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Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

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Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#71

Post by lapcat »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #52
epgui wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what else could be the cause? One way or another, it'll come down to some insane policy decision or other. And this "states vs federal" power struggle in America (not my country) basically guarantees that there will be variance across states. The division of powers made sense in the old days, but in today's day and age it's crazy that there are not more standards set across the board at the federal level. It'…

What changed between the old days and now to make running many independent(ish) experiments in government stop making sense?

The 13 colonies were not "experiments". They were preexisting local governments that needed to come to agreement on forming a new nation after overthrowing the rule of the British King. The compromises made in the US Constitution were the price for that agreement at the time.

The problem is that people in the 21st century still feel bound by an 18th century agreement. I guess the alternative is another civil war, so that might be why the agreement lasts, no matter how shaky and dubious.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#72

Post by rgmerk »

sparker72678 wrote: post #46
portmanteur wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These sorts of charts are meaningless without being broken down by race. I did a quick search for "US Mortality Rate by Race" and I found CDC documents showing that African Americans have roughly 35% higher age-adjusted mortality than non-Hispanic Whites [0], and have on average 7 year shorter life expectancy at birth [1]. When people show maps where the American South has seemingly worse outcomes than the rest of th…

The article explains that the result holds when controlling for race (and income, and education). Yes, there are racial disparities in life expectancy. Still, people of all races in the US are behind their European counterparts in life expectancy.

And British people at the same income decile have much longer life expectancies than Americans of the same income decile, despite the fact that Americans at every income decile (except perhaps maybe the very poorest) are richer in absolute terms than Brits.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#73

Post by okaram »

23B1 wrote: post #9
dfxm12 wrote: post #2

I saw all the doom and gloom tweets, but didn't realize most of the cause boils down to policy decisions. Call your elected officials and tell them you don't want to die an avoidable early death.

Sure seems to me like any time the technocrat/commentariat/coastal crowd point out the various problems with the American South, it's always with this patronizing schadenfreude vibe. "Haha guys look at the poor dumb hicks who don't know what's best for them"

I more or less agree... But, does it make it any less true?

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#74

Post by lokar »

lapcat wrote: post #69
lokar wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not. I think they have cynically manipulated by politicians taking advantage of some amount of real cultural disapproval. They cultivate the grievances and push them even more extremes.

Politicians are just people. They're not space aliens like Kang and Kodos. Politicians are citizens and came from the same place as everyone else. They're just as much a product of the local culture as everyone else in their locality.

Sure. Politics is a group dynamic. And in this case it has a clear tendency towards an extreme that is self harming. But almost none of the individuals are driving towards that intentionally.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#75

Post by Fatnino »

portmanteur wrote: post #42
rgmerk wrote: post #19

Nobody has explicitly connected the other damning life expectancy visualisation on Twitter yet, so it’s worth linking to it: https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799627128143873?... The difference in life expectancy between the UK and the US is mostly down to young Americans dying from guns, drugs, and cars; my guess is much of the differences within the US are attributable to the same factors.

These sorts of charts are meaningless without being broken down by race. I did a quick search for "US Mortality Rate by Race" and I found CDC documents showing that African Americans have roughly 35% higher age-adjusted mortality than non-Hispanic Whites [0], and have on average 7 year shorter life expectancy at birth [1]. When people show maps where the American South has seemingly worse outcomes than the rest of th…

Combine a map of where African Americans live and where American Natives now live and you pretty much recreate the map in OP. Not exactly though, because you'll still be missing Appalachia. So it really is just a poverty map.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#76

Post by 23B1 »

okaram wrote: post #73
23B1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure seems to me like any time the technocrat/commentariat/coastal crowd point out the various problems with the American South, it's always with this patronizing schadenfreude vibe. "Haha guys look at the poor dumb hicks who don't know what's best for them"

I more or less agree... But, does it make it any less true?

No it absolutely does not change the facts - but I’d be willing to bet people are more likely to change their minds (about policy, politics, their way of life) if folks didn’t look down their noses at them.

Of course everyone knows this, but grace and empathy is much harder than condescension and schadenfreude.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#77

Post by 23B1 »

hotpotamus wrote: post #57
23B1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When everyone sh*ts on your culture 24/7/365 for decades and decades, it gets pretty hard to separate the condescension from the genuinely good advice.

Indeed, when their own TV network calls them "dumb, cousin-fucking terrorists"[0], you'd think they'd have a hard time trusting them, but it doesn't seem that way. Still, I'd think don't smoke and take your vaccines would be relatively uncontroversial basic public health information these days, but I guess not. [0] https://twitter.com/Eric_Alterman/status/1634971075334508544

“Their own TV network”

I don’t know many Louisianans working at FOX NEWS HQ in NYC…

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#78

Post by lapcat »

lokar wrote: post #74
lapcat wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politicians are just people. They're not space aliens like Kang and Kodos. Politicians are citizens and came from the same place as everyone else. They're just as much a product of the local culture as everyone else in their locality.

Sure. Politics is a group dynamic. And in this case it has a clear tendency towards an extreme that is self harming. But almost none of the individuals are driving towards that intentionally.

> But almost none of the individuals are driving towards that intentionally.

I disagree with that.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#79

Post by mrzimmerman »

23B1 wrote: post #9
dfxm12 wrote: post #2

I saw all the doom and gloom tweets, but didn't realize most of the cause boils down to policy decisions. Call your elected officials and tell them you don't want to die an avoidable early death.

Sure seems to me like any time the technocrat/commentariat/coastal crowd point out the various problems with the American South, it's always with this patronizing schadenfreude vibe. "Haha guys look at the poor dumb hicks who don't know what's best for them"

I’m not really sure how this relates to the problem. People may be awful or cruel sometimes, but that doesn’t force civic leaders or individuals into making bad policy/personal decisions.

Furthermore, a lot of this is an explicit problem. Poverty is high in the south and poverty correlates strongly with less access to healthcare, or healthcare avoidance to avoid the cost.

Re: Life expectancy in the U.S. varies greatly by region

#80

Post by mrzimmerman »

23B1 wrote: post #31
ethanbond wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your claim that the patronizing tone is the source of or a possible solution to the South’s problems? Or is this a, “because the coasts are patronizing, we don’t need to discuss these issues.” Seems like the latter to me but I’d be interested to hear if it’s the former.

“You made your bed, now lay in it” is neither constructive nor effective in changing minds.

And that isn’t being said here. Frustration with a person’s family is one comment, discussions of the cultural problems on the south in another (denial/defiance), but regardless of someone’s tone thousands of miles away the problem is still there and the source of it is not the tone or words used by individuals from far away.
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