Choking deaths on food in the US

In the years from 2012 to 2021, Americans grew both more likely to buy somebody else's sweater and more likely to choke on dinner, and the trends arrived at a correlation (r = 0.960) tight enough to concern a cardiologist and a Goodwill regional manager in roughly equal measure. The cause and effect here are not this; the timing, however, is uncanny. One closet opens; one throat closes.

Both numbers track aging Boomers and wealth-conscious Gen Z from opposite directions. US choking deaths climbed from roughly 4,800 annually to 5,300 across the decade, with nearly all of the increase concentrated in adults over 65, whose swallow reflex weakens with age and medication; the US thrift store market meanwhile expanded from around $10 billion to over $28 billion, powered by Depop, Poshmark, ThredUp, and the increasingly plausible suggestion that fast fashion is bad for the planet. The correlation is the accidental handshake of two demographic stories — one generation thinning, another generation thrifting — that happen to live in the same country at the same time.

One generation grows old, the other ransacks its closet. The shelves keep filling with coats.