

Everyone's not getting older equally - HealthNutX34
http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/subtleties-of-life-expectancy-ctd/
Raising the retirement age will not effect everyone equally evidently!
======
tibbon
I would really like to see some of those countries that were compared to split
out similarly. Its possible for example (although probably not the case) that
in Japan the lowest 25% of income people are even far lower, but the top 75%
is much higher.

------
yummyfajitas
It would be very interesting if this data were broken down both by more than
just income, e.g. ethnicity [1] and immigration status. Unfortunately, the
effect being described could easily be caused solely by composition changes.

A hypothesis I'd love to see tested: immigrants have shorter life expectancies
[2] and are more likely to be in the bottom 50%. Therefore, an increased
proportion of immigrants reduces the average life expectancy of the bottom
50%.

[1] Ethnic gaps in life expectancy are huge. Asians life 10 years more than
blacks, for example.

[2] Might be tough to get data on this. My understanding is that immigrant
life expectancy data is weak because many immigrants go back home to die
(which skews the numbers).

~~~
gronkie
By race here: [http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/subtleties-of-
li...](http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/subtleties-of-life-
expectancy/) .

~~~
yummyfajitas
To be more precise, what I wanted was a breakdown by (income, race, immigrant
status) 3-tuples.

I.e., I'd like to know how much life expectancy has increased for top 25%
white males vs bottom 50% white males, same for black males, same for hispanic
non-immigrant males, hispanic immigrant males, etc.

------
Duff
Fortunately, the current policy of national insolvency will address the
situation by making us all equally broke.

~~~
e40
I think it will make the middle class and below broke, but the rich will, as
they always do, come out OK. By all measures I've seen over the last few
years, the top earners in this country are doing better, by far.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
You're probably right, but it's not the kind of strategy that is sustainable
long term.

------
CaptainDecisive
One question I have regarding those results is this:

Say you determine which socio-economic quartile people lie in at the point
they reach 65, and then target extra healthcare/benefits/resources at the
bottom quartile (or fifth or whatever).

Can you increase their life expectancy to match that of the upper quartile, or
have life choices (eg smoking, poor diet) before age 65 largely predetermined
the life expectancy of the lower quartile group?

~~~
rwmj
But why this jumping through hoops when for less money the US could have
universal healthcare like every other civilized country?

Then everyone has an interest in generally reducing smoking and bettering
diets.

~~~
MichaelSalib
For people over age 65, we do have a single-payer healthcare system: it is
called Medicare.

~~~
OstiaAntica
There's also Medicaid, which is universal national coverage for all children
and most adults near the poverty line.

------
bennesvig
Why would we expect anything to be equal? People don't eat equally healthy.
They don't exercise equally.

------
rl41
I wonder how the second chart would look if all countries were split into four
economic groups, not just the US.

~~~
LargeWu
Agreed. I don't think there are any meaningful conclusions that can be drawn
from that graph as it is.

------
slackerIII
Clearly we should lower the retirement age so poor people can benefit more
equally with rich people.

------
aneth
There are so many ways this could be lying with statistics: 1) Healthier
people work more - does this include the disabled? Having morbidly obese or
disabled who earn little and live shorter lives will skew the stats. 2) Poorer
people eat less healthily and have higher obesity, so the implications for
policy are not straightforward 3) Smarter more educated people both earn more
AND make better life choices, such as taking fewer dangerous drugs. There is a
correlation between having the capability to manage a working career and
manage your own life. 4) Those who engage in many unhealthy activities, such
as alcoholism, will diminish their earnings capacity.

There are more, but that should be sufficient to breed some skepticism.

Earning power and longevity are interdependent variables. They are so closely
tied that any correlation needs to be carefully examined.

~~~
OstiaAntica
Agreed. The correlation between poverty, increased smoking rates, and
longevity probably explains the entire difference.

