Economic Recession Is Good For Your Health
One would assume that times of recession would take a toll not only on people’s wallets but on their health. However, a growing number of studies suggest the opposite occurs: the health of a population tends to improve when the economy declines. While the suicide rate may rise, other causes of death, such as car crashes, industrial accidents, heart attacks and infant deaths, decrease. Researchers have “tracked things like unemployment and mortality and found that they were almost a mirror image of each other,” with the death rate decreasing as unemployment rises, and increasing as the economy experiences growth.
Others go further, stating that the “alienation of modern work…[makes] life into enervating and emotionally draining toil, [with] the escape from work expressed in catatonic TV watching and overeating.” Other factors: people with less money have less to spend on alcohol and cigarettes. And, as car ridership and industrial production slow, air quality increases, literally saving the lives of thousands of infants; it’s estimated that the drop in pollution during the 1981-82 recession prevented about 2,500 newborns from dying nationwide.
