Getting Paid Might Kill You?

from the studies-for-the-fun-of-it dept

Thu, Sep 24th 2009 8:48am — Mike Masnick

Okay, I don't have much of a comment on this one either way, other than that I found it to be quite an amusing topic for study, and thought some of you might appreciate it as well -- for the humor factor. Via Paul Kedrosky comes the news of an NBER research paper that found that people tend to die right after getting paid. Well, sorta:

Many studies find that households increase their consumption after the receipt of expected income payments, a result inconsistent with the life-cycle/permanent income hypothesis. Consumption can increase adverse health events, such as traffic accidents, heart attacks and strokes. In this paper, we examine the short-term mortality consequences of income receipt. We find that mortality increases following the arrival of monthly Social Security payments, regular wage payments for military personnel, the 2001 tax rebates, and Alaska Permanent Fund dividend payments. The increase in short-run mortality is large, potentially eliminating some of the protective benefits of additional income.

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Filed Under: mortality

26 Comments

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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 7:52am

That's why I don't leave the house to spend my paycheck. Internet shopping FTW
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:13am

Well, then I fully expect...
...TechDirt to die any day now. Have you cashed those CwF+RtB checks yet?
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Dragon Blogger, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:22am

Still Alive
Still alive but feeling nauseous after receiving my AdSense payment, wonder if the payday wasn't big enough to finish the job.
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Hulser (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:23am

Well, obviously this means the government should step in and tax those payments in the name of protecting the public.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
- Gerald Ford
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moore850, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:26am

You can't collect if you're dead
Isn't it way, way more likely that these are people who died within a few days and the relatives just didn't report it so they could get that last paycheck? I know there are stories of people who have done this deliberately for years to collect the soc sec benefits, but doing it to get the one last check seems like something a whole lot of people would probably do.
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Peter, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:33am

Consumption of what?

Probably more people booze it up after a payday.

Increased alcohol consumption leads to higher death rates.

Really though, there is sparse info here.
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SPR0949, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:42am

I like to live dangerously. Give me more money!!
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Mechwarrior, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:44am

Institute hazard pay for jobs that pay .
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:52am

To help people live longer companies will institute a one payday at the year right before the canning season starts around the end of the year.
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iNtrigued (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:53am

Careful...
You might want to take down the "Shut us up" part of your CwF+RtB campaign. A payday like that could lead to some catastrophic accident. *Knock on wood*

Then where would we go to get our fix of tech news?
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John Doe, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:59am

Not too surprising...
I know a lady who totaled her car while going out on her lunch hour to pay bills. She was too cheap to buy stamps. Yea, I know, stamps are cheaper than driving. She now mails her bills or probably pays them online. :)
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imfaral (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:03am

wow
What a fun tidbit of info, this will get filed away in the fun facts category.
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iamtheky (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:19am

Heres more breaking news: People get in more traffic accidents after putting gas in their car.

"Many studies find that households increase their consumption"

"Consumption can increase adverse health events"

therefore getting paid causes more deaths? All without actually seeing the data that lead to the far-reaching conclusion.

neither tech nor dirt, imho.
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iNtrigued (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:21am

Re: wow
... Not to be heard from every again... lost in time forever.. for ev er.. For ev er.. For Ev Er.. For Ev Er...
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LostSailor (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:38am

It's not about getting paid
It's what you do with the moolah after you get it. The bender at the pub and the drive home. The supersized Big Macs.

But I'd like to propose and experiment to determine if the amount of the payday has an effect on mortality. Since I haven't died yet at my current rate of compensation, I propose to increase it by 20% each week until I die. Any takers? It's all for science. I'll be happy to report the results here, copyright free of course.
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TW Burger (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:43am

Send it to Me
Send me all of that dangerous money and I'll endure the risks for you.
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Logo, 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:54am

Hmm...
And here I was thinking the Mafia was evil, I guess it turns out their 'protection' was really just that.
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HolaJohnny (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 10:57am

...
so in conclusion the homeless live forever? (more or less) I knew that guy holding the sign said he was a Vet but I didn't know he was a civil war vet. That tricky sob!
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 11:00am

Re: ...
Well, no, because you see people keep giving them spare change and killing them.

But it seems to me that if this study was accurate our government would have died off a long time ago....
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Kevin (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 11:22am

Only partially correct
It's not the pay that kills you, it's the hooker and the eightball of crack.
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HolaJohnny (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 11:23am

Re: Re: ...
People give them change? I thought everyone was as heartless and cynical as me. I prefer to hurl pennies at them. What else would you do with those useless things? They aren't worth anything unless you trick Coinstar into taking them...
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hegemon13, 24 Sep 2009 @ 11:39am

Re:
I assume it means consumption in general. You know, of stuff. As "consumers." See, apparently this expensive, time-consuming, in-depth study figured out something no one else would have guessed: people are more likely to go buy stuff when they have money than when they don't. Woah. Heavy.
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lux (profile), 24 Sep 2009 @ 11:50am

$50 billion study finds that people do shit with their money.
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interval, 24 Sep 2009 @ 12:33pm

Hey! If they cut off grandma's checks she'll live forever, right?
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TheStupidOne, 24 Sep 2009 @ 4:13pm

Re: You can't collect if you're dead
Or maybe the government or employer just decides that they've finally paid said person enough and just eliminates them
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Andrew D. Todd, 24 Sep 2009 @ 5:21pm

Alcohol Poisoning.
There are a number of cases of strong young men, fraternity boys, dying of heart attacks after consuming two bottles of whiskey, say $150 worth, during pledging. With an older guy, it doesn't necessarily take that much.

I used to know an old guy, who lived across the stairwell from me when I was living in urban Philadelphia, getting on for twenty years ago. Well every so often, his bad-news godson would turn up with a bottle of whiskey, and a druggie streetwalker. The old guy drank enough that the first time I saw him lying passed out, I thought he had had a heart attack. His skin was gray. The bottle of whiskey was sitting on the table, maybe about half finished, though, granted, the scapegrace godson and the naughty woman had some. Well, we pulled the old guy to his feet, and made him walk around a little, to make sure he was all right, before putting him back on the sofa, and I still had my doubts about whether I oughtn't to have called the ambulance anyway. After several hours, to my relief, he was awake with a furiously red face, a hangover and a splitting headache, and in a screaming rage at all and sundry.

This happened a few more times, and I had the unlovely job of running the undesirables off the premises. The streetwalker was a veritable weasel, and she had figured out that the old guy was a rabbit, so she hung about for a few days after each drinking bout, waiting for the chance to commit a robbery. So she had to be ordered to leave. In that kind of situation, you never quite know whether someone has a gun or not, but you have to give orders as if you were entirely sure of yourself. You have your orders, and you are profoundly indifferent to all pleas, excuses, suggestions, hints, threats, expostulations, exclamations, objurgations, etc. You repeat yourself over and over, without raising your voice or otherwise showing anger, and each time, the objectionable person retreats about two feet. By this process, you eventually back them out the door.

So the idea of payday mortality doesn't particularly surprise me.
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