Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Recession Claims UCLA Student

The horrific murder-suicide of a distraught, unemployed Porter Ranch man claimed his family. Among them his son, a Fullbright Scholar and honor student at UCLA.

There is always a human tragedy dimension to economic downturns, all the more that it claims an extend classmate of sorts. So many things ahead in life...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you cannot blame the deaths from this tragedy on the economic conditions of the country. no matter what the father said in his note, there's no excuse. these things are not that simple.

Yang said...

I don't exonerate what the father did on account of the recession. It was a horrific thing to do. And I agree, things aren't that simple.

But it is also true that there is a positive correlation between economic dislocation and suicides. And that is a real and measurable element of human suffering.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/weekinreview/19lewin.html

Looking at Billboard No. 1 songs from 1955 to 2003 for a study to be published in the journal Psychology of Music, he found that in uncertain times, people tend to prefer songs that are longer, slower, with more meaningful themes...