Wall Street Crime – the Enablers

         According to a new study conducted at the University of Oxford, the Financial Apocalypse led to at least 10,000 more suicides in the four hardest hit years than would have otherwise occurred.

         The research found that breadwinners became more susceptible to taking their own lives than other family members, and men, who are less likely to seek help, were at a higher risk than women.  As one would expect, guns offered the best way to snuff oneself during the 2007 to 2010 aftermath.  Any other alternative increased the opportunity to get a second chance.  Media coverage of the study didn’t specify which guns male breadwinners considered using, and failed to rank those firearms by popularity, detailing neither type, caliber, manufacturer, nor model.

        Typically, suicides aren’t long-planned, researchers concluded, but often impulsive acts of little forethought, attempts being equally common in urban and rural areas of America, but more likely to succeed out in the boondocks, where guns are more available.

         The coverage didn’t say whether people who did take their own lives ended up being better off than those who failed.  Apparently, the Oxford team didn’t study this, and, given the horrific times Obama has put us through (unnecessarily so as those promised shovel-ready jobs have yet to materialize), we've got a ton of potential suicides, and that’s probably the key question most of them have been asking.

         Anyway, citizens did comparatively well in countries with elaborate social safety nets like Sweden, where the suicide rate remained unchanged. 

         There was no attempt to pin anything on Wall Street, so the Crime Lords, who, of course, lavishly fund academia, get away scot-free again.

         How in God’s name can anybody study serial killings and run away from the serial killers?  Damn academics belong in the slammer too.