I get a lot of emails, but I have to admit, the one I got today sickened me. It was from CommonDreams.org's News Center, and republished an article from The Independent, a United Kingdom publication. The American Human Development Index has applied those criteria normally associated with 'developing countries' (third world in some circles) and their quality of life. The AHDI analyzed the US on a state basis and came up with some astounding figures.
For instance, if you raise your children in Mississippi rather than Connecticut, you may doom them to 30 years less life expectancy. How can this be in a country with such great riches? To read the full article, here's the link:
www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/17/10425/
As a summary of their analysis, here are a few statistics:
1. The US has 5% of the global population but 24% of the global number of prisoners.
2. We rank 42nd in global life expectancy although we spend $5.2 billion dollars every day on health care.
3. Americans live shorter lives than populations in all of Western Europe and every Nordic country except Denmark. (If I remember correctly, I think the Danes enjoy their butter, cream and cheese... as in 'danishes' more than their immediate neighbors.)
4. We are 34th with regard to infant survival to majority age.
Personally? I am all for free enterprise, but I think it is about time that the corporations and top 1% of earners in this country pay fairly for the privilege of exploiting our labor. The days of 'Let them eat cake', need to be over and people like Phil Gramm (McCain's economic advisor) who have the b+lls to actually say Americans are whiners? Let's just stuff a sock in his mouth and put him back under the rock he obviously crawled out from under.
The idea that somebody who grows up in the south or is less economically able to survive forfeits 30 years off their life expectancy because of a damn lack of dollars absolutely sickens me beyond description. Of course, now that we have a half million soldiers trained to be killers, including our national reservists? The only successful revolution we are going to have is either at the gas pump or perhaps at the polls.
Do not live in fear or react to what is going on by voting for the wrong man in November. The next few months we need to be on our toes and pay attention to what is really going on rather than react to propaganda from the right. What Americans decide in November will have a great impact not only on our lives, but the world and future generations. Even if a few of you are better off than you were four years ago, can you live knowing that most of us are struggling because the top 1% wants another million or billion in profits? I hope not. Please vote Obama! He can't be any worse than what we've got. I do believe he'll be one thousand percent better.
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Comments: 66
'death' in some places of our nation
is 'redundant.'
Ken, are you above my head today or can't I get mine out of my ...? There are so many places in this country where life has gotten 'cheap'. It makes me very sad everytime I see a friend's new baby or small child, knowing that their world will be less than mine was. To think that opportunity now belongs to a privileged class that is made up of people who were mostly already privileged at birth and during their childhood? That just does not seem American to me.
Hopefully we can all work together in this country with some of us keeping less and others gain more. Yes, we should all work hard for it - unless we are unable to work, and then we should take care of our own.
Anyway, that article just really got under my skin and here I was going to quit work early, hang on my patio and drink wine while I thought wonderful, pleasant thoughts.:)
Agreed... you moonbats need to step up your game.
Because the US has such a wide gap between the wealthy and the poor, which is partly based on minority data, those who are poor and or minority - and that is a large percentage of the US population, that will skew down the figures.
Even without money, those who are better educated are likely to have better health because they take better care of themselves.
I am not certain of the figures now, but 30 years ago, the infant mortality for white babies was much less than that for black babies.
When you consider that many countries still execute their prisoners rather than pay to keep them in prison, we have to consider those statistic, too.
If we were to look at the life expectancy of the top 10 percent income earners in the US or even the top 30 percent income earners, the statistics would be quite different.
I have to go but will return.
"...if these people had any common sense" That's exactly the problem. Many people don't have any common sense...especially the poor, raised in poor neighborhoods, with uneducated parents, shabby underperforming schools, crime, violence, and a culture that offers little to aspire to.
But I think you missed the point. Where there is less economic opportunity there is worse health. A family with few options raises children who must work to help that family, hence they don't get to college unless they reject their families of origin.
A disproportionate number of some minority groups are unemployed, under-employed and disabled. A heart attack at 39 or 40 - quite common with undiagnosed high blood pressure - will destroy the family's ability to take care of itself. If you have children and have been able to help them go to college, as we have done, they will be better off economically for a lot of reasons. No school loan debt, better employment options, group health insurance paid by their employer, etc.
If one is held back working for Wal-mart or some other company that relies on the government to provide medical care for their employees, life is very different. The Wal-mart people may work twice as hard and long as the corporate employees with a degree, so it is not about actual work is it?
That's a good point Jeff. Smoking is, next to using crystal meth, the worst thing you can do if you want to be healthy. People choose to destroy themselves in so many needless, expensive ways.
I appreciate you bringing that article to our attention.
The discussion on the roots of this disparity are very complex, and I would historically be more inclined to agree with personal responsiblity as a big factor. The Bible however points far more to injustice generated from the privileged as being the primary source of poverty and disparity.
Of course it does. because if the "privileged" weren't privileged the poor wouldn't realise that they were poor! Would the Bible make them get off their sorry asses and change? of course not. The big question to Dudley, since he reflects the Bible and all it's wisdom, is this.... When Jesus promised eternal life to all those he passed if they followed him,,,,,,, Did the ones who didn't follow him have the right to demand that those who did, pay for their laziness?
Which countries are those? Certainly not in Europe. Even developing countries don't execute prisoners.
One thing is for sure, these moonbat sites like CommonDreams NEVER have anything good to say about America. What is their major problem?
Our diet has important share of the blame. We eat too much and we eat really bad food.
Vegetables are very expensive in this land.
Next, lifestyle. Americans work too much for very little vacation. Nobody wants to appear lazy by advocating more vacation. 40 hours a week for 2 weeks vacation per year is simply not healthy. By the time you accumulate more vacation time, you are 40.
Add to that commute time, which leads young families where mom and dad work not having the time to cook. Kids eat junk from day one as a result.
American lifestyle is getting more and more hectic. That has consequences.
It's not only the poor people who eat bad. It's not only the poor people who die of heart attack and cancer. The data is not that skewed at all.
Tim Russert.
Tony Snow.
These guys have access to the best health care money can buy. Neither of them reached 50. Want to take a look at their lifestyle, however successful they were, and their diets?
Heart attack is killing some of the best and brightest of this country.
Yet we have some cretins talking about big mac and "friend" chicken. What the hell is "friend" chicken. An obvious allusion to minorities. That's plain dumb.
Our typical diet, also eaten by the wealthy, combined with hectic lifestyles is killing us.
Ummm Food stamps make poor people fat Ron. They get more in food stamps than I spend. As far as your Chicken price shock.....Where the hell have you been? Chicken is still the cheapest meat on the market.
"""We need to elect Obama in spite of those that think first, and only of themselves, and use a million excuses and explanations of why they shouldn't have to be their brother's keeper."""
Aren't people who vote for Obama the ones thinking of themselves first? THEY are the ones after all promised free stuff paid for by others. Nobody on the left is claiming that they should work for what they get....
Shock the world! OBAMA '08!
Your hard heart breaks mine, candidly. I don't know why you ended up the way you are, but I will truly pray that you look a little harder at the people you so easily condemn. Poverty is not a simplistic formula and there are all kinds of people who take care of themselves (think the runner Jim Fitt), eat right, etc., and still die young.
Excuse me while I campaign against Socialism and against the Con Artist you have been fooled into thinking has all the answers. He don't even know the questions let alone the answers.
If the republicans and weak-kneed democrats did not allow the corporations to skate on their fair share of infrastructure in this country, the average citizen would not be overwhelmed by their tax bill. THAT is the problem in this country. The little guy is also being asked to pay the tax bill while the big guys/investors defer and avoid paying taxes and if that doesn't work, buy off the congressmen to give them tax breaks.
Sorry, but the biggest con artists are in the White House right now. They've ruined the country and shaken up the entire financial system, and you are worried about Obama? What's left to screw up, Colonel?
"Ummm Food stamps make poor people fat Ron. They get more in food stamps than I spend. As far as your Chicken price shock.....Where the hell have you been? Chicken is still the cheapest meat on the market."
This comment shocked even me, and I know your views, at least I thought I did.
"""We need to elect Obama in spite of those that think first, and only of themselves, and use a million excuses and explanations of why they shouldn't have to be their brother's keeper."""
Aren't people who vote for Obama the ones thinking of themselves first? THEY are the ones after all promised free stuff paid for by others. Nobody on the left is claiming that they should work for what they get...."
I'm supporting Obama for none of those reasons, but to set this country back on the path to representing what most Americans consider right, and good. the past eight years, the rich and elite have had carte blanche. It is high time we favored the rest of the country, instead of just the top 1% of the richest among us. The banishment of evil is paramount among those reasons. Torture, suspension of habeas corpus, the use of government for blatantly political partisanship, unlawful usurping of the fourth amendment. The list is endless as to why I support Obama, but if I had any doubts, the first comment you made affirmed my resolve.
No politician has promoted this, but someone will have to summon the courage soon.
Another well informed moonbat.... Tony Snow was 53, Tim Russert was 58.
Also, the tone of people who begrudge 'Them' a decent quality of life because these judgmental people perceive that those who are down on their luck 'deserve' it somehow? This is truly an attitude from the dark ages when illness was perceived as punishment from God and lepers were shunned, etc.
These ignorant attitudes need to be retired along with those that allowed a father to sell his daughter or males to own slaves of all ages and genders and beating ones children and wife were socially acceptable pastimes.
Ah... the good ol' days.
In my haste to get my message out, I made an error in my mathematical calculations. The world population proportional expenditure of 32.5 Billion Dollars is incorrect; it should have been 65 Billion Dollars. I stand by everything else that I have written. My apologies to Elizabeth and my fellow participants.
WHATEVER!
Can someone point me toward the data that supports the 30-year gap claim?
The numbers I found show a range of about 8 years between the high and low life expectancies by State. And Mississippi and Connecticut aren't the high and low.
Makes me question all the "facts" in the article.
The point of the article, however, was not to be 'accurate' the way we normally analyze these statistics. The point was that if we used the 'methodology' that we use to analyze the data in developing countries, this is how those states would rank in life expectancy.
Statistics person I am not, although my math skills are excellent. The article was to show the disparity between income groups in this country by area. Let's face it, the 'blend' we use to come up with a median number (whether it is a house or an income) is never the 'average'.
The links in the article led me to a bunch of manipulations of numbers.
I seem to recall a quote about "lies, damn lies, and statistics" I wish I could credit the quote.
I just don't want to base my vote on some statistics that I don't have a good handle on.
I hope your mouth isn't open because I like 'accurate' articles.