

The Cost Of A Long Life - axsar
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2008/01/02/the-cost-of-a-long-life/

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gte910h
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

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rubashov
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.

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bfung
_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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_life_expectancy),
a quick glance looks pretty even, not separated out by ethnicity.

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sliverstorm
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?

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zacs
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...](http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kelsey-
keith/designage/infographic-day-mcdonalds-heat-wave)

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...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=populations+of+LA%2C+san+francisco%2C+chicago%2C+and+indianapolis)
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
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.

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scotch_drinker
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.

