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That improvements in healthcare can't keep up with the bad choices we make when it comes to nutrition and exercise.

• gph 10y ago
  Perhaps, changing demographics is also a likely contributor. We have more poor people these days, both through immigration and growing income inequality/stagflation. Poor people can't invest are much time/money/energy into their health. And yes poorer individuals often make bad choices, usually through prioritizing the short-term to the detriment of the long-term, but it's hard to place too much blame on them given the circumstances they find themselves in.
  • d_e_solomon 10y ago
    This might be pedantic, but stagflation doesn't describe our economy. Stagflation would indicate stagnant growth and too high inflation. Inflation is currently at 1.6% according to the BLS for the past 12 mo. If anything, that is a little too low due as the Fed's target is about 2%. Growth is also going the correct direction as the Fed is forecasting growth for 2016 of around 1.6-2%. Does that mean the economy is perfect? Of course not, but stagflation probably isn't the right word either.
    • gph 10y ago
      You're right, I was using it as a catch-all term which I really shouldn't do. What I was trying to get at was the trend of rising costs of living with stagnant wages which a lot of people have been seeing for the past couple decades. Need to come up with a good portmanteau for that :)