More likely the converse. A person with a decent middle-class income who becomes addicted to opioids can end up unable to keep his job, lose his income, fall behind on debts, and end up evicted.
I largely believe it is due to economic woes in the US but they also realize there are many countries in the EU that have a drug epidemic despite have a better social net.
Previous generations had it way worse than us and they didn't have the suicide rates we have today. There's some things missing in modern society that I feel have faded with time, including family unity, community, ethical education (via church or similar), etc. It was reported recently that loneliness is on the rise in the U.S. and with that, I would expect that these health problems continue to rise as well.
Purchasing power through real inflation adjusted wages hasn't increased since the 70's, but costs of living have [1]. I don't think "previous generations had it way worse" than us in all regards.
You'll find Jamaica, Syria, Guatemala, Pakistan, Venezuela, Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, Kenya, and a whole host of countries that are far poorer off than USA but have much lower suicide rates. You'll also notice that Japan and South Korea are higher than ours. Why is that? Poverty or economic hardship is not a predictive indicator of suicide.
A tidy narrative, but not based in reality. Previous generations had easy access to decent paying jobs. Show up and work, that used to be commonplace, now it's rare. And that work used to pay enough to rent a room, pay for college, even set aside some savings, now housing is ridiculously expensive and college represents a massive debt burden. It's a lot more difficult to work your way out of poverty than it used to be.
Sure, millennials had to come of age during the big recession of 2008, but the economy has largely recovered...and graduates today have excellent employment opportunities.
Sure, if you consider only the unemployment rate. But it doesn't tell exactly whether it's skilled work, or how well the work pays. My guess is, when you compare it to purchasing power of the past, they're not any better off despite the lower unemployment rate (which also does not include people who have given up looking for employment).
