[extropy-chat] Extinctions

Damien Sullivan phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu
Thu Jun 15 10:53:41 UTC 2006


On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 05:07:48PM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
> Martin writes
> 
> > > Mostly aided by lifestyle problems like lack of
> > > exercise, overeating and eating the wrong food, smoking, cars, guns,
> > > alcohol, etc.

It was my understanding that Americans actually smoke less than in most
other countries.  I'm not sure how alcohol compares either; some
European countries have bad binge drinking problems (possibly
governmental fault, taxes and high prices), other have much more even
consumption.

I don't know how similar Canadian lifestyles are to ours; they live 2.5
years longer.  (CIA stats.)

> > > And the infant mortality rate is 25% higher than
> > > Euroland, which brings the overall life expectancy figure down.
> 
> More and more these figures are almost meaningless unless broken
> down by ethnic group at least, and perhaps SES too.

Other countries have poor people and immigrants as well -- Canada has a
higher %age of immigrants than the US, for example; Europe has many
Muslim and Indian immigrants.  Looking at ethnic group and SES may
matter for evaluating one's own personal risks; not so much in
evaluating a system as a whole, unless you think some people don't
count.

Even in the US, black women live longer than white men.  It's black men
who really suffer.  However, I remember doing some arithmetic and
estimating that black men dying 10 years earlier and our higher infant
mortality (save the babies! until they're born) did not fully account
for the longevity gap.

> > I think that's because poverty in certain areas of the United States
> > is much worse than many Western European countries.

Perhaps because those countries use government spending to ease the
poverty.

> Not just areas!  :-)  Unless you want to include districts
> within the large cities.

?  I mean, what's the point here?

> I'd be willing to bet that 70% or more of health costs can be
> traced to the failure to have a free market in health care,
> and to regulation.

But we have more of a free market than other countries...

The killer figure for me is that Medicare is said to have 2% overhead,
vs. 14% or more in private insurers and HMOs.  Government inefficiency,
yeah.

-xx- Damien X-) 



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