I saw this graphic today, which is quite stunning:
From here.
And before people say "but the US has blacks", in 2014 US life-expectancy for whites was 79 so you can see it isn't affecting the above chart much (blacks who comprise ~13% of the US population have a life expectancy only 3.4 years lower). Also, NZ has the Maori (15% of population) who have a ~7 year lower life-expectancy than non-Maori here (due to a culture of smoking and alcohol which the government is doing its best to fix). And Australia has aboriginals with ~10 years lower life expectancy than the rest of the population, but they comprise only 3 percent of total population, so barely affect the chart at all.
So basically, a person of mixed European genetic heritage, who lives in the US has a ~3 year lower life expectancy on average than people of similar genetics in Canada, Australia, NZ or the UK. And in the US you pay double the yearly per-person health spending of those countries. Of course, diet and lifestyle factors have as much influence, perhaps more, on life expectancy than health spending does. However health spending should have some effect, given that kind of is, after all, its basic purpose. On the whole, as the above chart shows, something is funky in America, and not in a good way.
From here.
And before people say "but the US has blacks", in 2014 US life-expectancy for whites was 79 so you can see it isn't affecting the above chart much (blacks who comprise ~13% of the US population have a life expectancy only 3.4 years lower). Also, NZ has the Maori (15% of population) who have a ~7 year lower life-expectancy than non-Maori here (due to a culture of smoking and alcohol which the government is doing its best to fix). And Australia has aboriginals with ~10 years lower life expectancy than the rest of the population, but they comprise only 3 percent of total population, so barely affect the chart at all.
So basically, a person of mixed European genetic heritage, who lives in the US has a ~3 year lower life expectancy on average than people of similar genetics in Canada, Australia, NZ or the UK. And in the US you pay double the yearly per-person health spending of those countries. Of course, diet and lifestyle factors have as much influence, perhaps more, on life expectancy than health spending does. However health spending should have some effect, given that kind of is, after all, its basic purpose. On the whole, as the above chart shows, something is funky in America, and not in a good way.
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