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Americans dying younger than their English-speaking peers worldwide
- jmclnx 2y ago[flagged]
- dgfitz 2y agoWhat a low-value, incendiary comment. This is why the internet sucks.
- cpursley 2y agoPlease don't turn hn into reddit with the political cheap-shots ruining every thread. The situation is much more complex than red vs. blue and insta-divisiveness won't help us resolve them.
- glitchc 2y agoAmerica's the most free country on the planet. If someone wants to speed or OD and die, that's their choice. I would rather have that than someone else prescribe what I can and cannot do with my life.
- ta1243 2y agoAmerica being the country which runs the war on drugs? Where mandated speed limits came in back in the 1970s and remain in place?
- bobthepanda 2y agoat least the car accidents is not very free. most people have to drive for most trips because any other mode of transportation is not really practical for the purpose, and our regulations reinforce this trend; it is the law of the land in most of America that builders must include oversized parking lots for free, which make it harder to get around by walking or public transport or bike. (And when I say oversized, I mean the general minimum amount of parking for stores, for example, is pretty much never filled up even on busy shopping periods like Black Friday.)
- barbazoo 2y ago> If someone wants to speed or OD and die, that's their choice. I'd recommend digging into this topic a little bit to find out that it's not as simple as that. It's not that these people partied too hard. Every overdose is a sad story that could have and should have been prevented.
- nope1000 2y agoBut (most) Drugs, speeding and murder are still forbidden in the US (and carry larger penalties, especially the drugs and violent crimes than in other countries).
- glitchc 2y agoNot forbidden. You can still do it, just have to deal with the consequences. There's the difference. Freedom doesn't free one from the consequences of their actions.
- ta1243 2y agoWhat nonsense dictionary have you been reading? You can still commit murder, it's not forbidden, you just have to deal with the consequences?
- itohihiyt 2y ago[flagged]
- nicholasjarnold 2y agoHear hear! I think it was Franklin who is quoted to have said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." While I've always resonated personally with this quote and how it relates to what I consider a fundamental principle we should strive to achieve/maintain, I recall there being some debate about the 'etymology' of the quote itself.
- pjc50 2y agoMostly the road deaths are not speeding; it seems to be a problem of inattentive drivers killing other people, in so far as statistical investigation has been done. https://www.ft.com/content/9c936d97-5088-4edd-a8bd-628f7c7bba31 https://www.ft.com/content/9c936d97-5088-4edd-a8bd-628f7c7bb...
- jajko 2y agoSwitzerland has much more real freedom (apart from going properly mental with hundreds of guns 'for personal protection', although strictest US states have far more restrictions than CH). Frequent public votes on literally any topic you gather 100k signatures including such heavyweight topics like joining EU or NATO, or banning new mosques construction. You will never see such direct democracy in US, and you need very specific educated responsible moral population for it to work long term, or you get Brexit even with otherwise pretty decent and smart British folks. 0 opioid crysis, 0 gun violence, no obesity crisis to speak of, free very good quality public schools (to the point that nobody wants to pay for private schools if its not part of their corporate benefits) all the way up to top notch universities. Cca free absolute top notch medical system. Government that aint so darn clearly in big corporate pockets. They never criminalized drug addicts/consumers. I could go on for a long, long time. A lot of actual serious freedom in each above. Not bashing US, its a great place for certain people and certain age, but hell would freeze sooner than I would move to US to ie raise kids or grow old. Land of free is mostly just politician's phrase, the bar ain't some dysfunctional 3rd world dictatorship, most of the world lives in pretty decent freedom.
- rstuart4133 2y ago> America's the most free country on the planet. That's an odd take, given the USA imprisons more people for longer for doing those things any of the other countries listed. The difference is not small. The USA has 0.5% of their population in jail, Australia 0.15%. The USA has the death penality, Australia doesn't. The USA's drug laws are in practice the most punitive of all the countries listed. So when it comes to OD'ing, the situation appears to be the reverse of what you said: a USA citizens have the least freedoms. If you read the article you will see the other countries don't achieve the health by restricting freedoms. For example, there isn't a significant difference between Australia's & the USA's laws on speeding. Australia reduced speeding accidents by adding roundabouts. All adults are allowed to smoke in Australia - but it's very expensive. Assisting someone to die in Australia can be legal, it isn't in most of the USA. These individual freedoms you think you have in the USA are mostly a myth. The rest of the world looks at USA preventing a woman from making an individual choice about abortion and then in the next breath claims the USA is the worlds leader in individual rights, and scratches their head.
- pjc50 2y ago[flagged]
- vundercind 2y agoMedia choices are in no small part policy choices—and then media feeds back into policy. The current media landscape rose from the fall of the fairness doctrine in the 80s, a Chicago-school-driven sharp shift in anti-trust enforcement (initially) via the judiciary starting in the mid ‘70s, and the removal of rules prohibiting concentration of media outlet ownership in the ‘90s and early ‘00s.
- bugglebeetle 2y agoIt’s downstream of the U.S. being an oligarchy, where all the things that kill people make someone money, who then uses those proceed to buy off politicians and judges and keep the whole vicious cycle going.
- barbazoo 2y agoThis is as short sighted a take as the other one. Here in BC we got record deaths from overdoses (>6/day) and we have a pretty left leaning government. The problems are manifold, housing, cost of living, etc.
- itohihiyt 2y agoReally this is the US vs Australia with some other countries briefly mentioned.
- throaway814 2y ago[flagged]
- para_parolu 2y agoI would be more interested to see natural death rates compared. Including homicide and drug overdose just mixes different groups and doesn’t give a good understanding of how possible is long life.
- pjc50 2y agoThe comparison is seemingly a lot narrower at the top: if you make it to retirement, your life expectancy is comparable to the rest of the west. Doesn't mean the deaths of young people aren't important.
- jeffbee 2y ago> if you make it to retirement, your life expectancy is comparable to the rest of the west Figure 1 from the paper clearly shows the USA has the worst for life expectancy at age 65 for both women and men compared to the other wealthy Anglosphere nations.
- pseudolus 2y agoIt's surprising that the issue of premature deaths doesn't resonate more with the general public as opposed to so many other seemingly minor issues with much less of a personal impact. I wonder whether it's due to apathy or a sense that the issue is simply too complex to resolve.
- pjc50 2y agoYou can see from the conversation in this thread that people invoke "personal responsibility": those dying young are other Americans, and people are happy to think that they personally are making better choices.
- someguydave 2y agoIt is simple to resolve the criminality but the voters have decided they don’t like the answer (much more policing and incarceration)
- rainclouds 2y agoWe already have more % population in jail than any other country. Mostly for drugs. The social cost is much less for getting in trouble for drugs in the US, but the incarceration rate is really high.
- jeffbee 2y agoNone of the countries that are doing far better than us have anywhere near the level of incarceration that we suffer.
- lupusreal 2y agoAsian countries have far harsher punishments for drug offenses, and their societal outcomes are better than both America's or Europe's.
- meowfly 2y agoIn most of Asia doing drugs (aside from the "normal" ones like alcohol and tobacco) is also considered something good people don't do. Here (USA) billionaires microdose acid and take molly in the desert. The culture around drugs is entirely different.
- markus_zhang 2y agoI kinda think the US model is: We encourage people to come here and get rich by all means. Life is stressful here and ordinary people's life sucks. But if you are rich enough you are getting the best of the world. So I guess that's why Canadian doctors and nurses fled to the US, get rich and come back to enjoy. I plan to do the same if given the chance.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- codingwagie 2y ago[flagged]
- timeon 2y ago> All these "usa is behind in education" etc dont make sense. You cant compare the USA to Denmark. This seems too vague. Article is not about education nor comparing to Denmark.
- codingwagie 2y ago[flagged]
- garyclarke27 2y agoWhat has speaking English got to do with life expectancy?
- psychoslave 2y agoLarge impact on cultural mindset through psycholinguistic means? Just wondering
- lupusreal 2y agoResponse to comments about EU food regulations being healthier: Probably true in some cases. On the other hand, many of the food regulations in Europe are based off of little more than paranoid pseudoscience. For instance, nearly all irradiated foods are banned in Germany, with only dried herbs and spices exempted. There's no good reason for this. To make the case that the EUs food regulations are the reason for the lifespan discrepancy you'd at least have to eliminate factors like access to healthcare, violent deaths, drug overdoses, etc.
- timeon 2y agoNot sure how this is relevant. Article is not mentioning EU nor are the comments.
- hiatus 2y agoI found it strange that the article lists gun violence higher than drug abuse or lifestyle choices. Drug overdose deaths are more than 4x higher than gun deaths (excluding suicide).
- drcongo 2y agoWhy would you exclude gun deaths by suicide when comparing to drug deaths not excluding suicide?
- heddycrow 2y agoWhat exactly is to be done with information which speaks at this scale? I'm not asking in a facetious way. Seriously, what do you, the consumer, do with this? Thanks in advance.
- jeffbee 2y agoDon't drive cars, take drugs, own guns, or do crimes. Do exercise and eat vegetables.
- adamwong246 2y ago> Seriously, what do you, the consumer, do with this? The comment chills me to the bone. Americans truly can not conceptualize themselves as anything _but_ a consumer. I mean, what can I say, other than "Wake up, Neo. The Matrix has you."
- heddycrow 2y agoI meant it more like "the consumer" not "The Consumer" but I could have said "the reader", "the observer", etc. You got me curious, though. What do non-Americans do when they read if not consume what they read?
- hindsightbias 2y ago> United States, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Two of these are not at all like the others. Compare the US and England maybe, large population, heterogeneous. If English is important, then add India. More people speak English there than any of these countries.
- zadokshi 2y agoI had always assume it was generally to do with having the highest obesity rate for English speaking developed countries. It is interesting to see other factors thrown into the equation. I am curious, how relevant is (for example) gun violence as a percentage of tje total number? I also had never considered the healthcare system as a factor.