The Financial Times column from where it comes from:
https://enterprise-sharing.ft.com/error-pages/expired-link?c...
The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
61–70 of 399 posts
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#62"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." Wow. Actually impressed with the analysis backing this up. If you read the entire thread, he actually covers nearly every correlating factor I could think of. And it's pretty clearly drugs, guns, suicide, and cars. (The cardio health one doesn't seem as strong). The one that is crazy to me is the uptick in driving fatalities. Cars are an order of…
Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen.
Hell, about an hour ago a cop tailgated me while I was going 15 over the limit, wove through traffic to cut me off, run a red light, then damn near ran another driver off the road. No lights, no emergency, just an asshole. This is the behavior you have to expect from all drivers now.
At least two or three times a week I have a close call that would wreck my car or seriously hurt someone, and I pretty much only drive up and down the one road between my house and the office, it's a 5 mile drive.
There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#63each dot represents metro area representing 100k. I wonder how this would look if you separate the data by race and average weight?
If you break it down by weight this becomes uninteresting. Weight is a health outcome. "People who are less healthy die sooner" no kidding.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US government spends the most in the world on subsidizing corporations for healthcare. There is nothing "socialized" about it. The public in general gets very little of that benefit. And that holds true even if you include Medicare.
I meant only Medicare and Medicaid. The US government spends on Medicare and Medicare more then any other country on healthcare.
Don't forget the VA, but this stat always shocks people. I don't think people's brains can even hold on to it. It's important to use italics: The US government spends more on healthcare per capita than all socialized systems. The difference between life and death in the US isn't about paying lower taxes, it's purely rent-seeking; i.e. we pay once for healthcare, and we pay once again to the landlords of healthcare, directly out of our pockets.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#65"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." Wow. Actually impressed with the analysis backing this up. If you read the entire thread, he actually covers nearly every correlating factor I could think of. And it's pretty clearly drugs, guns, suicide, and cars. (The cardio health one doesn't seem as strong). The one that is crazy to me is the uptick in driving fatalities. Cars are an order of…
>Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent.
Jevons Paradox perhaps; you make the cars safer, so people feel more empowered to drive recklessly.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#66Obesity play a role in this. I wish the study can consider the body weight too.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#67Obesity play a role in this. I wish the study can consider the body weight too.
Sure. But is that a cause or an effect?
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#68[flagged]
Can you name an American food that isn't brown? At least in the UK people eat vegetables that don't come from cans. Americans sure do love their bland fatty salty food, though.
The solution to a low quality HN comment is to downvote it, not to return the volley with another low quality comment.
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#69Race/age correction please...
Re: The average American has the same life expectancy as the worst part of England
#70Sure there will be lots of hypotheses for why this is the case. In my experience, though, you can almost ignore longevity and just look at these sociological differences that make the quality of life better for the English:
1. You could easily argue that frequenting a pub shortens your lifespan, but I just loved "pub culture" when I visited colleagues in England. It's a great antidote to loneliness.
2. You can argue all you want that the NHS has loads of problems, but even some rich people in the US, when faced with serious medical issues, their first thought is "will this bankrupt me" or "will I get hit with a giant unexpected medical bill"? Our healthcare system in the US is simply indefensible.
3. Cities and towns in England are just much more walkable, "congenial" in general, e.g. row houses instead of separate, fenced off suburban houses with yards in the US.