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Ear to the Ground

U.S. Life Expectancy Hits All-Time High

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Posted on Sep 12, 2007

Here’s the good news: Significant drops in heart disease and strokes, two leading causes of death among Americans, have contributed to the highest life expectancy in the country’s history, which rose to 77.9 years in the latest report released by the National Center for Health Statistics. 


AP via Breitbart.com:

That age, based on the latest data available, was still lower than the life span in more than three dozen other countries, however.

More bad news: The annual number of U.S. deaths rose from 2004 to a depressing uptick after the figure had dropped by 50,000 from 2003 to 2004. In 2005, the number of deaths increased by about that same amount.

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By Dale Headley, September 13, 2007 at 2:28 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

So why do Americans rank among the very lowest in mortality rates?  Two reasons: our self-indulgent lifestyle; and the fact that the powers that be vehemently reject universal health care.

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By Grousefeather, September 13, 2007 at 10:43 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Good! We’re all living longer, or so it seems. Given that fact, let’s dump this antiquaited political system we’ve been suffering with and develop a more equitable Democracy that reflects our growing maturity.

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By KISS, September 13, 2007 at 9:46 am #

So now I can suffer from my arthritis for another 8 years..whoopie.
Strange they just happened to NOT mention suicide stats in seniors. Hmmmm.

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By Outraged, September 13, 2007 at 9:39 am #

Even if these statistics are accurate we’d be well advised to note that the majority of the next septugenarians will not have healthcare, and probably wouldn’t have had it for some time.  So we should expect a steep slide in those numbers shortly.

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By GW=MCHammered, September 13, 2007 at 2:46 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Reads like modern obits:

Mark Twain 74, (1835-1910)
Leo Tolstoy 82, (1828-1910)
Hiram Ulysses Grant 63, (1822-1885)
George Washington 67, (1732-1799)
Benjamin Franklin 84, (1706-1790)
Diderot 71, (1713-1784)
Francis Bacon 65, (1561-1626)
William of Occam 64, (1285-1349)
Augustine of Hippo 76, (354-430)
Plutarch 81, (46-127)
Confucius 73, (551-478 BC)
Hippocrates 90, (460-370 BC)
Plato 80, (427-347 BC)

So what’s really friggin’ changed? Besides marketing.

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By TAO Walker, September 13, 2007 at 12:06 am #

What a deal!  Eighty years in wage/debt slavery.  Besides, how likely is it this isn’t just more book- cooking intended to keep the suckers thinking they’re still somehow ahead-of-the-(con)-game. 

Calling such an essentially meaningless statistic “....the good news” is surely yet another example of the allamerican obsession with quantity over quality.  Has anybody looked lately at how many of those who avoid “heart attacks and strokes” will instead spend those bonus years in the semi- oblivion of Alzheimer’s disease?  And part of “....(the) bad news”:  Three dozen other countries’ subject/citizens have even longer half-lives.

When officials and their corporate sponsors run-the-numbers as a big part of their “General Lies,” it is because they know their target-audience is well-trained to be taken-in (and even further confused) by these snowjobs.  “Individuals,” as mere artifacts of the civilizing process, are easy pickings for the privateering predatory classes who own and operate the electro-mechanical and ideological apparatus that mass-produces their hapless victims to begin with.

So again, someone please explain to this old free wild Savage how even more time stuck inside the damned contraption is “....the good news.”

HokaHey!

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By Leefeller, September 12, 2007 at 9:59 pm #

Hey, this is great news, it means I may have a decade and a half to finish my life’s work and learn how to pray twice a day.

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