Slashdot Mirror
US Life Expectancy May Have Peaked
Hugh Pickens writes "Live Science reports that although life expectancy in the United States has risen to an all-time high of 77.9 years in 2007 up from 77.7 in 2006, gains in life expectancy may be pretty much over, as some groups — particularly people in rural locations are already stagnating or slipping in contrast to all other industrialized nations. Hardest hit are regions in the Deep South, along the Mississippi River, in Appalachia and also the southern part of the Midwest reaching into Texas. The culprits — largely preventable with better diet and access to medical services — are diabetes, cancers and heart disease caused by smoking, high blood pressure and obesity. What the new analysis reveals is the reality of two Americas, one on par with most of Europe and parts of Asia, and another no different than a third-world nation with the United States placing 41st on the 2008 CIA World Factbook list, behind Bosnia but still edging out Albania. 'Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing through 1999 those who were already disadvantaged did not benefit from the gains in life expectancy experienced by the advantaged, and some became even worse off,' says a report published in PLoS Medicine by a team led by Harvard's Majid Ezzati, adding that 'study results are troubling because an oft-stated aim of the US health system is the improvement of the health of "all people, and especially those at greater risk of health disparities.'"
... that we're going to spend over 1 trillion dollars on health care reform and our life expectancy is going to decrease?!?!?
no no no...you're only a traitor if you oppose universal health care (or anything else on the progressive agenda.)
Otherwise dissent is patriotic.
sure, uh huh
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/unamerican-attacks-cant-derail-health-care-debate-.html
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/08/13/reid-protesters-are-evil-mongers/
the fact that you cite the strawman fallacy just proves how ignorant you are. Obama has practically mastered the art of using it at this point.
Ok, let me pee on everyone's parade and burn some karma.
Simplify to this:
"Stupid people do stupid things that cause them to die sooner." Not that there aren't stupid people everywhere, but in America we still have the
right to be wrong to a much greater extent than the nanny states in Europe.
So much for leaving politics out of it. Your naive libertarianism is cute. Smart people make bad decisions and bad things happen to people that don't deserve it. God forbid either of them happens to you lest your little libertarian bubble burst and you have to swallow your pride and admit you're wrong. Anyhow, I'm more libertarian than a fan of the dailyKos myself but it's obvious that nearly all of the successful people in our country had some advantage other than or in addition to intelligence. We don't live in a meritocracy. And to the extent we don't that demonstrates how much the government has yet to do.
I'm not sure you get it. What I got from "a problem with the area between the ears" is that people that make dumb/stupid/misinformed need to live with the consequences of those consciously made decisions. I have no desire and/or moral obligation to help them out. I don't care, unless I'm directly impacted, and that will require a different course of action. Call me selfish if you want, I don't care, but I have never asked, nor do I expect others to bail me out from the poor choices that I have made.
Having said that, I don't mind helping those that physically/mentally/economically disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
To those people that want a handout, or through some strange sense of entitlement think that society at large owes them something....FUCK OFF
Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity!
Since someone has already posted about the children of the disadvantaged I won't add that to my post.
You don't understand the issue. You, and too many people, assume everyone is the same as you. Your intelligent, healthy, and probably from a fortunate middle class family. You, and most people, judge other people using yourself as the measure. This is completely normal. However, it is not an accurate measure. Your not aware that people have limitations. Seemingly normal people have disorders that effect their futures, and they are usually oblivious to them. This will probably shock you; but, there are people that leave high school because their mental capacity has been reached. They might have a learning disorder that keeps them from grasping higher math, like ADD. They might not be able to put together long paragraphs of text for advanced literature classes because of dyslexia. They might not be able to comprehend complex descriptions like you find in test in reading comprehension, because of short-term phonological, visuo spatial, episodic or even long term semantic memory issues. *Your probably snikering about phonological memory issues; but, people that move their mouths when they read remember things phonologically* Anyway, these are all genetically passed traits. And no, you do not have to look like you have down syndrome to have these issues. You probably regard them as white trash, trailer park, nigger... The people in their family do poorly, they do poorly, and they do their best to avoid being tested. You need to understand that this is not "people being lazy". If you see someone shy away from doing something that benefits them it is rarely because the don't see the benefit. I will give you 9:1 odds it is a fear of failing a task. The fear of failing is the most prominent "disease" in human beings. Ironically, being good at trying is truthfully the only thing a person actually must be good at. People with these disadvantages get so beat up with failure because their lives are filled with it. They just stop trying. If people close to you failed, you failed, and your constantly being looked down on by people with a boat load more advantages, then you would better understand this issue.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Did he eat right and exercise regularly? Having a massive heart attack at age 40 sounds like he wasn't taking very good care of himself to begin with. Ya, it would be great if healthcare took care of everyone who ate themselves to death but lets be realistic, people need to take responsibility for their own health. If he was an avid athlete and just dropped dead then my sincere condolences go out to his family and friends. If he ate himself to death then to his family and friends I say shame on you for letting him kill himself.
Safety nets become hammocks.
love is just extroverted narcissism
The world rankings are done every year.
The world rankings are spun toward universal health care for the US every year as well.
An increase of 73 days average life expectancy in only one year...
"IT'S A PEAK!!!11 SEE?!! IT'S GOT TO BE A PEAK!!1"
roflmao
Fortunately many other media outlets that aren't governed by slashdot editors had no difficultly sorting the relevant information from the spin; the US health care system is not, in fact, failing. It is rather expensive, and that may need to be dealt with, but it's not 'failing' according to any reasonable definition of fail that isn't founded on leftist propaganda.
Another thing to note is that the 0.2 year increase adds a little more than 2 extra months of social security payments, medicare reimbursements, VA benefits, prescription drug subsidies, pension disbursements, etc. to the Federal budget. Three guesses as to whether our forthright and brilliant rulers were factoring in such 'unexpected' yet large life expectancy increases into any of those future budgets while they were making their campaign promises... and the first two don't count.
Currency collapse. Bank on it.
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
If you're poor enough that the difference between $1.50 Cambell's soup and $1 frozen pizza is critical, then you're not going to have the time or the $3 for bus fare to get to the real grocery store a few miles away. There really are areas where you can't easily get to a grocery store: they are called "food deserts" by those who work on issues surrounding food supplies in poor urban areas.
I don't buy this as an excuse to not eat decent food. A 3-mile walk doesn't take more than about 45 minutes. Include the return trip, and you're up to an hour and a half. Even if every person in your household works fulltime, you have time to do this at least every couple days. If you're underemployed, you've got even more time. If you're working multiple jobs, you can probably afford a bus pass.
Perhaps I'm more dedicated to decent food than most, but I wouldn't let a few miles keep me away from it. Sure, it would suck to live in one of those "food deserts" and have to walk a few miles to get to decent food, but being poor typically sucks in general, if your idea of a good life is to be able to pay people to do things for you (eg, provide transportation).
Since we're talking about health, I'd feel remiss if I didn't point out that the extra walking helps improve your health, too.
and socialism is better than our current system
ps: the "help the guy with a broken leg" is morals just as Christian as it is Muslim or Hindu or Secular Humanist. And morals go obsolete only on the day humanity goes obsolete
anything else i can help you with retard?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm so glad I don't live in your obese, religious country. :)