Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 213 posts

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#21

Post by platinumrad »

tropdrop wrote: post #19
wetpaws wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every single being on this planet is playing social status game, all China did is put a number on it.

But in the Chinese system, your number goes down if someone you're friends with on social media makes a post that the Chinese government deems politically unsavory

This is true in the west as well. Especially now in 2018, if someone you're even tangentially connected to does something deemed to be unsavory you are expected to immediately and forcefully disavow them or face the social consequences. Even then, you still may be tainted by association.

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#22

Post by akhatri_aus »

kizer wrote: post #5

Healthy and subject to a "social credits" system. I'd rather be morbidly obese than have the government force me to play a social status game.

You realise China's current political system is merely a stage of its economic development, I hope?

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#23

Post by noncoml »

swebs wrote: post #14
asdsa5325 wrote: post #6

How is this article related to Hacker News?

>Hacker News Guidelines >What to Submit >On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. >Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or…

"If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#24

Post by gggibi08 »

This study is backward looking; it hasn't taken account of China's current set of factors that could skew the lifespan down tremendously for average Chinese citizens. Factors such as

1.) Air pollution. In your typical big cities, e.g Beijing, it average AQI 100-150 for the past 10+ years https://young-0.com/airquality/. In other lower tiered cities, it average between 50-100. Just to compare, WHO recommend only AQI of 25 in 24 hour span to be ok for your health. And even though recently Beijing's AQI has gone down, what the government has done is they pushed the coal-burning factories into the countryside, and moving the pollutions there.

2.) Water pollution. Cancer causing ingredients have been found in several water sources. for example: "Shanghai water supply hit by 100-tonne wave of garbage " - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/23/shanghai-water... https://qz.com/113751/only-3-of-shanghais-river-and-lake-wat...

3.) Smoking/smokers everywhere. "Smoking Will Kill 200 Million In China This Century" https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smoking-will-kill-200-m...

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#25

Post by lallysingh »

adventured wrote: post #15
drcode wrote: post #3

I assume the WHO relies on local census & medical data to generate these statistics (the Reuters piece doesn't have a citation on ths) so I'd take this data with a grain of salt until we hear more details about the methodology.

I agree. Although, it also wouldn't be terribly surprising for China to pass the US on this metric. When you look at the obesity numbers: US 36%, New Zealand 31%, Canada 29%, Australia 29%, UK 28%, Israel 26%, Ireland 25% Thailand 10%, Indonesia 7%, China 6%, Philippines 6%, South Korea, 5%, Vietnam 2% Vietnam's life expectancy will overtake the US in the next 10-15 years as well most likely (they're about three year…

Oh and the absurd costs of healthcare in the US

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#26

Post by [deleted] »

tropdrop wrote: post #19
wetpaws wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every single being on this planet is playing social status game, all China did is put a number on it.

But in the Chinese system, your number goes down if someone you're friends with on social media makes a post that the Chinese government deems politically unsavory

[deleted]

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#27

Post by stcredzero »

perfmode wrote: post #8
kizer wrote: post #5

Healthy and subject to a "social credits" system. I'd rather be morbidly obese than have the government force me to play a social status game.

in the united states, the means of control are hidden rather than apparent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#28

Post by tropdrop »

platinumrad wrote: post #21
tropdrop wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in the Chinese system, your number goes down if someone you're friends with on social media makes a post that the Chinese government deems politically unsavory

This is true in the west as well. Especially now in 2018, if someone you're even tangentially connected to does something deemed to be unsavory you are expected to immediately and forcefully disavow them or face the social consequences. Even then, you still may be tainted by association.

When uncle Joe in Utah posts a racist rant on Facebook, I don't get penalized. Even if he posts a political rant or conspiracy theory, I don't get penalized. I can and do still remain friends with him on this social media channel without consequence.

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#29

Post by ams6110 »

adventured wrote: post #15
drcode wrote: post #3

I assume the WHO relies on local census & medical data to generate these statistics (the Reuters piece doesn't have a citation on ths) so I'd take this data with a grain of salt until we hear more details about the methodology.

I agree. Although, it also wouldn't be terribly surprising for China to pass the US on this metric. When you look at the obesity numbers: US 36%, New Zealand 31%, Canada 29%, Australia 29%, UK 28%, Israel 26%, Ireland 25% Thailand 10%, Indonesia 7%, China 6%, Philippines 6%, South Korea, 5%, Vietnam 2% Vietnam's life expectancy will overtake the US in the next 10-15 years as well most likely (they're about three year…

Obesity seems to be a side effect of prosperity, so China will probably be next.

Re: China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

#30

Post by dv_dt »

adventured wrote: post #15
drcode wrote: post #3

I assume the WHO relies on local census & medical data to generate these statistics (the Reuters piece doesn't have a citation on ths) so I'd take this data with a grain of salt until we hear more details about the methodology.

I agree. Although, it also wouldn't be terribly surprising for China to pass the US on this metric. When you look at the obesity numbers: US 36%, New Zealand 31%, Canada 29%, Australia 29%, UK 28%, Israel 26%, Ireland 25% Thailand 10%, Indonesia 7%, China 6%, Philippines 6%, South Korea, 5%, Vietnam 2% Vietnam's life expectancy will overtake the US in the next 10-15 years as well most likely (they're about three year…

It's not just obesity that drives poor US life expectancy performance. Mexico's life expectancy is projected to rise meet the US life expectancy by 2030, and they're a nation with a fairly high obesity percentage.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/22/us-life-expectancy-is-low-an...

We have to acknowledge that the lack of Universal Healthcare in the US is a big driver of our poor life expectancy showing.

Post reply on HN