New Start to a dead end

The peer reviewed data addressing the psychological and physiological detrimental consequences of sustained unemployment clearly point towards consequences that can significantly disable individuals in their quest for employment. Consider this closing statement from an abstract on Ostracism: Available research on chronic exposure to astracism appears to deplete coping resources, resulting in depression and helplessness. Or this: Our results are consistent with unemployment duration being the dominant force in the relationship between job loss and suicide.

The Australian study, Modifiable risk factors for attempted suicide in Australian clinical and community samples, found that unemployment is a huge risk factor for affective disorders and suicide.

While many consider that unemployment and suicide are mainly confined to those under 30, mounting evidence points to a disturbingly increasingly suicide incidence in older under or unemployed males. As this study states: Furthermore, under-employed subjects 60 to 64 years old were seven times more likely to experience suicidal ideation than their counterparts working full-time. 

One Australian study covering the period 1907-1990 found a clear relationship between suicide in men and periods of high unemployment. A Swedish study of over 771, 000 men and women concluded that: Unemployment is related to suicide. Individuals in poor health are at increased rise of unemployment and suicide. The higher relative risk of suicide among the employed seems to be, in part, a consquence of exclusion of less healthy individuals from the labour market. 

The incredibly sad implication of our current Newstart payments is that with long-term unemployment growing we can expect higher rates of mental illness, which excludes people from the labour market. In effect this is a reinforcement gradient, the longer people are unemployed, the more likely they are to experience health problems, the more probable it is they will incur mood disorders, hence the more difficult it will for them to find employment. We can expect increasing suicide rates over the long-term.

If someone from the ALP or Coalition can present to me peer reviewed studies demonstrating the powerful efficacy of tough love to improve the mental health of the country and reduce the rate of unemployment I’d love to see it. They can’t. They know it, we all know it. Like so many Australians I am tired of these supercilious clichés and cruel arguments that are designed to covertly and overtly demonise the unemployed. 

The Federal Government treats Newstart recipients as if they were Dead Souls, to be counted but not allowed to enjoy the life and prosperity of this lucky country. Australia can do much better than that but first we must elect politicians who appreciate the wisdom of Immanuel Kant: Always recognise that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

I am One Dead Soul, a Newstart Recipient. Dead Souls is the title of a book by the Russian author Nikolai Golgol and the title of a song from Joy Division. The refrain is: [Dead Souls] that keep calling me, They keep calling me, keep on calling me, They keep calling me. The lyrics were by Ian Curtis, who committed suicide at a very early age. Another song of his ‘Insight’ is poignant in its intensity of emotion. The first stanza is:

Guess your dreams always end.

They don't rise up just descend,

But I don't care anymore,

I've lost the will to want more,