Map of the Day: Falling Life Expectancies | Mother Jones

Map of the Day: Falling Life Expectancies

In lots of place in the United States, women are living shorter lives than they used to:

In 737 U.S. counties out of more than 3,000, life expectancies for women declined between 1997 and 2007. For life expectancy to decline in a developed nation is rare. Setbacks on this scale have not been seen in the U.S. since the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, according to demographers.

"There are just lots of places where things are getting worse," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which conducted the research. "We're not keeping up."

....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 map is below.

(You got to follow the link - I can't neatly c&p the map)

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So it's true that I haven't been raided by Vikings recently and that polio is vanquished... Nonetheless, things are not looking nearly as bright as they used to...

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Quote:

In lots of place in the United States, women are living shorter lives than they used to

This effect will be applauded by Republicans unless it also occurs in the top five per cent of households by wealth, which I rather doubt. Reducing life span of the shrinking middle class and the poor will help to reduce expenditure on Medicaid, pensions and other entitlements - thus helping to move towards a balanced budget.

True, that.

Killing the poor, especially around 50, is never a bad option...

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