

US Presidents age slower than their peers - rubyrescue
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-usa-presidents-aging-idUSTRE7B52EY20111206

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rubyrescue
I submitted this because there is a giant statistical error in the article
that is worth noting:

 _For example, the average age of the first eight presidents at their time of
death was 79.8 years - during a time when life expectancy at birth for men was
less than 40._

~~~
_delirium
A _really_ common error. Also pops up in debates over pensions. While it _is_
true that people tend to live longer post-retirement now than they used to,
and that this impacts pension-fund economics, many people quote life
expectancy at birth to illustrate the difference, which isn't really relevant,
since infant mortality rates are not closely related to pension-fund solvency.
(Conditional life expectancy at typical retirement age would be the right
statistic.)

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randombit
Olshansky admits that "All of these presidents benefited from the trifecta of
exceptional wealth, almost all were highly educated and all of them had access
to medical care," and yet he decided to compare them to a 'cohort' consisting
of the general population.

