Recessions and Layoffs can be life-changing events. But, are all these changes bad? Business Insider has the details of a major positive in The Upside of Recessions…
There’s a reason governments spend so many taxpayer dollars digging their economies out of recessions. Families lose their homes. Children go malnourished. New grads spend years struggling to get their careers back on track, forgoing marriage and kids and homeownership. But a growing body of research suggests that recessions are good for at least one thing: longevity. Puzzlingly, it appears that economic downturns actually extend people’s lives.
Why would layoffs help people live longer?
The answer was pollution. Counties that experienced the biggest job losses in the Great Recession, the economists found, also saw the largest declines in air pollution, as measured by levels of the fine particulate matter PM2.5. It makes sense: During recessions, fewer people drive to work. Factories and offices slow down, and people cut back on their own energy use to save money. All that reduced activity leads to cleaner air. That would explain why workers without a college degree enjoyed the biggest drops in mortality: People with low-wage jobs tend to live in neighborhoods with more environmental toxins. It would also explain why the recession reduced mortality from heart disease, suicide, and car crashes
(graphic via freeimages.com)
