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Comment by zwkrt | Hacker News Reader

I can imagine the dystopian sci-fi work now, of someone who has been tagged in the governmental credit check system as being 'at risk of suicide'. They are systematically denied access, othered, and subtly offered help for mental health problems (which they did not perceive themselves as having previously before being suggested) causing them to be pushed to the edge of sanity.

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Or you find yourself repeatedly thrown in the looney bin for a 72 hour suicide watch. And sent the bill (see Baker Act and other constitutionally-dubious state laws).

The inability to hold down a job is a very common symptom of mental illness. In other words, it is no secret that your mental health hinges on whether or not you contribute to the economy.

I think you may have causality backwards there. Its more likely that people with mental health issues have problems functioning in the usual work environment, they don't mesh and have trouble keeping the job because of it.

Well I do fully believe that for most people their sense of self worth hinges on having responsibilities and a regular schedule, but that can mean being a mother, volunteering on a regular basis, being a part of your retirement community's bingo club, or whatever else.

But what is also true is that losing your job can be a precipitous plunge into mental illness, as your outside world that was regularly structured turns to chaos suddenly. And of course, if your external world becomes chaotic, your internal world is liable to be chaotic as well--'as above, so below' and all that.

worse yet - that individual has incurred healthcare costs at a greater rate than their "peer group" and the nudges turn away from mental health assistance to subtle suicide encouragement for the "common good" (lowering aggregate healthcare costs).

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