Paul Krugman: Live Free and Die

[LongTomH]

One of Paul Krugman's recent posts concerns the fact that, American women in many counties are experiencing a lower life expectancy than in the past. Quoting from his post:

During the Bush years, every time a new estimate of life expectancy came out I would get letters saying “Hah! You say things are terrible, so how come life expectancy is rising, huh?” This was, of course, stupid: medicine continues to progress, the long-term decline in smoking has reduced lung cancer, etc.. Life expectancy is rising just about everywhere in the world; sharing in that trend is no big achievement.

On the other hand, failing to share in that trend IS a big achievement, in a bad way. And via Kevin Drum, we have this:

Please note: The red areas represent counties that have experienced a lower life expectancy in the last two decades. The very pale pink areas are counties where there was no or very low growth in life expectancy. I'm dismayed to see how many of those counties are in my home state of Oklahoma or my current state of Missouri.

Kevin Drum, in turn quotes from an LA Times article:

Nationwide, life expectancy for American men and women has risen over the last two decades, and some U.S. communities still boast life expectancies as long as any in the world, according to newly released data. But over the last decade, the nation has experienced a widening gap between the most and least healthy places to live. In some parts of the United States, men and women are dying younger on average than their counterparts in nations such as Syria, Panama and Vietnam.

<snip>

The widening gulf between the healthiest and least healthy populations is partly due to wealth. A key finding of the data is that "inequality appears to be growing in the U.S.," said Eileen Crimmins, a gerontologist at USC who also co-chaired the 2011 National Academies panel on life expectancies. "We are different than other countries."

The contribution of inequality to poor physical and mental health is one of the major themes of The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. DUer Time for Change and others have made frequent reference to The Spirit Level. I heartily recommend the book and the Equality Trust website as resources.

[Riftaxe]

1. Since Klugman is a free trade advocate

and nafta ninny who has been proven wrong over and over, why should i care? BTW it helps if you don't Bold the weasel words....

On Another subject...In some parts Americans are living longer then anyone in the world. Of course since I am writing this, i get to describe the parts <or not, depends if i am in a weasel mood>
(I'm going for nursing homes in this case to pull my data from).

[Demeter]

2. Because he is capable of admitting he is wrong

and has done so, publicly. And he's made corrections, publicly.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/mind-changing-events/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/mistakes/

[Riftaxe]

3. Admittedly it is always good to admit when

incorrect on things, neither article goes towards his opinions on free trade.

But I will give him credit for at least admitting what the op-eds do state, that is more then any of our public servants would do.

As a person, I give him a notch up, but his policies and papers I will still maintain are incorrect.

[LongTomH]

7. The US is number 36 in the world for life expectancy according to the UN

That puts us pretty much at the bottom of the list for developed countries, just ahead of Portugal. The CIA Factbook puts us a little higher, number 34, still nothing to be proud of.

In terms of child poverty, we have the highest of any developed nation. except for Mexico. We're number 34 in the world for infant mortality by UN numbers, number 46 by the CIA Factbook.

Nothing there to be proud of!

The "On Another subject...In some parts Americans are living longer then anyone in the world" comment; if you're talking about upper income people you may be right. Quoting from the Wikipedia article on Social Class in the United States:

Life expectancy ranges from 84.9 years for the 10,400,000 Asian Americans who had an average per capita income of $21,566. Urban African Americans with an average per capita income of a $14,800 had a life expectancy of merely 71.1 years. While this figure might seem mere relative to other modern American life expectancies, it is worth pointing out that the life expectancy for the most underprivilieged American far exceeds the life expectancy of an average American only 100 years ago, by about 20 years. The African American life expectancy exceeds the life expectancy of West African countries also by about 20 years.

Furthermore, the United States like other post-industrial nations saw increased health consciousness among persons of higher social status. Persons of higher status are less likely to smoke, more likely to exercise regularly and be more conscious of their diet. Additionally, poor Americans are more likely to consume lower quality, processed foods. One can therefore conclude that low socio-economic status contributes to a person's likelihood of being obese

So, we can be proud that our African American citizens in inner cities are likely to outlive people in countries we call 'Third World." Then again, some people are already referring to "Third World America," so after another Republican administration or two we might achieve West African levels of poverty and low life expectancy.

[Name removed]

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[ImNotTed]

5. K(rugman) & R(ocks)

Why isn't he our Treasury Secretary???

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Part of the issue is mobility.

Retirees... the already-old... move to retirement communities like Naples Florida (life expectancy for women; 86.0) or Yuma Arizona (83.8).

Those who died in the counties they left behind will therefore tend to be younger.

Lifespans in the US aren't increasing as fast as they are elsewhere because of inequality and our flawed healthcare system