Slashdot Mirror
US Near Bottom In Life Expectancy In Developed World
Hugh Pickens writes "Louise Radnofsky reports that a study by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine has found U.S. life expectancy ranks near the bottom of 17 affluent countries. The U.S. is at or near the bottom in nine key areas of health: infant mortality and low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; prevalence of HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability. Americans fare worse than people in other countries even when the analysis is limited to non-Hispanic whites and people with relatively high incomes and health insurance, nonsmokers, or people who are not obese. The report notes that average life expectancy for American men, at 75.6 years, was the lowest among the 17 countries and almost four years shorter than for Switzerland, the best-performing nation. American women's average life expectancy is 80.8 years, the second-lowest among the countries and five years shorter than Japan's, which had the highest expectancy. 'The [U.S.] health disadvantage is pervasive — it affects all age groups up to age 75 and is observed for multiple diseases, biological and behavioral risk factors, and injuries,' say the report's authors. The authors offered a range of possible explanations for Americans' worse health and mortality, including social inequality, limited availability of contraception for teenagers, community designs that discourage physical activity such as walking, air pollution as well as individual behaviors such as high calorie consumption. The report's authors were particularly critical of the availability of guns. 'One behavior that probably explains the excess lethality of violence and unintentional injuries in the United States is the widespread possession of firearms and the common practice of storing them (often unlocked) at home,' reads the report. 'The statistics are dramatic.'"
Wow. I started with an accrual rate of 8hrs/month sick, 8hrs/month vacation, and being over ten years service, I now earn 12hrs/month vacation, sick accrual remaining the same. There's also little to no actual cap- once I cross 240hrs vacation accrued, at the end of the fiscal year the overage past 240 gets rolled into my sick time, so I just start taking sick time instead of vacation time.
Right now I have about 120hrs sick time and about 240hrs vacation time accrued. I've still got about 20 years before I can retire from this employer, and I have yet to have children, so I'm happy to let it bank now so that I have sick time available to deal with child illnesses, and vacation time available. I still take vacations, but I actually like my job, so I don't feel a massive need to escape as far away as possible either.
The real issue is that my wife doesn't accrue vacation time as fast as I do, and with her need to travel out-of-state to see her aging parents, she uses hers up much faster than I do mine, and she also accrues sick time like you do, in only paltry amounts. It's kind of pathetic how little sick time she gets, and everyone at the company is the same on that, so people just work sick.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Maybe there is a god. Maybe it actually is Allah. Maybe he actually is punishing us for our infidelity..