Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/27/changes-in-life-expectancy-for.html
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I’d expected to see declines in some parts of the world, but it appears that nowhere is worse off now than in the past.
Whoever made that chart seems to be missing some data?
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“Overall, life expectancy dropped by a tenth of a year, from 78.7 to 78.6”
Alarming for a rich democracy, but it’s hardly going to show up on a map at this level of abstraction.
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Notice by the end of the graphics the U.S. lags in life expectancy behind… wait for it… nations built on the premise of democratic socialism. The horror! The horror!
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I thought the “missing data” areas in east Africa might be trouble, too, but one of them is Somaliland, which is surely not doing worse than Somalia itself. The other is South Sudan, though, which has a civil war on.
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I may be an old cynic about humanity, but history shows that the only way the rich and powerful give up their wealth and power is when they’re on the wrong end of a weapon.
Since the American weapon of voting seems to have been successfully undermined, via both propaganda and direct effort to prevent people from doing so, I can’t really see any other outcome of the current imbalance in America that doesn’t involve the threat of violence.
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Maybe, but you’re certainly not alone with such thoughts.
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Logged in precisely to note the US life expectancy has decreased for the second year in a row. Thank you for raising the issue in the first post! 
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Those countries…and China.
How does moving from a third-world country to a first-world country as a teenager in the late-eighties affects one’s life expectancy? Should one ignore the move and only look at the original data?
It seems that in the United States life expectancy is a function, at least, of your income, while there are also differences by gender, ethnicity, and race. No wonder Republicans are against a universal health service: more income and life years for them, less for the others. “One Nation under God” is bullshit in more ways than one.
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It’s interesting that Argentina resembles the first-world North more than it’s South American neighbors.
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Betcha’ Trump won’t take credit for this.
All he’s done so far is to provide lip service… WAR ON DRUGS! But where’s the $$$ and plan to help fight that war? Pharma too big?
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Argentina used to be one of the world’s richest countries. A century ago it was richer than everything that wasn’t Britain, a former British colony, or Switzerland.
If a mistake could be made, the powers there absolutely nailed it and haven’t let up since World War 2.
But it still has strong social institutions and a large middle class, things until recently not to be found in many other Latin American countries.
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There’s another weapon that we have only seen a taste of: grassroots funding and defunding (boycotting). If we are savvy, we can hit them where it counts. Takes massive organization, though, and doesn’t come easy.
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How can I trust anybody who suffers from Vertical Video Syndrome?
Which is why Czar Vladimir has decreed that boycotts are henceforth illegal.
Speaking as an Aussie, I reckon the introduction of unleaded fuel accounted for part of our increase in life expectancy. Removal of unleaded fuel will increase life expectancy further. Heart disease is either treatable or avoidable now, so a lot of people who might have died at 60 survive to be killed by cancer and dementia at 80.
Boycotts are only effective when there’s an alternative source or when the buyers can afford to do without. Try boycotting Big Pharmaceutical or Oil, and no one will notice.
