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

reuters.com

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

#31

Post by txcwpalpha »

pphysch wrote: post #20
ekianjo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A government issued number. Thats the key difference. In the real world you can move in the country and start anew somewhere else.

How is this functionally different than e.g. a criminal or financial record? If you can escape these, you can escape other government records.

To add to those examples: standardized test scores (like those for college admissions), education records (including collegiate degrees), health records, residency records, credit scores, driving records are all permanent records that are maintained by organizations that are either governmental or no better than a govt org.

I'm not a fan of China's system either, but it's silly to act like it's something new. Nearly every citizen of any first world country has a huge set of permanent records being compiled on them, not just those in China.

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

#33

Post by hueving »

dv_dt wrote: post #13
perfmode wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Case in point, the no-fly list in the US. No one publically knows if they're on it, there is similarly no means to appeal being on it. At least one would know if they held a poor Chinese social credit rating - though I don't know what resolution mechanism they might have for mistakes either.

I can't be put on the no-fly list for shoveling bigmacs down my throat.

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

#34

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

noncoml wrote: post #23
swebs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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."

That might have been a relevant metric 10 years ago, but all sorts of tech and health news now gets screen time.

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

#35

Post by platinumrad »

tropdrop wrote: post #28
platinumrad wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've actually seen a lot of calls on social media to completely cut off racist family members in the last year. Could be a difference between our relative social circles.

More generally, if you're Facebook friends with or a Twitter follower of someone of interest to the state security services, like a radical Islamic preacher for example, do you really not think that is being recorded somewhere?

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

#36

Post by l33tbro »

wetpaws wrote: post #11
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.

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

You don't think that trivialises the issue just a touch?

We're talking about an institutionised score which effectively administers your social mobility.

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

#37

Post by sonnyblarney »

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…

"When you look at the obesity numbers" ...

Unfortunately, theses 'lifespan' measurements have a lot to do with violent crime, car accidents, suicides, war deaths etc. - i.e. things that aren't so much about health than otherwise.

It's why average lifespan isn't necessarily a very good measure of health outcomes.

I think US is down due to overdoses, which is a kind of health issues, but not necessarily a regular measure of diet and quality of regular medicine, it's an epidemic.

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

#40

Post by platinumrad »

l33tbro wrote: post #36
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.

You don't think that trivialises the issue just a touch? We're talking about an institutionised score which effectively administers your social mobility.

You're talking about SAT scores right? Or did you mean US credit scores, which are maintained by three opaque and unaccountable private corporations.

More seriously, yes, the explicit social credit system that China seeks to establish is evil. But the west isn't much different.

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