4 ms·

These articles always tend to focus on small and/or homogenous countries. Comparing the US to many of these countries (Japan, Iceland, Israel, Finland) is comp

These articles always tend to focus on small and/or homogenous countries. Comparing the US to many of these countries (Japan, Iceland, Israel, Finland) is comparing apples and oranges. A better example is Brazil, which is very diverse, like the US, with people from different cultures all over the world, and also large geographically and in terms of population. Like the US, Brazil has high wealth inequality, high homicide rates, low social cohesion, etc. These kinds of countries have to find new solutions. Sao Paulo or New York is not going to become Tokyo overnight -- they're just fundamentally different.

swatcoder 4y ago
Can you elaborate on how you see cultural diversity causing lowered life expectancy? I’m not saying you’re wrong, but the nature/mechanism of any causal connection isn’t obvious on its face. Do you have something specific in mind?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
slg 4y ago
Why is diversity and size of the country more important to life expectancy than other criteria such as wealth of the country? The US is a much richer country than Brazil, roughly 10th in per capita GDP vs 90th depending on what list you use. That wealth should theoretically allow for better healthcare.
- EricE 4y ago
  How many immigrants - at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum - does Brazil let in each year?
  - sfuller808 4y ago
  - oezi 4y ago
    And why would immigrants have lower life-expectancy? Why would the immigration to the US skew the result if we compare for instance with immigrants to Europe (mostly from Africa/Asia). It seems it is a comparable rate.
    - notch656a 4y ago
      >And why would immigrants have lower life-expectancy (in reply to comment about immigrants of low socio-economic status) So lets phrase that taking into context in which the question was asked: And why would immigrants of low socio-economic status have lower life-expectancy in a nation where those where of low socio-economic status have lower life expectancy? The question is self answering.
      - oezi 4y ago
        It isn't at all. At least not without data to back it up. For instance it could be easy to argue that the opiod crisis which has been depressing life expectancy in the US substantially is primarily affecting existing low socio-economic status citizens of the US rather than immigrants. (some data seems to suggest it might be half the death rate for Hispanics compared to white US population https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6843a3.htm#T1_down https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6843a3.htm#T1_down ) And doesn't the US have a strong mix of highly skilled immigrants to skew the overall immigrant numbers if indeed low skilled immigrants have shorter lifes? Another statistical reason why I would think that immigrants have higher life-expectancy is that by definition child mortality won't affect immigrants. If you die before immigrating you are not affecting US statistics. If you are born after immigration you aren't an immigrant.
        notch656a 4y ago
        Life expectancy for an adult is calculated based on your present age, not birth. View any mortality table and your life expectancy changes every year you live. >If you are born after immigration you aren't an immigrant. If you are born of an immigrant of low socio-economic status, you are predisposed towards a lower socio-economic status. Therefore the immigrant has influenced this statistic even through non-immigrant births. >At least not without data to back it up. You want data to back up that generally in the US and/or within immigrant populations, life expectancy is lower as you go into lower socio-economic groups? Is anyone really trying to refute this?
- scoofy 4y ago
  Out of the gate, genetics. Genetically homogeneous cultures would be much easier to provide healthcare to, because you have less diversity of outcomes for treatments. If there is genetic predispositions to life expectancy, and I'm not saying there is per se, only that it's plausible, the more genetically diverse your country is, the closer to the mean life expectancy you would be, and homogeneous countries would effectively be a form of life expectancy data-mining. I could further get into discussions of negative outcomes as governance population size increases, but that's a much more speculative discussion. I would say that in smaller countries, where you're much more likely to know someone who is a friend of your representative, you'll have better long run outcomes of governance because you can govern much more pragmatically and less ideologically.
godelski 4y ago
> high wealth inequality, high homicide rates, low social cohesion, etc. These seem like more important causal factors than race/ethnicity. I understand that these can correlate, but I wouldn't concentrate on the confounding variables.
throw0101a 4y ago
> A better example is Brazil, which is very diverse, like the US, with people from different cultures all over the world, and also large geographically and in terms of population. Canada also seems to be another parallel to the US. How's Canada doing compared to the US?

swatcoder 4y ago

Can you elaborate on how you see cultural diversity causing lowered life expectancy? I’m not saying you’re wrong, but the nature/mechanism of any causal connection isn’t obvious on its face. Do you have something specific in mind?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

slg 4y ago

Why is diversity and size of the country more important to life expectancy than other criteria such as wealth of the country? The US is a much richer country than Brazil, roughly 10th in per capita GDP vs 90th depending on what list you use. That wealth should theoretically allow for better healthcare.

EricE 4y ago
How many immigrants - at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum - does Brazil let in each year?
- sfuller808 4y ago
- oezi 4y ago
  And why would immigrants have lower life-expectancy? Why would the immigration to the US skew the result if we compare for instance with immigrants to Europe (mostly from Africa/Asia). It seems it is a comparable rate.
  - notch656a 4y ago
    >And why would immigrants have lower life-expectancy (in reply to comment about immigrants of low socio-economic status) So lets phrase that taking into context in which the question was asked: And why would immigrants of low socio-economic status have lower life-expectancy in a nation where those where of low socio-economic status have lower life expectancy? The question is self answering.
    - oezi 4y ago
      It isn't at all. At least not without data to back it up. For instance it could be easy to argue that the opiod crisis which has been depressing life expectancy in the US substantially is primarily affecting existing low socio-economic status citizens of the US rather than immigrants. (some data seems to suggest it might be half the death rate for Hispanics compared to white US population https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6843a3.htm#T1_down https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6843a3.htm#T1_down ) And doesn't the US have a strong mix of highly skilled immigrants to skew the overall immigrant numbers if indeed low skilled immigrants have shorter lifes? Another statistical reason why I would think that immigrants have higher life-expectancy is that by definition child mortality won't affect immigrants. If you die before immigrating you are not affecting US statistics. If you are born after immigration you aren't an immigrant.
      - notch656a 4y ago
        Life expectancy for an adult is calculated based on your present age, not birth. View any mortality table and your life expectancy changes every year you live. >If you are born after immigration you aren't an immigrant. If you are born of an immigrant of low socio-economic status, you are predisposed towards a lower socio-economic status. Therefore the immigrant has influenced this statistic even through non-immigrant births. >At least not without data to back it up. You want data to back up that generally in the US and/or within immigrant populations, life expectancy is lower as you go into lower socio-economic groups? Is anyone really trying to refute this?
scoofy 4y ago
Out of the gate, genetics. Genetically homogeneous cultures would be much easier to provide healthcare to, because you have less diversity of outcomes for treatments. If there is genetic predispositions to life expectancy, and I'm not saying there is per se, only that it's plausible, the more genetically diverse your country is, the closer to the mean life expectancy you would be, and homogeneous countries would effectively be a form of life expectancy data-mining. I could further get into discussions of negative outcomes as governance population size increases, but that's a much more speculative discussion. I would say that in smaller countries, where you're much more likely to know someone who is a friend of your representative, you'll have better long run outcomes of governance because you can govern much more pragmatically and less ideologically.

godelski 4y ago

> high wealth inequality, high homicide rates, low social cohesion, etc. These seem like more important causal factors than race/ethnicity. I understand that these can correlate, but I wouldn't concentrate on the confounding variables.

throw0101a 4y ago

> A better example is Brazil, which is very diverse, like the US, with people from different cultures all over the world, and also large geographically and in terms of population. Canada also seems to be another parallel to the US. How's Canada doing compared to the US?