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A comment on China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data. Parent comment

Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by Nomentatus on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @11:08PM (#17193659)
Not in dispute - the question wasn't whether life in the U.S. was getting better but whether it was getting shorter.
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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by joe_the_user on Friday June 01, 2018 @10:13PM (#17212230)
It's a fact, not a question, that US life expectancies have declined. The way the decline has happened, suicide and drug overdoses compensating for medical advances that normally provide a slow, steady increase in life expectancy in most countries, give a strong indication that life in the US has also gotten worse for a significant fraction of the population.
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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by wallace_f on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @11:28PM (#17193747)
Ok, but just personally I would say life expectancy / healthcare access are primary measures of 'is life getting better or worse' for people.
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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by microcolonel on Thursday May 31, 2018 @12:55AM (#17194047)
It depends on whether the factors leading to shorter life are deliberate (or just willful) or accidental.
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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by wallace_f on Thursday May 31, 2018 @07:57AM (#17195642)
It's hard to flesh out self determination from ennvironmental factors. Not to sound overwhelmingly 'r/iam14andthisisdeep, but consider: 1) Nomadic hunter gatherers who have shortened their lifespans due to their lifestyle choices, or lack of choice/information in determining their lifestyle; and 2) App developers who may also have shortened their lifespan due to lifestyle choices, or even also lack of choice/information (ie sedentary lifestyle to afford rent/food/taxes/legal aid, sugar consumption due to inaccurate information from leading scientists regarding health risks).

I just think we can't really know which one we'd prefer had we not experienced both.

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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by Nomentatus on Thursday May 31, 2018 @03:44PM (#17199487)
Nomadic hunters had quite long lifespans; agriculture introduced shorter lifespans and difficult lifestyles.

We agree on point two though: Laws allowing no overtime for developers have allowed long work hours that we now know are very harmful.

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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by microcolonel on Friday June 01, 2018 @03:42AM (#17203368)
> We agree on point two though: Laws allowing no overtime for developers have allowed long work hours that we now know are very harmful.

Excuse me? Keep your grubby hands off my time. I alone should decide if, when, and how I sell my mortality for cold hard cash. Whether or not you think it's bad for me is of absolutely no importance to my right to do it.

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Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data by Andre_Wanglin on Thursday May 31, 2018 @03:04AM (#17194499)
And what if both of those are caused by self-indulgence? Ballooning waistlines reducing lifespans while concomitantly causing healthcare shortages (because of high demand due to obesity-related chronic conditions) is definitely "getting worse" but it's an odd and self-inflicted sort of worse.
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