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"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." Wow. Actually impressed with the analysis backing this up. If you read the entire threa

"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." Wow. Actually impressed with the analysis backing this up. If you read the entire thread, he actually covers nearly every correlating factor I could think of. And it's pretty clearly drugs, guns, suicide, and cars. (The cardio health one doesn't seem as strong). The one that is crazy to me is the uptick in driving fatalities. Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent.

jjevanoorschot 4y ago
It’s not necessarily recklessness. Cars in the US have gotten much larger and heavier in recent years. A Ford F150 might be safe to drive, but it’s not safer for pedestrians and other road users than the smaller cars we used to have.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  I bet phone usage is also a factor. Keep in mind that while we had cell phones for a while, it’s only within the past 10 years that the whole “distraction economy” became a thing, so while people may have used phones to communicate back in the day, nowadays they might be using the phones even more just to attend to those distractions.
  - draw_down 4y ago
    [dead]
  - asdff 4y ago
    With T9 you could send a text with your one hand in your pocket. Try that with an iPhone...
    - Broken_Hippo 4y ago
      Text-to-speech is available on the iPhone, is it not? And it probably has the same accuracy as the spellcheck on the T9, unless you meant to talk about the ducking ponyman in your text.
  - NineStarPoint 4y ago
    The phone usage thing also affects European countries though. Large cars becoming more common is an issue more unique to the US.
    - PebblesRox 4y ago
      That's a good point, although the phone usage could have a multiplier effect and cause proportionally more trouble in the US due to the bigger cars and more-car-oriented environment.
- paganel 4y ago
  Plus, modern US trucks are as big (if not as heavy) as WW2 tanks. Photos taken from the infamous DailyMail, but they look correct to me, that is [1] and [2] [1] https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45875073-9823577-image-a-90_1627243295195.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45875073-9823577-... [2] https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45876985-9823577-As_American_vehicles_get_ever_larger_driven_largely_by_market_fa-a-92_1627243295501.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45876985-9823577-...
  - tshaddox 4y ago
    > if not as heavy A difference in mass of around 15x, I believe.
  - popcalc 4y ago
    In some states you can register a tank to drive on the street!
- PeterisP 4y ago
  A Ford F150 is most dangerous to small pedestrians (i.e. your kids or the kids of those you visit) in the driveway which you can't see over your hood due to its size.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Swenrekcah 4y ago
Cars are getting so big that people can’t drive them. An indescribably sad statistic: In the US, a parent drives over and kills their kid in the driveway every other day [1]. All the guns also cause -a bunch of— some small kids to kill their siblings every year. [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna52109 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna52109
- Jiro 4y ago
  >All the guns also cause a bunch of small kids to kill their siblings every year. No they don't, unless you're going to quibble about what a bunch is. Numbers that seem to show lots of deaths to "kids" pretty much always include age ranges old enough to include gang members.
  - Swenrekcah 4y ago
    I’ll admit I didn’t look up those numbers but I read about these things way too regularly. But that’s of course not the main thing about guns and kids in the US like everyone knows.
    - bitwize 4y ago
      Statistically speaking, suicide is the #1 cause of gun death in the US, gang activity is #2. School shootings are far down the list. They get a lot of attention but don't account for a large proportion of deaths. Of course, that any of these deaths occur is tragic, which is why the most sensible solution is repeal of the Second Amendment and implementation of a nationwide, federal license requirement to purchase or own a firearm. 120-day grace period. License each gun, turn them in, or go to jail. Let the gangs resort to cutting each other like Japanese gangs.
      - japhyr 4y ago
        That doesn't require a repeal of the second amendment. That just requires a willingness to interpret the full text of the amendment, instead of focusing only on the last four words. School shootings are far down the list as far as fatalities go. But that's a poor way to measure the impact of school shootings. The trauma inflicted by each of these events goes way beyond the number of children killed. Everyone who has heard actual gunshots in their own school building feels life-changing trauma. When a kid in the US says "I'm scared to go to school," you can't tell them they have nothing to be scared of. You can tell them "It's not likely to happen at your school today." That's small comfort.
nescioquid 4y ago
I imagine it is not always possible to distinguish between a car accident and a suicide.
retrac 4y ago
> the uptick in driving fatalities [...] An entire generation has to be that much more reckless Smartphones.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  Which are omnipresent all over the world but I don't believe the uptick in traffic fatalities is (at least in Australia they were considerably lower in 2020-21 due to covid lockdowns. Mind you we also have very strict laws and stiff fines for mobile phone usage while in control of a vehicle, even if it's idling in traffic or, yes, in a drive-thru lane - technically it's illegal to use your phone to pay in that scenario, unless you switch the engine off first).
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    (Just checked, and while there was a slight increase in 2022, road fatalities are still very much trending downward in Aus. Fairly sure we have similar levels of mobile phone usage. We've also seen a surge in average car size, though the sort of massive pickup trucks that seem common in the US are thankfully relatively rare here, despite the popularity of "utes")
dave333 4y ago
In the US cars likely kill more people through lack of exercise than through accidents. The UK has small compact towns and cities with street layouts designed in the horse and buggy days that force people to get out of their car and walk around the shops - there are very very few if any drive-thru businesses and only the big newer supermarkets have dedicated parking lots.
rolenthedeep 4y ago
Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen. Hell, about an hour ago a cop tailgated me while I was going 15 over the limit, wove through traffic to cut me off, run a red light, then damn near ran another driver off the road. No lights, no emergency, just an asshole. This is the behavior you have to expect from all drivers now. At least two or three times a week I have a close call that would wreck my car or seriously hurt someone, and I pretty much only drive up and down the one road between my house and the office, it's a 5 mile drive. There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon.
- standardUser 4y ago
  I thought people in the US drove like insane idiots long before the pandemic. Weaving in and out of lanes, excessive speeding, road rage over the slightest inconvenience and, the dumbest one to me because it is virtually effortless, failure to use turn signals. It's very easy to drive safely but a good chunk of divers seem to outright refuse. Having said that, the data backs you up. 7% increase in per capita road fatalities in 2020. Then a 10.5% increase on top of that in 2021!
  - AmVess 4y ago
    Driving like idiots compounded by lack of traffic enforcement as police budgets and staffing decline. I just moved away from a pretty decently sized city, and the police there didn't do any traffic enforcement at all. Not enough manpower to cover traffic and crime.
    - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
      it's not that they don't have the resources, it's that police would rather racially profile people and only perform a traffic stop if they think they can illegally force a search to find or plant drugs.
    - rolenthedeep 4y ago
antibasilisk 4y ago
>Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent. Jevons Paradox perhaps; you make the cars safer, so people feel more empowered to drive recklessly.
dudul 4y ago
Re: car fatalities, one word: phones.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Phones exist everywhere. Why would Americans be more affected?
  - sobkas 4y ago
    > Phones exist everywhere. Why would Americans be more affected? Because with advent of SUVs you can't actually see most of the things that you normally would see through your car window. Because SUVs are bigger people believe they are safer, they are deathtraps on wheels for everyone involved. Also because they are bigger drivers believe they can bully everyone else on the street or just don't pay any attention to what is going outside.
    - amrocha 4y ago
      Right so not the phones then
poulsbohemian 4y ago
>"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." >(The cardio health one doesn't seem as strong). Here's a bit of an anecdote, but I bet my family isn't alone in this type of story... my cousin died from cardiac arrest at age 45. Keeping the story here brief - he was a high-income business owner who got into a tough spot in his marriage and business, found himself without health insurance when he had a medical episode. Knew something was wrong and would likely bankrupt him - and we think that's why he didn't follow up with his doctor and was dead two weeks later. Congenital issue, could have been easily resolved - but without health insurance it was probably a death sentence either physically or financially. Now, this was just as the ACA was coming into play - but I'd argue it's moot. The ACA was well-intentioned, but has not actually improved the insurance or care situation for the majority of Americans. I need a surgery at present that won't be covered by my insurance to any meaningful degree, and being in rural America my care options are limited. So I'll live with regular pain because the system doesn't work. And I hear stories like this in my social circles weekly.
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  That's really tragic to hear. In your case doesn't the ACA limit your out of pocket max?
  - throwaway173738 4y ago
    Only for marketplace plans. For plans purchased through employers the sky is the limit.
    - magicalist 4y ago
      > For plans purchased through employers the sky is the limit Almost everyone with insurance has a maximum out of pocket limit now. It's possible to have a grandfathered employer health plan, but they'd have to have been running it since 2010 without substantial changes since then, including in benefits or cost increases. There are very few employer health insurance plans that would have met that criteria, and even fewer who tried to. They also have to directly inform you that you're on a grandfathered plan, so it should not be a mystery to those who somehow are.
auggierose 4y ago
Drivers in the US just seem incredibly aggressive to me. I remember crossing some street in downtown Pittsburgh, and a car coming towards me. The guy was clearly seeing me, and accelerating instead of slowing down. I jumped forwards and survived.
- carlmr 4y ago
  I find American drivers are chill compared to Germans.
  - auggierose 4y ago
    I haven't been nearly killed by a German driver yet, and on purpose, and German drivers had many more opportunities to do so than American ones. But yeah, my impressions are of course only anecdotal, but then again, 100% verified from my perspective.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    Autobahn-driving can definitely be nerve-wracking if you're not used to it, being flashed to change lanes when you're already doing over 150 k/h is quite disconcerting to say the least! But there is at least a system to it, and on regular roads Germans seem to drive pretty sensibly.
- booleandilemma 4y ago
  American people seem aggressive in general, and I say that as one. I didn't realize how bad it was until I finally went on a vacation overseas. I don't know if it's something in the water or what.
- meany 4y ago
  Ive lived around the country and the driving culture varies significantly from region to region. East Coast cities are the worst, whereas I find Seattle, where I live now, very east going. Having moved from the east coast, it shocked me to see drivers just stop for pedestrians, even outside of marked off crosswalks. Try that in NY and you’re dead. I saw the same thing in Europe, southern Italy was very chaotic roads compared to Northern Italy.
jpeter 4y ago
I guess driving fatalities are up because of texting and driving.
tmnvix 4y ago
> An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent Or maybe they are driving more dangerous vehicles (e.g. bigger and heavier)?
Scubabear68 4y ago
It’s the phones. I have to drive my kids regularly 45 minutes to school on a highway with very high accident rates. It is people staring at their phones approaching dangerous parts of the road with lots of sudden stops and interchanges. A sudden secondary effect - legal pot is leading to many more stoned drivers where I live (NJ).
- teo_zero 4y ago
  Phones are not unique to US, though. They don't explain the gap.
jamil7 4y ago
> Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. This isn’t true for the US, cars are actually more dangerous due to the prevalence of SUVs that skirt safety regulations by being sold as light trucks.

jjevanoorschot 4y ago

It’s not necessarily recklessness. Cars in the US have gotten much larger and heavier in recent years. A Ford F150 might be safe to drive, but it’s not safer for pedestrians and other road users than the smaller cars we used to have.

Nextgrid 4y ago
I bet phone usage is also a factor. Keep in mind that while we had cell phones for a while, it’s only within the past 10 years that the whole “distraction economy” became a thing, so while people may have used phones to communicate back in the day, nowadays they might be using the phones even more just to attend to those distractions.
- draw_down 4y ago
  [dead]
- asdff 4y ago
  With T9 you could send a text with your one hand in your pocket. Try that with an iPhone...
  - Broken_Hippo 4y ago
    Text-to-speech is available on the iPhone, is it not? And it probably has the same accuracy as the spellcheck on the T9, unless you meant to talk about the ducking ponyman in your text.
- NineStarPoint 4y ago
  The phone usage thing also affects European countries though. Large cars becoming more common is an issue more unique to the US.
  - PebblesRox 4y ago
    That's a good point, although the phone usage could have a multiplier effect and cause proportionally more trouble in the US due to the bigger cars and more-car-oriented environment.
paganel 4y ago
Plus, modern US trucks are as big (if not as heavy) as WW2 tanks. Photos taken from the infamous DailyMail, but they look correct to me, that is [1] and [2] [1] https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45875073-9823577-image-a-90_1627243295195.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45875073-9823577-... [2] https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45876985-9823577-As_American_vehicles_get_ever_larger_driven_largely_by_market_fa-a-92_1627243295501.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/25/21/45876985-9823577-...
- tshaddox 4y ago
  > if not as heavy A difference in mass of around 15x, I believe.
- popcalc 4y ago
  In some states you can register a tank to drive on the street!
PeterisP 4y ago
A Ford F150 is most dangerous to small pedestrians (i.e. your kids or the kids of those you visit) in the driveway which you can't see over your hood due to its size.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Swenrekcah 4y ago

Cars are getting so big that people can’t drive them. An indescribably sad statistic: In the US, a parent drives over and kills their kid in the driveway every other day [1]. All the guns also cause -a bunch of— some small kids to kill their siblings every year. [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna52109 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna52109

Jiro 4y ago
>All the guns also cause a bunch of small kids to kill their siblings every year. No they don't, unless you're going to quibble about what a bunch is. Numbers that seem to show lots of deaths to "kids" pretty much always include age ranges old enough to include gang members.
- Swenrekcah 4y ago
  I’ll admit I didn’t look up those numbers but I read about these things way too regularly. But that’s of course not the main thing about guns and kids in the US like everyone knows.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    Statistically speaking, suicide is the #1 cause of gun death in the US, gang activity is #2. School shootings are far down the list. They get a lot of attention but don't account for a large proportion of deaths. Of course, that any of these deaths occur is tragic, which is why the most sensible solution is repeal of the Second Amendment and implementation of a nationwide, federal license requirement to purchase or own a firearm. 120-day grace period. License each gun, turn them in, or go to jail. Let the gangs resort to cutting each other like Japanese gangs.
    - japhyr 4y ago
      That doesn't require a repeal of the second amendment. That just requires a willingness to interpret the full text of the amendment, instead of focusing only on the last four words. School shootings are far down the list as far as fatalities go. But that's a poor way to measure the impact of school shootings. The trauma inflicted by each of these events goes way beyond the number of children killed. Everyone who has heard actual gunshots in their own school building feels life-changing trauma. When a kid in the US says "I'm scared to go to school," you can't tell them they have nothing to be scared of. You can tell them "It's not likely to happen at your school today." That's small comfort.

nescioquid 4y ago

I imagine it is not always possible to distinguish between a car accident and a suicide.

retrac 4y ago

> the uptick in driving fatalities [...] An entire generation has to be that much more reckless Smartphones.

wizofaus 4y ago
Which are omnipresent all over the world but I don't believe the uptick in traffic fatalities is (at least in Australia they were considerably lower in 2020-21 due to covid lockdowns. Mind you we also have very strict laws and stiff fines for mobile phone usage while in control of a vehicle, even if it's idling in traffic or, yes, in a drive-thru lane - technically it's illegal to use your phone to pay in that scenario, unless you switch the engine off first).
- wizofaus 4y ago
  (Just checked, and while there was a slight increase in 2022, road fatalities are still very much trending downward in Aus. Fairly sure we have similar levels of mobile phone usage. We've also seen a surge in average car size, though the sort of massive pickup trucks that seem common in the US are thankfully relatively rare here, despite the popularity of "utes")

dave333 4y ago

In the US cars likely kill more people through lack of exercise than through accidents. The UK has small compact towns and cities with street layouts designed in the horse and buggy days that force people to get out of their car and walk around the shops - there are very very few if any drive-thru businesses and only the big newer supermarkets have dedicated parking lots.

rolenthedeep 4y ago

Something happened during the initial stages of the pandemic. People lost their absolute minds and aggressive and reckless driving got way, way worst than I've ever seen. Hell, about an hour ago a cop tailgated me while I was going 15 over the limit, wove through traffic to cut me off, run a red light, then damn near ran another driver off the road. No lights, no emergency, just an asshole. This is the behavior you have to expect from all drivers now. At least two or three times a week I have a close call that would wreck my car or seriously hurt someone, and I pretty much only drive up and down the one road between my house and the office, it's a 5 mile drive. There's something very deeply wrong in American society, and I don't see things improving any time soon.

standardUser 4y ago
I thought people in the US drove like insane idiots long before the pandemic. Weaving in and out of lanes, excessive speeding, road rage over the slightest inconvenience and, the dumbest one to me because it is virtually effortless, failure to use turn signals. It's very easy to drive safely but a good chunk of divers seem to outright refuse. Having said that, the data backs you up. 7% increase in per capita road fatalities in 2020. Then a 10.5% increase on top of that in 2021!
- AmVess 4y ago
  Driving like idiots compounded by lack of traffic enforcement as police budgets and staffing decline. I just moved away from a pretty decently sized city, and the police there didn't do any traffic enforcement at all. Not enough manpower to cover traffic and crime.
  - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
    it's not that they don't have the resources, it's that police would rather racially profile people and only perform a traffic stop if they think they can illegally force a search to find or plant drugs.
  - rolenthedeep 4y ago

antibasilisk 4y ago

>Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent. Jevons Paradox perhaps; you make the cars safer, so people feel more empowered to drive recklessly.

dudul 4y ago

Re: car fatalities, one word: phones.

Gigachad 4y ago
Phones exist everywhere. Why would Americans be more affected?
- sobkas 4y ago
  > Phones exist everywhere. Why would Americans be more affected? Because with advent of SUVs you can't actually see most of the things that you normally would see through your car window. Because SUVs are bigger people believe they are safer, they are deathtraps on wheels for everyone involved. Also because they are bigger drivers believe they can bully everyone else on the street or just don't pay any attention to what is going outside.
  - amrocha 4y ago
    Right so not the phones then

poulsbohemian 4y ago

>"1 in 25 Americans being born will not make it to their 40th birthday." >(The cardio health one doesn't seem as strong). Here's a bit of an anecdote, but I bet my family isn't alone in this type of story... my cousin died from cardiac arrest at age 45. Keeping the story here brief - he was a high-income business owner who got into a tough spot in his marriage and business, found himself without health insurance when he had a medical episode. Knew something was wrong and would likely bankrupt him - and we think that's why he didn't follow up with his doctor and was dead two weeks later. Congenital issue, could have been easily resolved - but without health insurance it was probably a death sentence either physically or financially. Now, this was just as the ACA was coming into play - but I'd argue it's moot. The ACA was well-intentioned, but has not actually improved the insurance or care situation for the majority of Americans. I need a surgery at present that won't be covered by my insurance to any meaningful degree, and being in rural America my care options are limited. So I'll live with regular pain because the system doesn't work. And I hear stories like this in my social circles weekly.

theGnuMe 4y ago
That's really tragic to hear. In your case doesn't the ACA limit your out of pocket max?
- throwaway173738 4y ago
  Only for marketplace plans. For plans purchased through employers the sky is the limit.
  - magicalist 4y ago
    > For plans purchased through employers the sky is the limit Almost everyone with insurance has a maximum out of pocket limit now. It's possible to have a grandfathered employer health plan, but they'd have to have been running it since 2010 without substantial changes since then, including in benefits or cost increases. There are very few employer health insurance plans that would have met that criteria, and even fewer who tried to. They also have to directly inform you that you're on a grandfathered plan, so it should not be a mystery to those who somehow are.

auggierose 4y ago

Drivers in the US just seem incredibly aggressive to me. I remember crossing some street in downtown Pittsburgh, and a car coming towards me. The guy was clearly seeing me, and accelerating instead of slowing down. I jumped forwards and survived.

carlmr 4y ago
I find American drivers are chill compared to Germans.
- auggierose 4y ago
  I haven't been nearly killed by a German driver yet, and on purpose, and German drivers had many more opportunities to do so than American ones. But yeah, my impressions are of course only anecdotal, but then again, 100% verified from my perspective.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  Autobahn-driving can definitely be nerve-wracking if you're not used to it, being flashed to change lanes when you're already doing over 150 k/h is quite disconcerting to say the least! But there is at least a system to it, and on regular roads Germans seem to drive pretty sensibly.
booleandilemma 4y ago
American people seem aggressive in general, and I say that as one. I didn't realize how bad it was until I finally went on a vacation overseas. I don't know if it's something in the water or what.
meany 4y ago
Ive lived around the country and the driving culture varies significantly from region to region. East Coast cities are the worst, whereas I find Seattle, where I live now, very east going. Having moved from the east coast, it shocked me to see drivers just stop for pedestrians, even outside of marked off crosswalks. Try that in NY and you’re dead. I saw the same thing in Europe, southern Italy was very chaotic roads compared to Northern Italy.

jpeter 4y ago

I guess driving fatalities are up because of texting and driving.

tmnvix 4y ago

> An entire generation has to be that much more reckless than before to make that kind of a dent Or maybe they are driving more dangerous vehicles (e.g. bigger and heavier)?

Scubabear68 4y ago

It’s the phones. I have to drive my kids regularly 45 minutes to school on a highway with very high accident rates. It is people staring at their phones approaching dangerous parts of the road with lots of sudden stops and interchanges. A sudden secondary effect - legal pot is leading to many more stoned drivers where I live (NJ).

teo_zero 4y ago
Phones are not unique to US, though. They don't explain the gap.

jamil7 4y ago

> Cars are an order of magnitude safer than they used to be and we were trending towards 0. This isn’t true for the US, cars are actually more dangerous due to the prevalence of SUVs that skirt safety regulations by being sold as light trucks.