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.'"
Seems to be the thing our government is so intent on doing. It's all because of the guns! Forget about the 20k suicides per year.. Forget about our piss poor health care system.. forget about the fact that we take immigrants in and treat them better than our own.. Forget about the fact that 60% of American are obese. It's all the guns fault
Uh I know many whites who are in that very situation. Also he said that too "Even the relatively affluent can get fired or laid off at the drop of a hat in the USA."
You can go from earning 200k a year to living on welfare in under 2 years. I have seen many it has happened to.
Also is it systemic throughout the whole US or just regions (such as say new york which has a high population which messes with the results?). Compairing say the whole US to say Norway is not exactly a apples apples comparison...
Also keep in mind the US had an interesting thing about 70ish years ago. They had WW2. In Europe people hid from the guns and tried not to fight the germans as they were pretty much taken over by 'blitzkrieg'. In the US however we sifted thru all of our able bodied men and sent them off to fight leaving behind a less healthy group. Switzerland was nearly bending over backwards to not get into it. Where does say the U.K. fit in that list?
Or is this just a 'your healthcare/guns' suck article that is all the rage these days?
'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.'
I'm about done with Slashdot. This is actually passing as a legitimate story, even though it's obviously another thinly veiled hit piece on guns? Ever heard the saying "Don't feed the trolls?"
Seems more likely that the cause for the difference is the lack of swimming pools in Switzerland, which are more likely to kill a member of their owners family than a firearm.
But hey, let's not let perspective keep us from wiping our asses with our founding documents.
The country's owners is the Federal Government. The citizens are clueless sheep who will do what the Fed tell them to do on MSNBC,CNN, etc.
1. references to 'inequality' despite the statement that whites are just as affected
2. the strong antigun reference,which is just a cheap attention grab considering recent events. if memory serves switzerland is one of the most well armed citizenries in the world. despite the cultural differences between the two countries, this fact punches a rather large hole in his argument that mere mass possession of firearms is a cause.
3. the 'nice' anti individualist statement towards the end of the article makes the ideological underpinnings of the author stand out loud and clear.
"We have a culture in our country that, among many Americans, cherishes personal autonomy and wants to limit intrusion of government and other entities on our personal lives and also wants to encourage free enterprise and the success of business and industry. Some of those forces may act against the ability to achieve optimal health outcomes,"
if we take away the premise of this article and leave only what it blames, it looks like a partial but typical left wing list of complaints about american society,with the implied solution being, of course, more government, and therfore less self direction in ones own life. even if these changes brought our stats inline with switzerland, adding a few years to the end of my life is not worth giving up ever more control of it to people I dont know, will never know, and who dont give a rats ass about how I want to live.
this applies to ivy league left wing 'cultured' bureaucrats, corporocrats, or any other form of tyrant arguing that hand picked metrics backing half baked political theories make up the sum of a worthwhile existence. while the author is obviously left wing, there are plenty on the right (or who claim to be anyway) who preach this crapola too.
The parent got ot right in spite of your moron post.
Here's a hint, if you want your point of view treated seriously, DONT LIE when you support your position. The guys that wrote this are nothing more than fancy schmancy gun grabbing retards.
They don't care about you having a gun, they care about guns being used to kill people.
You seem a touch defensive on the whole gun issue.
We have to be, the powers that be, are trying to use that school shooting as an excuse to try to remove freely legal gun ownership.
Geez, I can't believe that shooting is still dominating the news so much, sheesh the CO movie theater thing was fading by now it seems. I don't understand why this one is such a big deal and causing all the talk about restricting legal gun rights vs the other shootings.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Remove from the statistics illegals showing up with advanced health problems and the gangs that are constantly killing each other and I bet our ranking would improve tremendously.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.