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The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

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Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> gang activity is #2 What is that based on? The only people I hear even talk much about 'gangs' is conservative propgandists trying to demonize black and brown people and cities. I'm not saying no gangs exist, but they aren't really an issue (unless you define 'gang' as any association of >1 person > the most sensible solution is repeal of the Second Amendment and implementation of a nationwide, federal license requ…

This is delusional. I am a brown person, I grew up in these areas. Gangs exist. They are a scourge on the areas they blight. Please do not vote

Maybe where you lived, but not in so many other places.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#372
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> gang activity is #2 What is that based on? The only people I hear even talk much about 'gangs' is conservative propgandists trying to demonize black and brown people and cities. I'm not saying no gangs exist, but they aren't really an issue (unless you define 'gang' as any association of >1 person > the most sensible solution is repeal of the Second Amendment and implementation of a nationwide, federal license requ…

> I'm not saying no gangs exist, but they aren't really an issue Sounds like you've never been poor in urban areas?

I've spent a lot of time in those areas. Have you?

For one thing, talking about them like they are all the same betrays that you haven't. They are as different as any other neighborhoods.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#373
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK UK driving test is difficult, and I suspect drunk driving is much lower because distances are lesser and public transport is better. > suicides Much easier when you have a gun around

And DUI is treated much more seriously in the UK, consequences are stricter (for example, no "oh you need a car to get to work so you can carry on driving but only too and from work" loophole) and there is greater social opprobrium to drink driving.

Yes, it's fairly common to go to prison for drink-driving here.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet phone usage is also a factor. Keep in mind that while we had cell phones for a while, it’s only within the past 10 years that the whole “distraction economy” became a thing, so while people may have used phones to communicate back in the day, nowadays they might be using the phones even more just to attend to those distractions.

The phone usage thing also affects European countries though. Large cars becoming more common is an issue more unique to the US.

That's a good point, although the phone usage could have a multiplier effect and cause proportionally more trouble in the US due to the bigger cars and more-car-oriented environment.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#375
post #349
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you can see in his chart at [1] from the same thread, drugs, violence, and accidents only explain less than 1/3 of the difference, so the rest would be mainly various disease/lifestyle and care related issues (the overwhelmingly top causes of death in the US [2]). I think those graphs are a easy to misread, the long tail of somewhat poorer results is less dramatic than that younger gap, but actually includes much…

How am I supposed to read your first image? It appears to me that heart related issues, all else constant, have less an effect (2.2 for men) than all the other issues mentioned (2.3-3.3).

When removed, it reduces the actual 3.6 difference to 2.2, the greatest reduction. Lower numbers are indicate bigger effects in those charts.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#376
post #97

The original article points out that the primary difference between the US and the UK (as well as other peer countries) is that you're much more likely to die young in the US. A 5-year-old in the United States has a 4% chance of dying before age 40, whereas a 5-year-old in Australia, Austria, Canada, England and Wales, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, or Switzerland has ~1% chance of dying before age 40 (val…

Woah! Deaths by billion vehicle miles in UK - 5.2. In US - 12.5. (both have tens of thousands of KSI, but the US has over twice as many per cap. In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that!) Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to b…

> In fact, way, more KSI from car accidents than even gun related homicide in the US. I hadn't realized that!

Guns get an outsized portion of air time on most media. Especially crimes committed by legal weapons against white people. If all gun crimes were covered equally you would hears a lot more about gang violence and illegal weapons.

> Deaths by gun related homicide in UK - 200. In US - 20000. (Both numbers pale in comparison to motor vehicle deaths, but there are a lot more in the US. Probably to be expected as there is stringent firearm control in the UK.)

I'd be curious to see the difference between gun homicides and homicides. The UK has a huge knife crime problem.

> I'm thinking overdoses is a major contributor. It's the only way to get to millions in less than 10 years. Car accidents, maybe, but honestly it's not that much compared to the number of young people who die every year. Ditto, with gun related homicide, which is even less than car accidents.

Overdoses and drug related deaths. Drug addiction will shorten a person's lifespan by decades.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may leave less room for rear seat, adult passengers if you drive a compact car. It's still manageable, and fine for occasional trips, but I wouldn't choose that car to drive 4 adults daily.

...I wouldn't choose that car to drive 4 adults daily. Is this a typical thing that cars do? I'm not sure if I've seen 4 adults in a car in the last month.

Tall teenagers would also count. It's not something I'd notice, so I have no idea how common it is.

I do it occasionally for hiking trips and similar with friends. Someone doing this every weekend might want more comfort.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#378
post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care if the building 100 floors - the problem is not the height of the building. The problem is that young people in the US who are clearly privileged enough to attend a very prestigious university are driven to suicide.

Tall structures everywhere are suicide magnets because they are fairly accessible and the means of death is easy and (seems) fairly certain. It’s why you can’t build a large bridge with a pedestrian walkway without some kind of safety netting, and that’s globally.

Countries by suicides per 100,000 population:

US: 14.5 UK: 6.9 Germany: 8.3

The problem IS NOT tall structures. The problem is something about US society.

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

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#379
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self driving cars are never coming in a form that would allow you to absolve yourself of responsibility for driving

"Never" is a long time. Given the explanations I've been given for why demonstration videos of general purpose vision-based robots are still often sped up x4 or more (despite Tesla and Spot), I have to assume it's at least a few years away yet, but that's not never.

Even if legally you're not culpable, you're still responsible for choosing to use a death machine in an environment where it can cause harm to others.

Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nailed it. The tying of healthcare to one's job is its primary problem in the USA. This idiotic relationship arose because of incompetent legislation during WWII that was never fixed. The government applied wage caps, but failed to anticipate employers' substitution of "benefits" for wages. So companies sweetened the pot with health insurance to work around wage caps, and the government neglected to close that loopho…

That last paragraph... why should employers go from being a health insurance broker to a child care broker?

Because it requires physical facilities and it benefits from proximity to one's workplace. I don't necessarily think this is appropriate either, but it's the only tiny grain of hope for getting "conservatives" to go along with it. You have to make it an issue of, hey, if you're so desperate to pump out babies, you have to give people a way to do so and still work.
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