The economics of suicide

yellum

http://slate.msn.com/id/2090424/


The subheadline on this is misleading as it states:

"Why trying to kill yourself may be a smart business decision."

But if you read the article in full its a very interesting read.

Beruthiel

the head line is indeed very mis leading

some of the comments here

This controversy began in 1974 when two Princeton economists created a model to forecast suicidal decisions. Admittedly, the economists wrote, some suicidal behavior is purely irrational. But evidence suggests that economic theory explains some suicides. The economists proposed that the value of a life might be calculated the same way we value companies: Measure all the happiness a life might contain, discount it by the cost of achieving that happiness, and if the net present joie de vivre is less than zero, suicide is a viable option.

The economics of suicide were largely ignored in the ensuing decades. But last year Dave Marcotte, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, pushed the field forward when he wondered what happens to people like Jones who attempt, but do not achieve, suicide. There are about 20 attempts for every successful suicide. (Approximately 2.9 percent of the U.S. population has attempted suicide—1,760 attempts per day.)

Previous studies had demonstrated that as personal incomes rise, the propensity for suicide falls (presumably, money does buy some happiness). Marcotte's insight was that individuals contemplating suicide do not just choose between life and death. Rather, they choose between three alternatives: life, death, and the gray area of unsuccessful suicide, which may be negative (expensive injury and permanent disability) or positive (a "cry for help" that elicits attention).

The resulting formula contains a somewhat paradoxical conclusion: Attempting suicide can be a rational choice, but only if there is a high likelihood it will cause the attempter's life to significantly improve.

Marcotte couldn't test the relative "life improvement" of successful suicides—since they were, of course, dead—but he could study those who had failed at suicide to determine if their lives improved after the attempt. The results are surprising. Marcotte's study found that after people attempt suicide and fail, their incomes increase by an average of 20.6 percent compared to peers who seriously contemplate suicide but never make an attempt. In fact, the more serious the attempt, the larger the boost—"hard-suicide" attempts, in which luck is the only reason the attempts fail, are associated with a 36.3 percent increase in income. (The presence of nonattempters as a control group suggests the suicide effort is the root cause of the boost.)

Why should suicide be an economic boon? Once you attempt suicide you suddenly have access to lots of resources—medical care, psychiatric attention, familial love and concern—that were previously expensive or unavailable. Doubters may ask why the depressed don't seek out resources earlier. But studies have demonstrated that psychological and familial resources become "cheaper" after a suicide attempt: It is difficult to find free medical care when you are sad, but once you try to kill yourself, it's forced on you.

Suddenly the calculus of suicide has become even more complicated. Now attempting suicide seems a rational choice, as long as the attempt isn't too successful. But this conclusion alarms suicidologists: Treating suicide as a logical act runs counter to everything they have been advocating for the past 40 years.

The suicide-prevention movement of the 1960s was founded upon the idea of "suicide crisis moments"—relatively brief periods when "psychological pain and mental illness causes irrational thoughts, which are treatable and temporary," explained Dr. David Rudd, president of the American Association of Suicidology. This idea is the basis of suicide hotlines, which studies prove are effective in saving lives. Suicidology suggests that most failed suicide attempts are not caused by permanent mental illness. Rather, they are the products of momentary lapses in reason. Once the crisis moment is resolved through intervention and care, suicidal instincts pass and would-be attempters go on to fruitful and healthy lives. (Many economists and suicidologists agree that multiple suicide attempts and successful suicides are often products of longstanding mental illnesses.)

Constructing suicide as a momentary loss of reason is vitally important to the suicide-prevention movement because it suggests that men and women who have attempted self-murder should be allowed to shrug off social stigmas. If suicidal instincts are just momentary delusions, they are easily explained and dismissed. The suicide-prevention movement fears that if suicide is deemed the rational product of someone's mind, we may feel justified in suspecting that mind forever.

But by objecting to rational explanations of suicide, the suicidology community may be undermining its own cause. Although suicide attempts cost the nation more than $3 billion per year, and suicides claim more American lives than homicides, suicide prevention is hampered by scarce resources. Ultimately, say mental health advocates, legislators don't like to fund suicide prevention because they believe that suicidal people must be crazy, and crazy people don't really want help. Perhaps if suicide were considered a rational and combatable disease, like skin cancer or high cholesterol, we might see well funded educational campaigns similar to those for more socially acceptable ailments.

patch

It's an interesting read, from a rational persons perspective.
It may not be the ideal article for any suicidal person to be reading though? -so may be suited to somewhere other than PI.

hedgetrimmer

It does appear to be based on an accumption that post-suicide attempts do garner positive reactions and that there is a support base for the would-be suicide victim. I think further study across a wider social scope might find that there may not be any such benefits for a lot of people post-attempt

Beruthiel

Humanities might me a better place for this, so I am going to move it over there, I’m not sure I would want a suicidal person reading it in here
just to be on the safe side

yellum

Originally posted by Beruthiel
Humanities might me a better place for this, so I am going to move it over there, I’m not sure I would want a suicidal person reading it in here
just to be on the safe side

Damn, yes I should have posted it in Humanities, I completely forgot about it when trying to decide where to post it.

simu

It does appear to be based on an accumption that post-suicide attempts do garner positive reactions and that there is a support base for the would-be suicide victim. I think further study across a wider social scope might find that there may not be any such benefits for a lot of people post-attempt

Yes, in Ireland anyway, I think most ppl would regard someone who had attempted suicide as weak and unstable no matter how much success they had later (not saying this is right, just the way ppl think).

ykt0di9url7bc3

Pain of living outwieghs the fear/implications of Death...from what I can gather from the research...

Considirng the Taboos & victims developing emotional detachment to life and other such factors...I dont think it is possible with current medical/societal practices to prevent the majority cases of scuicide...

Prevention seems higlighted when dealing with euthenasia (spelling?) where physical factors force the victim to ask for outside intervention on the matter...