The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than double that of veterans

Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by danieltillett on Thursday December 07, 2017 @04:45AM (#15868800)

It is amazing to see the effect of this in the wild - the land owns the people and it is basically impossible to sell. I have seen people who own land worth 10s of million of dollars live like paupers because they are so tied to the land.

I have wondered how much this effect is genetically built into us - there really is something different about how people view farmland compared to every other asset.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by yters on Thursday December 07, 2017 @05:46AM (#15869011)

Farmland is essentially a complete livelihood, whereas other land is just a place to park a house.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by danieltillett on Thursday December 07, 2017 @06:13AM (#15869119)

Yes, but so is a business and it doesn't seem to induce the same type of ownership.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by soundwave106 on Thursday December 07, 2017 @08:49AM (#15869908)

To be honest, I'm willing to bet that the sense of history you get with a multi-generational family farm, probably is matched in other multi-generational family businesses as well.

(However, most businesses don't have the option of the ultimate fallback of subsistence farming if times got really rough. :) )

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by jokermatt999 on Thursday December 07, 2017 @08:51AM (#15869928)

A business supplies you with currency to trade for the basic necessities. A farm can provide those directly.

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Re:The suicide rate for farmers in the U.S. is more than dou... by _Codemonkeyism on Thursday December 07, 2017 @06:07AM (#15869098)

Or a wind turbine.

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