of the richness of neighbours, or the materialistic goods neighbours have, but saying that, I’m not good at social stuff, so I may be wrong overall. Still it is definitely an interesting issue.
I would be interested to see a country to country comparison to see what factor income disparity plays, if any. It might be a tough comparison with so many other factors possibly contributing though.
Exactly. There’s no way to formulate the methodology on this one accurately enough for it to be solid.
The only thing I think a study could possibly support is that being at the bottom of any pyramid will have its stressors.
If that’s true, and suicide rates are higher among the wealthy, my guess would be that it’s from the stress of all the crimes they are committing in an attempt to keep up. LOL
The wealth of the neighbours is only one aspect of how social inequality causes suicide. It’s on my future list for online writing, but if you’ve got time and inclination to lay hands on a (currently print only) journal called “Planet: the Welsh Internationalist” planet.enquiries@planetmagazine.org.uk, you’ll be a few months in front of my rewriting speed. Thanks for reposting this, it’s important evidence for a case I’ve been making a lot time.
We all measure ourselves against people we consider to be our ‘peers’ but only because our definition of success is so closely aligned with tangible indicators – like wealth. As a writer, my self esteem probably has more to do with how well I /write/ in comparison to the prose of other writers. As a person though, my self-esteem is based more on what kind of person I am – i.e. do I live up to my own definition of what makes a ‘good’ person. So far I’m in no danger of committing suicide.
This is interesting. We can use the analogy of the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind where he is king; so we should live where we feel we are at the top of the pack. We may just not kill ourselves then.
I think you touched on the crux of the issue: being at the bottom of the pack. I think that’s where real risk comes into play.
HI, I do think this is a very interesting issue. Personally I don’t try to keep up with the Joneses, I do feel however society puts those sorts of pressures on individuals and families to “keep up”. As I said, I don’t try to keep up financially speaking with others, plus my neighbours in the main are working class.
From my own point of view, which is the only experience I can truly speak of, I believe there is much more pressure from society to “fit in” socially and economically participate, rather than in the sense of the richness of neighbours, or the materialistic goods neighbours have, but saying that, I’m not good at social stuff, so I may be wrong overall. Still it is definitely an interesting issue.
[...] Not sure about the methodology on this one, but it’s interesting… Do Rich Neighbors Cause Suicide? [...]
That’s one of the reasons I live among the poor.
I would be interested to see a country to country comparison to see what factor income disparity plays, if any. It might be a tough comparison with so many other factors possibly contributing though.
Exactly. There’s no way to formulate the methodology on this one accurately enough for it to be solid.
The only thing I think a study could possibly support is that being at the bottom of any pyramid will have its stressors.
Very interesting… thanks for sharing this..
Every single one of these factors is true of me, but I’m still alive. Just sayin’.
If that’s true, and suicide rates are higher among the wealthy, my guess would be that it’s from the stress of all the crimes they are committing in an attempt to keep up. LOL
The wealth of the neighbours is only one aspect of how social inequality causes suicide. It’s on my future list for online writing, but if you’ve got time and inclination to lay hands on a (currently print only) journal called “Planet: the Welsh Internationalist” planet.enquiries@planetmagazine.org.uk, you’ll be a few months in front of my rewriting speed. Thanks for reposting this, it’s important evidence for a case I’ve been making a lot time.
We all measure ourselves against people we consider to be our ‘peers’ but only because our definition of success is so closely aligned with tangible indicators – like wealth. As a writer, my self esteem probably has more to do with how well I /write/ in comparison to the prose of other writers. As a person though, my self-esteem is based more on what kind of person I am – i.e. do I live up to my own definition of what makes a ‘good’ person. So far I’m in no danger of committing suicide.