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Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

economist.com

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Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#11

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

krysp wrote: post #4
was_a_dev wrote: post #2

It is well-known that the austerity ushered in by Cameron's new Conservative goverment heavily contributed to excess deaths. After a decade of continued underfunding of public services, leading to a collapsed social and health service, you realise the question really isn't that deep

Well known anecdotally perhaps, but this is the first time I've seen a major publication link the two issues (possibly I don't read enough of the news). Hopefully we see more like this.

Some of the media coverage:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/05/over-330000...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/austerity-thousand...

Some of the research:

https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/21490/1/‘Dead%20peop...

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/10/e046417

There's a mountain of evidence that the policies were democidally harmful and economically counterproductive.

Although they did increase financial inequality - which some people seem to consider a good thing rather than a bad one.

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#12

Post by actuator »

krysp wrote: post #9

As a Brit I can't help but notice that on every axis, our country appears to be in decline at the moment. Even before Brexit, things hadn't been going well, as this article shows. It's making me seriously consider moving away. I want to have hope that as a country we can turn around this societal regression, but I fear it's a deeper problem than just the current government. The class system and an unhealthy nostalgia…

I am not sure how in a totally integrated free market world, a country like UK can compete with US or China. The amount of funding US can put into new areas like green energy and the internal market and capital it offers is something UK can't compete with. This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US.

Although, I am not sure where a Brit would move to, if they want to have similar social systems. Most of the EU also seems on the path to decline as well.

Also, unlike say a German or a French expat, a British expat would have little problem moving to US, Canada, Australia or NZ as there is little language or culture barrier, so if those countries do well, why won't a skilled Brit just moved there.

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#13

Post by 6510 »

was_a_dev wrote: post #2

It is well-known that the austerity ushered in by Cameron's new Conservative goverment heavily contributed to excess deaths. After a decade of continued underfunding of public services, leading to a collapsed social and health service, you realise the question really isn't that deep

> the five local authorities with the highest average life expectancy can expect to live 83.6 years, which is nearly 10 years longer than the 73.9 average in the five councils with lowest life expectancy at birth. https://www.theactuary.com/news/2022/08/24/uk-house-prices-s...

The average age in the UK is lower than the EU.

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#14

Post by mbo »

actuator wrote: post #7

A bit offtopic, but does anyone who has worked with media organisations in the past know, how much an individual developer time is spent in creating an interactive feature report like this? Also, are there publishing tools that allow creation by something like drag and drop in the CMS or is it often custom frontend code?

The Australian public broadcaster open sources all its infrastructure for their interactive features: https://github.com/abcnews

It's all very bespoke.

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#15

Post by hellojimbo »

was_a_dev wrote: post #2

It is well-known that the austerity ushered in by Cameron's new Conservative goverment heavily contributed to excess deaths. After a decade of continued underfunding of public services, leading to a collapsed social and health service, you realise the question really isn't that deep

The good thing about trading the livelihood of future generations for the livelihood of the current generation through reckless spending is that the future generation doesn't get a vote.

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#16

Post by epicureanideal »

actuator wrote: post #12
krysp wrote: post #9

As a Brit I can't help but notice that on every axis, our country appears to be in decline at the moment. Even before Brexit, things hadn't been going well, as this article shows. It's making me seriously consider moving away. I want to have hope that as a country we can turn around this societal regression, but I fear it's a deeper problem than just the current government. The class system and an unhealthy nostalgia…

I am not sure how in a totally integrated free market world, a country like UK can compete with US or China. The amount of funding US can put into new areas like green energy and the internal market and capital it offers is something UK can't compete with. This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US. Although, I am not sure where a Brit would move to, if they want…

Taiwan, South Korea, and Israel all have much lower populations than the UK and yet remain important global influencers.

It isn't all about population. The USA has 1/4 the population of China and yet technologically is a peer competitor. Japan had less than 1/2 the population of the USA in the 1980s and was a technological peer competitor.

With wise investment in capital equipment, education, and technology, even small, resource-poor countries can punch far above their weight. The UK remains a sufficient economy to serve as a foundation to rise significantly above its current situation. Imagine a UK with a $150,000 USD average income, thanks to intensive investment for a generation. If that sounds unrealistic, so would our current level of average incomes to people living in 1900. Somehow we've just lost the belief that we can continue to dramatically increase our quality of life.

Between its nuclear deterrent and soft power, the UK could remain a global power for at least the next couple of centuries if it chose to do so.

I wonder what the electoral interest would be in a UK political party that advocated the goal of doubling the nation's per capita income in 10 years?

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#17

Post by sefrost »

actuator wrote: post #12
krysp wrote: post #9

As a Brit I can't help but notice that on every axis, our country appears to be in decline at the moment. Even before Brexit, things hadn't been going well, as this article shows. It's making me seriously consider moving away. I want to have hope that as a country we can turn around this societal regression, but I fear it's a deeper problem than just the current government. The class system and an unhealthy nostalgia…

I am not sure how in a totally integrated free market world, a country like UK can compete with US or China. The amount of funding US can put into new areas like green energy and the internal market and capital it offers is something UK can't compete with. This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US. Although, I am not sure where a Brit would move to, if they want…

> This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US.

Is this true? Would love to read about it as a Brit in North America!

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#18

Post by treeman79 »

was_a_dev wrote: post #2

It is well-known that the austerity ushered in by Cameron's new Conservative goverment heavily contributed to excess deaths. After a decade of continued underfunding of public services, leading to a collapsed social and health service, you realise the question really isn't that deep

[flagged]

Re: Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

#20

Post by was_a_dev »

treeman79 wrote: post #18
was_a_dev wrote: post #2

It is well-known that the austerity ushered in by Cameron's new Conservative goverment heavily contributed to excess deaths. After a decade of continued underfunding of public services, leading to a collapsed social and health service, you realise the question really isn't that deep

[flagged]

Oh dear
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