HAAA They blame it on drugs, nothing to do with the REAL state of the eCONomy, and the lies and fake bullchit statistic EXPERTS". The eCONomy sucks and is in a nose dive, unlike the status Quo narrative..........
...last year, Italy was the only OECD country which had a lower participation rate of prime age men than the United States..."
As Krueger reports, last year, Italy was the only OECD country which had a lower participation rate of prime age men than the United States. One of the reasons posited by the research is the opioid crisis currently ravaging the country. Labor force participation rates have fallen more in areas where more opioid pain medication is prescribed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the amount of opioids prescribed in 2015 was three times higher than it was in 1999.
As noted in the paper, while the direction of causality is not clear, a 2017 report by David Mericle entitled 'The Opioid Epidemic and the U.S. Economy' states that “the opioid epidemic is intertwined with the story of declining prime-age participation, especially for men, and this reinforces our doubts about a rebound in the participation rate.”
But as we pointed out previously, after spending months, or maybe even years, running very complicated regressions that your simple mind could never possibly understand, Krueger would like for you to believe that it's the growing opioid epidemic that is forcing men to sit on their couches all day rather than look for work. Here's a summary of his findings from the Brookings Institute:
The increase in opioid prescriptions from 1999 to 2015 could account for about 20 percent of the observed decline in men’s labor force participation (LFP) during that same period.
In “Where have all the workers gone? An inquiry into the decline of the U.S. labor force participation rate” (PDF), Princeton University’s Alan Krueger examines the labor force implications of the opioid epidemic on a local and national level.
Among other findings, the research suggests that:
Regional variation in opioid prescription rates across the U.S. is due in large part to differences in medical practices, rather than varying health conditions. Pain medication is more widely used in counties where health care professionals prescribe greater quantities of opioid medication, with a 10 percent increase in opioid prescriptions per capita is associated with a 2 percent increase in the share of individuals who report taking a pain medication on any given day. When accounting for individuals’ disability status, self-reported health, and demographic characteristics, the effect is cut roughly in half, but remains statistically significant.
Over the last 15 years, LFP fell more in counties where more opioids were prescribed. Krueger reaches this conclusion by linking 2015 county-level opioid prescription rates to individual level labor force data in 1999-2001 and 2014-16. For more on the relationship between prescription rates and labor force participation rate on the county-level.
Krueger also provided this very helpful map proving that opioid abuse is highly correlated to unemployment. Of course, it couldn't possibly be the case that opioid abuse is the result of high unemployment and the associated depression that goes along with it...no, the opioid abuse definitely came first.
LOT MORE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-30/visualizing-americas-disappearing-workforce
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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