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Actually, the US probably does lead in life expectancy... As usual, you can make the data do anything you like, but this methodology makes a lot of sense. http
by alexeisadeski3 12y ago
Actually, the US probably does lead in life expectancy... As usual, you can make the data do anything you like, but this methodology makes a lot of sense.
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/does-the-us-lead-in-life-expectancy-223/ http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/does-the-us-lead-in-life-exp...
- lomnakkus 12y agoI may be off my rocker, but it seems kind of weird to specifically discount murders and such when calculating life expectancy. I mean, I get that the health care system probably can't have much effect on murder as a cause of death, but life expectancy is life expectancy no matter what eventually ends up killing you. (My reference to Hans Rosling was more of an aside, I didn't mean to conflate average life expectancy with the standard of health care. I apologize if that wasn't clear.)
- alexeisadeski3 12y agoYou're totally correct, but so is the paper discussed in the WSJ link. Different measures of life expectancy for different purposes. It's a bit like the inequality data "showing" that the US has higher post-tax&transfer inequality than does France. -News flash- nations with stronger social safety nets have stronger social safety nets! It seems that the pertinent measure would be pre-tax&transfer income inequality... a measure which just so happens to show the US and France have identical GINIs. But you won't read that in the NYT...