The deeper causes of suicide cannot be understood merely through an observation of an individual’s employment status, but require a critical analysis of the social structure that influences his or her economic condition. The May 9 editorial, “Depression in a down economy,” stops short while admitting that there is a link between poverty and clinical depression.

The conditions that have fostered a terrible growth of mental sickness and depression in the United States include physical factors such as malnutrition, pollution, asbestos and lead poisoning and drug and alcohol abuse. They include social problems such as the decay of public education and the cutting back in counseling and other social services while the cost of health care has skyrocketed. Added to this are the decline and collapse of the old social support networks — progressive political parties, grass-roots political movements, labor unions — that once provided an outlet for the anger and frustration produced during an economic crisis.

The unemployed and clinically depressed rely on assistance from the same capitalist system that has caused their predicament. This is the problem that must be addressed.

Doug Smiley

Indianapolis