The Cost Of A Long Life

gte910h · on Sept 26, 2011

You have to show the tiers of socioeconomic status when showing life expectancy. Your life expectancy is quite different in the US depending on your race, earnings, and occupation, much more so than many of those other countries

rubashov · on Sept 26, 2011

Even after controlling for ethnicity and income there are quite big geographical variations. White people in the upper mid-west are a lot healthier and long lived than whites elsewhere, for example.

Comparing an extremely heterogeneous country like America to ethnically monolithic countries like Finland or Japan is always an error.

bfung · on Sept 26, 2011

White people in the upper mid-west are a lot healthier and long lived than whites elsewhere

Any sources to back that up? I lived in Chicago for most of my life before moving out to California. I would argue that the (over)large portions of cheese and meat diets of the midwest don't help health and life expectancy.

according to wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_exp..., a quick glance looks pretty even, not separated out by ethnicity.

sliverstorm · on Sept 26, 2011

Do you have any sources to prove the midwest eats a lot of meat and cheese? Do you have any sources to prove that matters?

zacs · on Sept 26, 2011

I realize you're being rhetorical here, but one good way to see this is to couple the law of supply & demand with this: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kelsey-keith/designage/infog...

Of course that doesn't account for population density, but if you take a look at http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=populations+of+LA%2C+sa... you can see that the Midwest certainly has a higher per-capita rate of McDonald's.

(I realize this is not much better than anecdotal.)

sliverstorm · on Sept 27, 2011

The McDonalds map has more than one interpretation. Population density is much greater, and city-to-city distance much smaller, in the eastern half of the US. In other words, the great black areas in Nevada are not due to healthful zealots, but empty space where nobody lives.

michaelochurch · on Sept 26, 2011

White people in the upper mid-west are a lot healthier and long lived than whites elsewhere

This doesn't surprise me. People knock the Midwest both out here (New York) and in California, but people out there are happy. Minneapolis, Toronto, Madison and Chicago are among the nicest cities I've seen in the world.

The winters can be very, very cold, but you get used to that. You dress for it. If the 3 worst things about the place where you live are December, January, and February, I'd say you're pretty well off. I do prefer the New York fall, though... 57 degrees and peak foliage in early November is pretty tough to beat, whereas in the midwest November is already winter.

michaelchisari · on Oct 2, 2011

The winters can be very, very cold, but you get used to that.

Also, our buildings are very well heated and insulated. Once you're inside, it's almost tropical.

The coldest I've ever been was living in San Diego in January at night, with no heat, and paper thin walls. Never again.

scotch_drinker · on Sept 26, 2011

Seems like a better title would be "The Cost Of A Long Unhealthy Life". Americans are growing more and more unhealthy. While we have the health care available to extend our lives, it's costing us over the long term. On the individual level, if you eat decent portions and exercise throughout your life, I'm guessing your costs will be much lower.