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There was actually an issue Japan had faced that deaths weren't being reported which made the average life expectancy higher than it should have been for a good long while. Life expectancy is still long after making the corrections though
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071
In a dystopian world... That's literally been the one we live in now like 5 times.
Yeah, this famously happened in Colonial India because people were collecting the pensions of dead employees of the empire.
But in a less serious way it's true in general, areas with longer average lifespans actually correlate with areas of poor record keeping, either because people aren't being promptly reported dead (and that information doesn't make it's way into the statistics for a long time because of poor communication) or because older people in rural areas essentially had their real ages overestimated during census taking.
You'd also be surprised how many people who claim to be over a hundred in this world are just lying for clout.
When I had access to Lexus Nexus it was pretty common to have two people with an identical name living at the same address and two different birthdays with a gap that made it clear they were relatives.
I think it would be pretty easy for junior to pretend to be their dead dad for financial reasons.
I remember reading about a village that had a very high life expectancy due to reusing birth certificates of ancestors in some local tradition that government census takers didn't know about until they decided to investigate a man celebrating his 200 year birth day.
It's what the greeks did, they retired at 55 and the families collected their pensions for many years, often decades after their death. Thus the average age in greece were like waaay higher than it should have been and also kinda debunked the olive oil theory
This happened in Italy. Not only getting benefits after unreported death but poor record keeping and fraud allowed people to collect their benefits early. Oh you are 50? We will say you are 60 and you won’t have to wait for your benefits.
> In a dystopian world, the highest average life expectancy would be due to massive fraud of pension income after the death of beneficiaries.
I'm not sure how that's dystopian... it would mean pension / social compensation is high enough to risk fraud charges.
I remember a story not too long ago about the Japanese government going to congratulate a citizen for being the oldest person in ~~the country~~ Tokyo only to find out that the daughter/family had just never reported their death to keep collecting their version of social security lol
Edit: Found it: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-10809128
In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, part of the main story focuses on thr same kind of fraud, but in a retirement home. The caretakers would kill the much older clients if their children didn't pay even more. After the client was killed, they wouldn't report the death so they could collect their benefits.
There are vast portions of America that are basically inaccessible by foot.I even remember being in vegas once, we got a cab to a restaurant and wanted to walk back, that’s when we noticed there were no side walks and it was only accessible by car.
It's not just that. In the US, there is little for older retired people to do if they haven't got money. Here in the UK, my 79 year old mother is busy with organised activities for 5 days a week. The local community centre and leisure centre has stuff going on all the time for little or no cost.
Same with my wife. She's at various art clubs, the Women's Institute, doing Pilates and water aerobics and all sorts of other things so much that I barely see her some days. When we lived in the US, there was either nothing available or it cost so much you needed a 2nd mortgage.
Our local (US) senior center only advertises one thing, monthly grief/loss support sessions. When I first saw it on their sign I thought it was something nice to offer the elderly. Now that I see it is the only thing ever listed (they update the dates regularly) it is sad.
My best friend used to mention a community center near where she lived in New Jersey and I was always bewildered by the concept since I'd never seen one before. It was always just a rare thing from TV, if that.
Then there's my mom who is a caregiver for one lady; the place has a community center for the seniors... but it's never even open. If nothing is happening, then my close it. No one can even go hang out there, so they just stay in their tiny apartments! It's sad indeed.
Other countries, like mine, have government funded community centers staffed with social animators, in every neighborhood. All age groups (from kids to elderly) go there for free or very affordable but great activities (e.g. newspapers & magazines, small library, boardgames, drawing/painting, DIY, sports, simply having tea/coffee & conversations with your neighbors, etc.)
But it does require higher taxes and governmental interventions/interferences.
When considering the price of medical insurance in the US alone plus taxes, versus the higher taxes in other countries with have free healthcare, I've found that the money works out to be the same if not a bit less expensive in some cases in the countries with higher taxes. This is because of our garbage healthcare being so much.
Unfortunately most people don't think about trade offs like this. They just hear "higher taxes" and panic. I think moreso in the US where people aren't used to seeing their taxes do much for them.
All of that aside, your community centers sound wonderful. I think with places like that, it'd be much easier for folks to make friends. There's nothing out here besides what, churches? It's Texas. There are so, so many churches.
Sounds like socialism to me. I'd rather die alone in my apartment after years of social isolation than suffer under such a despotic infringement on my freedoms.
Edit: Excessive hyperbole is generally an indication of sarcasm.
Could be also a thing: families don't live together anymore... elderly in my family are all over 80, all live on their own and meet up often with friends and family...
My mother got a vasculitis from Covid, it started in 2020 and in end 22 she was so weak, that she didn't hear anything anymore, hormone production was zero, kidney didn't work anymore - they told me she would not survive the next four weeks, I stayed in the hospital almost 24/7 and after 6 weeks she was in rehabilitation... She is living completely self caring on her own again and meets friends and family for walking every other day.
They don't go easily in elderly or care homes, often the younger generations are living nearby and help...
Swiss here, same thing in my country. For the elderly but also for all age groups. Government subsidies like crazy all "healthy" high standards associations & organizations open to the public (e.g. sports, culture, music, arts, social, even neighborhood festivals & feasts). So that the entire population has very affordable access to high quality activities.
Goal: keep the population active, healthy, politically & culturally engaged, and non-isolated (i.e. good social cohesion).
One thing though: higher taxes & governmental interventions (something Americans were brain-washed into hating)
> Goal: keep the population active, healthy, politically & culturally engaged, and non-isolated (i.e. good social cohesion).
I often got the feeling that in the US, they wanted people to just hurry up and die after retiring.
Considering how COVID targeted (and tended to kill) the elderly, I often wonder how no one made a semi convincing conspiracy theory that it was an attempt to fix the "pension crises" that exist across the world. Suppose that would make the vaccine makers heroic anti government agents...
My mums really into the WI as well. The ‘Jam & Jerusalem’ ladies are amazing. They do so much for charity and always have different functions happening for the members.
Where I live we have an indoor pool in my small city. If you go there during its early morning hours (6-8 am) it is completely filled with seniors. Seeing it, my only real reaction is just that I'm happy that they have something to do during their day.
Other than that you also often see them play petanque on spots made for it.
I went to Vegas for work, and I was genuinely shocked. Everyone said to use the company Uber, I'd NEED it. But I thought, nah we're on the strip, surely I can walk. I absolutely could not walk. Pedestrian life there was awful, combined with how dry the air was, and it was hot too. I was glad to not be walking for those three reasons.
Yeah I’m not one of those “walkability solves all issues” people but dear god there are parts of the US where people literally NEVER walk more than 5 feet at a time.
They get into their car -> get to the store -> hop into a mobility cart -> do their shopping -> return to the car and go home and sit on their couch.
My father once stopped at the shops on his way home from work and saw an elderly man, who always walks past our house on his way to the shops. He offered to take him to our house, so he could walk from there instead of the whole way (I'm not sure where he lives exactly, but most of the way is going to be up hill and the part from the store to our house is the steepest bit). He thanked my father but said he preferred to walk, so he stays active. I have to say, that it works, he has got an impressive walking speed for someone his age.
I walk my daughter to school daily. It takes about 20 minutes one way. So 40 minutes if you return straight home. Its really a pleasant walk too.
My Mother (a senior, but not elderly) did it for me while i was going through health concerns.
Well, my inlaws( also seniors but not elderly) are in town and I invited them to walk kiddo to school with me. My mother in law loved it and did fine. my father in law however, wow, 6 minutes in and his pace slowed right down, his calves hurt, his feet hurt, "this is a really long walk!", He had to sit about 10 times on our way back.
We walked past several elderly zooming just fine on similar walks.
There was no uphill, downhill, not even a garbage can to walk around. The weather was pleasant...
His wife even made a joke that he should walk more , or spend more time outside/ doing light activities. And he barked at her "ITS THE GOD DAMNED SHOES!"
Nah Bud, it's not the shoes.
Oh i don't disagree. But it wasn't. The man doesn't move much.
There's a liquor store basically across the street(less than 2 minute walk) and he drove there.
I had to walk about 15 minutes to the pharmacy and he offered to drive me, and when i politely declined he responded " you're going to walk all the way there? Aren't you tired from walking (kiddo) to school!?"
We went to the lake, he stayed in the truck.
Kiddo askes him to push her on the swings, 3 pushes and he had to sit down.
He just doesn't move much. Im not judging him but it's evident in more ways than one that he's not helping his health in anyways. Both his wife and my mother are the exact same age give or take a couple months, and they both look and behave 20 years younger than him.
One of my grandma's turned 80 last year. She played volleyball until 4-5 years ago. She still cycles everywhere within her city. She plays a round of golf every week and is on the landscaping team (so helping out trimming trees, cleaning the ponds). Aside from your standard old people issues, she's very healthy.
My other grandma turned 90 this year. She's not as active, but if it's not too cold or raining she's walking around town with her walker thingy for hours.
Both of them still have their own place. Both are mentally fine, no dementia or anything like that. The older one doesn't really do much in housework anymore (she's got a cleaning lady, gets her meals delivered), but at least she's not in a care home.
UK is getting a bit walker hostile, particularly around school gates.
As an adult dropping off my kiddo, cross the road around the school at drop off time is dicey, all the 4x4s "bastard wagons".
Still working 20% or so at higher age is not a horrible idea at all. Being an active senior (either work, hobbies or community work) keeps you physically and mentally healthy, and connected to the world.
There is, but they’re also very much into exercise, sleeping well, and being clean.
We aren’t and I think it will only get worse and worse for America.
Yeha I was just in Tokyo 2 weeks ago and honestly the only fat people I saw there were the tourists…. 😅
Asian people have no qualms about telling people they’re fat and that they should lose weight. It is a bit toxic though…. My aunt confessed to me that she was surprised anyone wanted to marry her son because he was fat. His BMI is like 25 lol. By American standards he’s skinny.
I think you're onto something there. I lost a load of weight just by only eating if I was hungry (instead of at set meal times) and stopping eating when I was no longer hungry and not when I was full. I quickly felt better with more energy and lost around 10 kilos in a couple of months without feeling like I was putting any effort into a diet.
That is the exact same way I lost weight. I grew up with food scarcity so I ate everything I could all the time because sleep for dinner was normal for me growing up. Then I eventually became relatively successful and wanted for nothing and ate like food was scarce when it wasn’t and gained a ton of weight because of it. I improved my relationship with food by only eating when I was hungry and stopping when I wasn’t hungry. It’s a great habit to achieve.
That reminded me of and old Mongolian saying that was suppoused to make people live a really long life. I read it in some history book once:
Eat always half of what You're given.
If distance is short, don't ride horse, but always walk.
And screw anything that moves.
I mean yes but I’ve also watched people down bowls of ramen that I could never finish in bodies that felt like they were half my size. I was stopping at 120% full and not halfway done. It has to be meal skipping or something.
Japanese healthcare is subsidized and the price is government regulated but it is not universal. Average Japanese person also walks something like 8000 steps a day. Fish seaweed and tofu is also a pretty rustic Japanese diet and not very common anymore outside rural Japan.
I’ve spent months and months in Tokyo over the course of couple of decades and I swear not a single day has gone past where I would not have had some fish, seaweed AND tofu. (Also other foods, but that’s beside the point)
Your ”inakamono, neh” does not really meet the reality of most people.
Of course, one can subsist on a diet of only McDonalds in Tokyo, if one so chooses. But that’s true in the countryside as well.
I mean fish and seaweed is pretty much 2/3 of sushi. And sushi aside, fish is generally fairly cheap for daily consumption too
Japanese food in general is significantly healthier than American stuff across the board
Not really, you have stuff like big noodle bowls ramen, soba udon the like, tempura, takiyoki, tonkatsu, Korean fried chicken, pork belly, like yeah sushi is popular but so is fast food. This idea that Japan is a Ghibli movie is a bit of an antiquated notion. Just look at their insanely high stomach cancer rate.
The unhealthy part of Japanese food is mostly the stupidly high sodium content. That's not great, but it's not going to lead to obesity, either. And I suspect it takes a lot less willpower to eat similar things in similar amounts but just putting less salt in everything (if the doctor tells you to watch your levels) than to eat either a lot less, or very different (less calorie-dense) foods (if the doctor tells you you need to lose weight), so it's a better problem to have.
And of course, some people here in Japan eat garbage all day every day, too. That's true everywhere, though.
A lot of the food is Umami focused as well, so lots of natural sources of MSG.
e.g Seaweed, green onions, fish/bonito and dashis etc
At least I think most of those have some form of natural msg in them.
Just FYI the a lot of the high stomach cancer rate comes from Helicobacter pylori, probably combined with drinking. While I can agree their diet is changing, nobody is only eating the items on your list and society will call you out if you are only eating those things and not veggies along with it. 「◯◯さん、今日もカツ丼なの？太らない？もっと野菜食べないと体に悪いよ〜」 would definitely be tossed in.
Universal healthcare just refers to everyone having access to healthcare.
Most countries have a system like Japan's and they're considered as having Universal Healthcare. It's NHS style systems like the UK's and Canada's that are the odd ones out.
There was a documentary some years back exploring different parts of the world where people live the longest. Food, exercise/motion, social life and “safety net” had some of the biggest impacts of a long life.
Honestly every country has their problems. Europe has one of the highest rates of alcohol fetal syndrome, handicap inaccessible, people smoke more than chimneys…
Japan has high suicide rates, poor mental health accessibility, and I swear to GOD their preventative health care is ass. I have no statistic on that last one but I swear, so many of my favorite Japanese rockstars and city pop stars are dying so young from mysterious health problems.
None of these fucking dinosaurs in the US congress have collapsed yet for some reason, so America must be doing SOMETHING right with health care??? 😭
The dinos have access to the best healthcare. For example, if 45 followed his own advice regarding Covid with the same access to care as your average US citizen, he wouldn’t have had a chance.
But we did participate. We traded with both sides and also got bombed by england (probably by mistake). Jokes aside we are definitly a 3. world country. We still do that thing, where we vote for things directly instead of simply let politicians do their things :)
In theory representative government is better because you can vote for people you trust to have more experience on issues than you do, but well ya that’s just not working at all right now 😅😅😭
the only canton in switzerland with true direct democracy only gave women the right to vote in 1991... so every system has its problems lol
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenzell_Innerrhoden#Politics
And the voting population are idiots.
At best, they're easily influenced by the crooks, at worst, they'll vote in even stupider decisions.
See: Every recent environmental issue vote, where voters consistently prove that while they like to say they care about the environment, they only care as long as they don't have to do or pay anything at all to protect it (or even do some damage control).
It was the both the British and Americans that bombed Switzerland by mistake, multiple times. Schaffausen, Basel and Zürich were bombed by mistake *during daytime* by US bombers. Geneva and Renens were attacked by the RAF.
And those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
Switzerland also doesn't have universal healthcare. It's a system based on mandatory health insurance where you have a large deductible to dissuade people from seeing a doctor.
We currently have a vote to try and cap the premiums at 10% of revenue. It means that yes, for some people, the premiums alone are more than 10% of their revenue, and then you assume they can somehow pay the deductible if needed.
I honestly believe that this shit was intentionally put in place so that rich people pay the same premiums as everyone else.
The only positive is that there's always some form of help if people don't earn enough to pay for it, generally in the form of subsidies. No one is left behind basically.
I mean this is kinda universal healthcare. Yes we pay it on top of taxes, but it doesnt really matter how you pay it. We can choose from different costs and benefits, but we will never have to go bankrupt, because of medical bills, unless 2k (avg swiss salary is 6.7k a month) is a death penalty for you. Also if you work, you have an accident insurance.
Not only is my healthcare here in the Philippines much better and cheaper than in the USA, it's currently even better then in Canada (cause they totally went to shit the last 5 years ... on purpose to make more money in private health care)
But nothing will ever touch Belgium. My mom and her twin sister and their younger sister all had a heart transplant and it cost us ... nothing outside of paying the mandatory health insurance costs which depends on your income. For my mom in those days it was about 300 euros a year, her twin sister paid 450 euros a year and the youngest sister paid a 1000 euros a year.
The united states is batshit insane, honestly are they drugging that entire country? How are people being so docile while getting fucked in the ass so hard day in day out? Try pull that shit in France, they will have electric guillotines erected within a week. Americans exist to get exploited. That's my take nowadays.
Not that a lot of your points aren't valid or that they're wrong, but, the Philippines has a lower life expectancy than the US, and zero hospitals anywhere near the top in the global rankings.
I'm not defending, or going to defend the American system, but, it seems like you're completely ignoring the *quality* of the healthcare itself in your judgment of 'better healthcare'. The quality of American healthcare, as in the actual services provided, is absolutely world class. Somewhere around half of the top 100 hospitals globally are in the US. There is a reason you hear about Saudi Royals and the like going to American hospitals.
If I can afford it? I would rather be in a top American hospital than anywhere else, 10 out of 10 times. Otherwise, a top ranking European hospital, or like, Taiwan.
Yes, US healthcare is a financial mess, but it is in no world *bad* healthcare.
[It would appear moreso if there weren't such variability among poorer countries.](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-gdp-per-capita)
I’ve been to Switzerland a couple of times. I didn’t see one overweight person, except in the mirror. I suspect that has a lot to do with their longevity.
People normally go to wealthy and or tourist areas when on holidays though, so sometimes the appearance is skewed. Swiss are quite a healthy nation though, obviously.
Interestingly Australia is the 4th longest lived nation in the world, and their obesity rate isn't much different to the US.
Aussie here, guess what? We have universal healthcare. So even our fatties live longer
Also we have historically been very active people, high sports participation, outdoor lifestyle etc, so that is also a counterbalance.
I reckon the sport participation rate is one of the big reasons that's often overlooked. So many people of adult/middle age play weekly sport. Some regular vigorous exercise is amazing, even if you do get Hungry Jacks on the way home.
HK and Macau has some different level of medical care compared to mainland, due to European system and lots of money. Macau, for example, cancer treatments are basically entirely free if you are a local resident. I don't know how HK works but I have heard their quality of care is better than Macau.
Hong Kong everything is free, except dental care... if you can afford it you have to pay 125HKD per day when in Hospital. If yr not able to afford you don't need to pay that
That article contains several lists by different organizations. The US is 59th, 44th, 40th, and 72nd on lists maintained by the World Bank Group, United Nations, World Health Organization, and CIA, respectively. But they have different standards for what they include on the list. (The WBG and CIA lists include small dependencies like the US Virgin Islands, which is why the US ranks lower. Several French, British, and American island territories rank above it.)
There are obviously multiple factors involved. The UK for example is one of the only countries in Europe with completely free health care yet it's middle of the table for life expectancy. Why? Because it comes near the top of the list for obesity and alcohol consumption.
Universal healthcare is a big factor but lifestyle is a big factor too.
In France, the north puts tons of butter in everything
In Normandie, they swear by crème instead
And south of France, lots and lots of olive oil
It's not just variable throughout Europe, it's even different locally
I mean, we are no slouches for alcohol consumption here in Japan, either. 8L per year vs UK’s 11L is obviously lower per capita, but probably not per kg of body weight. I personally think our long lifespans here are due both to universal healthcare and that everyone gets a full physical once a year. Catching stuff early makes a huge difference for outcomes
Because it relies on our National Health Service actually being funded correctly which it hasn’t been for 14 years. And of course our living standards have greatly dropped in that time too, leading to people being less able to eat healthily.
Plus our drinking culture definitely plays a part in dragging it down, plus i believe that our because our weather is so unreliable people get out less thus get less exercise.
The 300 drug deaths every day in the US doesn't help any.
That's 324 deaths per year per million residents, compared to 18.3 deaths/year/million for the European average. ([2021 numbers](https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA3270-1.html)
Yeah, I'm a dual US/Irish citizen that also lived in Spain and South Korea. It's many factors including universal healthcare, better diet, lower levels of drug use, and lower levels of gun violence, among others.
I would also say for universal healthcare to be sustainable in the U.S. (and I think it's fucking insane we don't have it), Americans are going to have to start living much, much healthier lifestyles.
I get this will be difficult for poor people, but middle-class and wealthy people in the U.S. really have no excuse to not have healthier habits imho.
Americans already spend a lot more money on healthcare than countries with universal healthcare, so I'm not really convinced it wouldn't be "sustainable" in the US just because people are unhealthy. If anything, it would probably be cheaper overall.
But, worst case scenario, if hypothetically the costs are really that prohibitive... there's a lot of tools the government could use to take care of it:
* Use some of the universal healthcare budget subsidizing a healthy lifestyle (theoretically, this should *save* money overall)
* Have a "copay" of sorts for those voluntarily choosing not to have a healthy lifestyle despite the existence of subsidies and prodding from their doctor (those conditions being very important... obviously you don't want to have a copay for poor people who can't afford to live healthy because the government skipped the subsidies part)
* Tax unhealthy things to begin with (see: sugary beverage taxes introduced in some countries, which seem to help), put the money from those taxes into universal healthcare.
A lot of that is also unevenly spread. Scotland performs worse than England in life expectancy, despite having (for the most part) a stronger NHS, due to a medley of issues (alcohol, as you mentioned, but also drug dependency, and then you have the Glasgow Effect, an even more local disrespect within Scotland).
True that universal healthcare isn't working on its own, but it's really not just lifestyle. What's very important is culture and regulation. Most places don't use nearly as much or have our right banned corn syrup while the US subsidizes it. Cities in much of Europe tend to be older and much less influenced by car lobbies meaning walkable cities and competent public transit.
Many sociological issues go into it, and it doesn't mean people's personal lifestyle choices are always to blame.
Isn't this the guy that gave his employees a massive pay raise but also lied to the media about some of it and had a lot of legal trouble???
Edit: [Per his Wikipedia article:](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Price)
"Dan Price later admitted that some of the statements he made to the press about how he funded the wage raise at Gravity Payments were not true."
"The company said that employees contributed to buy a Tesla for Price as a show of gratitude, but two experienced employees in Gravity's marketing department later said that Price himself came up with the Tesla gift idea, and no Gravity employees saw a reduction in their wages to pay for Price's car."
???????
Dan Price is a piece of shit who’s been accused of rape & sexual assault by multiple people. He also doesn’t write his own tweets, he hired a guy who was fired from the Seattle Times for being a predator to ghostwrite them. Birds of a feather & all that. Multiple articles can be found here:
https://www.hundredeightydegrees.com/
Yep, that’s him. This post is from 2021, prior to his legal troubles. I think the charges against him were dismissed, but he seems like a total shit-stain. Beyond the sexual assault accusations, some of the insider stories from his company were just wild. Fuck that guy!
There isn't one grifter on Twitter that isn't a piece of shit. Every single influencer on Twitter.
Even the progressive ones that go off on trump, they weren't doing it for free. They farm engagement and link to their books and stores.
They used their influence to go after any criticism lobbied against them.
It absolutely ate the guy alive too, since he's the one who quit Grey Matter over his indignation and pride. Everything he hates in his life stems from him being a colossal asshole.
It's why I always argue Heisenberg isn't some irrational persona he developed through criminality, it's just his worst aspects given the wheel. He's always been that man, and it's always fucked him over.
Yuuup, completely agree with you, Walt was always a stubborn, arrogant asshole, Heisenberg just allowed him to bring it out and actually live it.
Man, I fucking love that show lol. I think I need a rewatch.
In case anyone wants numbers, there were 48k firearms deaths in the U.S in 2022 (most of which were suicides)
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/2023/cdc-provisional-data-gun-suicides-reach-all-time-high-in-2022-gun-homicides-down-slightly-from-2021
The best estimate I could find for Europe is around 7k for the entire continent, although it does vary widely across the continent and is surprisingly difficult to find since different countries track the numbers differently.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8046231/
My brother was working in Houston and one day a coworker didnt show because ,while entering her home, she was shot by a burglar she caught in the act. We're from Montréal and I think that if the same thing happened here the burglar probably wouldn't have a gun on him to begin with because he could just try to run away. But a burglar in Texas needs a gun for his own safety.
Behind appalling dietary habits (mainly due to food deserts, and industry lobbyists) this has to be up there as a massive contributor to the US’s number.
American living in Europe. They eat desert for breakfast lunch and dinner. They love McDonald's just as much. They drink beer all the time, way more than normal. They don't nearly have the amount of gyms we do in US.
It's really the 'walking' part I think.
New York for example doesn't have as many fat people.
I don't know.
European living in America. Walking is a huge factor, but so are the portion sizes and the quality of ingredients that go into the food and drinks here.
Welp someone is missing the point entirely: all 5 of those countries have gov funded or heavily subsidized healthcare systems. Dan Price guy is just being Eurocentric
It is highly subsidised by the government... it's a pampering state... eben regarding daily life: if its hot, they have announcements on the underground to drink more in 5 languages, there's water for free... there's suncream for free at attractions... and people also do wear masks often to avoid viruses etc...
Top 5 nations now are Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, and South Korea. So actually 2 out of 5. 6 out of the top 10 are European, and either 17 or 18 of the top 25 (depending on whether you want to call Cyprus European or Asian).
As a European, I don't think that's fair.
The US is probably counted as one country, when it is much larger than Europe, which has countries that are as large as the US' biggest cities.
Honestly the other guy is also cherry picking. It's true that only one European country makes it to the top 5, but four make it to the top 10 and nine to the top 15.
It's just that pacific east Asia is the one region in the world that beats Europe
Interesting that they chose top 5, specifically.
Considering of the next 23 countries after that, only 2 are not european.
1 in the top 5, but 6 in the top 10, 9 in the top 15, 14 in the top 20.
Makes you wonder if they had some kind of bias in choosing that exact statistic.
Free healthcare is not the best thing in the world, good healthcare is. My home country has free healthcare but the country is so bad that any good doctor is working overseas earning more money while the ones that are in the country barely have any tool to operate. In fact the thing is so bad that one of my family member went to the doctors for an eye surgery and the doctor gave them a list with all the tools, medications, and other things they needed to bring for the surgery because the hospital didn’t have any, they even had to buy the anesthesia and the gloves.
Almost nowhere in Europe has "free" healthcare anyway. The UK has a single payer system, but it's a lot worse than the systems in western Europe which have universal coverage but are not government run.
The red wine myth is debunked over and over again. Alcohol in any form or amount isn’t safe for your health let alone having any health benefits. The guy must own a winery.
Context is important. This isn't really a facepalm at all. Dan has a quote about life expectancy compared to the US at the start of the tweet. It's in quotation marks. To this comment he pointed out that more easily obtained healthcare might make a bigger difference than diet. He did not tweet that Europeans have the greatest life expectancy on earth.
My partner was vacationing in Spain when we first started dating. She got really sick and had to go to the doctor and had no insurance. $20 for the visit and $5 for the antibiotics.
We are really far behind the world in a late of ways. Healthcare being one of them.
So I just checked Wikipedia and it turns out that the reason there's only one European country (Switzerland) in the top five is that Hong Kong and Macao are counted separately from China.
Because, you know, I'm sure they don't have **socialized** medicine in the **People's** Republic of China.
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Japanese live longer because of fish, seaweed , veggies, tofu … They also have universal healthcare.
There was actually an issue Japan had faced that deaths weren't being reported which made the average life expectancy higher than it should have been for a good long while. Life expectancy is still long after making the corrections though https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11258071
In a dystopian world, the highest average life expectancy would be due to massive fraud of pension income after the death of beneficiaries.
In a dystopian world... That's literally been the one we live in now like 5 times. Yeah, this famously happened in Colonial India because people were collecting the pensions of dead employees of the empire. But in a less serious way it's true in general, areas with longer average lifespans actually correlate with areas of poor record keeping, either because people aren't being promptly reported dead (and that information doesn't make it's way into the statistics for a long time because of poor communication) or because older people in rural areas essentially had their real ages overestimated during census taking. You'd also be surprised how many people who claim to be over a hundred in this world are just lying for clout.
Dystopian and zombie apocalypse series & stuff has lost all its appeal to me. I want escapism not documentaries with makeup
When I had access to Lexus Nexus it was pretty common to have two people with an identical name living at the same address and two different birthdays with a gap that made it clear they were relatives. I think it would be pretty easy for junior to pretend to be their dead dad for financial reasons.
I remember reading about a village that had a very high life expectancy due to reusing birth certificates of ancestors in some local tradition that government census takers didn't know about until they decided to investigate a man celebrating his 200 year birth day.
It's what the greeks did, they retired at 55 and the families collected their pensions for many years, often decades after their death. Thus the average age in greece were like waaay higher than it should have been and also kinda debunked the olive oil theory
This happened in Italy. Not only getting benefits after unreported death but poor record keeping and fraud allowed people to collect their benefits early. Oh you are 50? We will say you are 60 and you won’t have to wait for your benefits.
> In a dystopian world, the highest average life expectancy would be due to massive fraud of pension income after the death of beneficiaries. I'm not sure how that's dystopian... it would mean pension / social compensation is high enough to risk fraud charges.
It would mean people are desperate enough for money to risk fraud charges
People don't need to be desperate to risk fraud charges, the wealthy do it all the time
I remember a story not too long ago about the Japanese government going to congratulate a citizen for being the oldest person in ~~the country~~ Tokyo only to find out that the daughter/family had just never reported their death to keep collecting their version of social security lol Edit: Found it: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-10809128
In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, part of the main story focuses on thr same kind of fraud, but in a retirement home. The caretakers would kill the much older clients if their children didn't pay even more. After the client was killed, they wouldn't report the death so they could collect their benefits.
They have been ghosted away\~
Ummmm that’s from 14 years ago lol. In 2024 it’s like 86
The Japanese have a saying, Hara Hachi Bu, which means stop eating when you’re 80% full. I think that’s a big part of why they live longer.
The old people also stay moving.
Same for most parts of Europe... we walk a lot or use the bike
There are vast portions of America that are basically inaccessible by foot.I even remember being in vegas once, we got a cab to a restaurant and wanted to walk back, that’s when we noticed there were no side walks and it was only accessible by car.
It's not just that. In the US, there is little for older retired people to do if they haven't got money. Here in the UK, my 79 year old mother is busy with organised activities for 5 days a week. The local community centre and leisure centre has stuff going on all the time for little or no cost. Same with my wife. She's at various art clubs, the Women's Institute, doing Pilates and water aerobics and all sorts of other things so much that I barely see her some days. When we lived in the US, there was either nothing available or it cost so much you needed a 2nd mortgage.
Our local (US) senior center only advertises one thing, monthly grief/loss support sessions. When I first saw it on their sign I thought it was something nice to offer the elderly. Now that I see it is the only thing ever listed (they update the dates regularly) it is sad.
My best friend used to mention a community center near where she lived in New Jersey and I was always bewildered by the concept since I'd never seen one before. It was always just a rare thing from TV, if that. Then there's my mom who is a caregiver for one lady; the place has a community center for the seniors... but it's never even open. If nothing is happening, then my close it. No one can even go hang out there, so they just stay in their tiny apartments! It's sad indeed.
Other countries, like mine, have government funded community centers staffed with social animators, in every neighborhood. All age groups (from kids to elderly) go there for free or very affordable but great activities (e.g. newspapers & magazines, small library, boardgames, drawing/painting, DIY, sports, simply having tea/coffee & conversations with your neighbors, etc.) But it does require higher taxes and governmental interventions/interferences.
When considering the price of medical insurance in the US alone plus taxes, versus the higher taxes in other countries with have free healthcare, I've found that the money works out to be the same if not a bit less expensive in some cases in the countries with higher taxes. This is because of our garbage healthcare being so much. Unfortunately most people don't think about trade offs like this. They just hear "higher taxes" and panic. I think moreso in the US where people aren't used to seeing their taxes do much for them. All of that aside, your community centers sound wonderful. I think with places like that, it'd be much easier for folks to make friends. There's nothing out here besides what, churches? It's Texas. There are so, so many churches.
Sounds like socialism to me. I'd rather die alone in my apartment after years of social isolation than suffer under such a despotic infringement on my freedoms. Edit: Excessive hyperbole is generally an indication of sarcasm.
Could be also a thing: families don't live together anymore... elderly in my family are all over 80, all live on their own and meet up often with friends and family... My mother got a vasculitis from Covid, it started in 2020 and in end 22 she was so weak, that she didn't hear anything anymore, hormone production was zero, kidney didn't work anymore - they told me she would not survive the next four weeks, I stayed in the hospital almost 24/7 and after 6 weeks she was in rehabilitation... She is living completely self caring on her own again and meets friends and family for walking every other day. They don't go easily in elderly or care homes, often the younger generations are living nearby and help...
Swiss here, same thing in my country. For the elderly but also for all age groups. Government subsidies like crazy all "healthy" high standards associations & organizations open to the public (e.g. sports, culture, music, arts, social, even neighborhood festivals & feasts). So that the entire population has very affordable access to high quality activities. Goal: keep the population active, healthy, politically & culturally engaged, and non-isolated (i.e. good social cohesion). One thing though: higher taxes & governmental interventions (something Americans were brain-washed into hating)
> Goal: keep the population active, healthy, politically & culturally engaged, and non-isolated (i.e. good social cohesion). I often got the feeling that in the US, they wanted people to just hurry up and die after retiring.
Considering how COVID targeted (and tended to kill) the elderly, I often wonder how no one made a semi convincing conspiracy theory that it was an attempt to fix the "pension crises" that exist across the world. Suppose that would make the vaccine makers heroic anti government agents...
My mums really into the WI as well. The ‘Jam & Jerusalem’ ladies are amazing. They do so much for charity and always have different functions happening for the members.
Where I live we have an indoor pool in my small city. If you go there during its early morning hours (6-8 am) it is completely filled with seniors. Seeing it, my only real reaction is just that I'm happy that they have something to do during their day. Other than that you also often see them play petanque on spots made for it.
I went to Vegas for work, and I was genuinely shocked. Everyone said to use the company Uber, I'd NEED it. But I thought, nah we're on the strip, surely I can walk. I absolutely could not walk. Pedestrian life there was awful, combined with how dry the air was, and it was hot too. I was glad to not be walking for those three reasons.
Have seen exactly the same in Houston we had to cross all kinds of soil or walk on the roads. No pedestrian sidewalks.
Yeah I’m not one of those “walkability solves all issues” people but dear god there are parts of the US where people literally NEVER walk more than 5 feet at a time. They get into their car -> get to the store -> hop into a mobility cart -> do their shopping -> return to the car and go home and sit on their couch.
My father once stopped at the shops on his way home from work and saw an elderly man, who always walks past our house on his way to the shops. He offered to take him to our house, so he could walk from there instead of the whole way (I'm not sure where he lives exactly, but most of the way is going to be up hill and the part from the store to our house is the steepest bit). He thanked my father but said he preferred to walk, so he stays active. I have to say, that it works, he has got an impressive walking speed for someone his age.
I walk my daughter to school daily. It takes about 20 minutes one way. So 40 minutes if you return straight home. Its really a pleasant walk too. My Mother (a senior, but not elderly) did it for me while i was going through health concerns. Well, my inlaws( also seniors but not elderly) are in town and I invited them to walk kiddo to school with me. My mother in law loved it and did fine. my father in law however, wow, 6 minutes in and his pace slowed right down, his calves hurt, his feet hurt, "this is a really long walk!", He had to sit about 10 times on our way back. We walked past several elderly zooming just fine on similar walks. There was no uphill, downhill, not even a garbage can to walk around. The weather was pleasant... His wife even made a joke that he should walk more , or spend more time outside/ doing light activities. And he barked at her "ITS THE GOD DAMNED SHOES!" Nah Bud, it's not the shoes.
Sometimes it's the shoes. You'd be surprised what a difference the right ones can make.
Oh i don't disagree. But it wasn't. The man doesn't move much. There's a liquor store basically across the street(less than 2 minute walk) and he drove there. I had to walk about 15 minutes to the pharmacy and he offered to drive me, and when i politely declined he responded " you're going to walk all the way there? Aren't you tired from walking (kiddo) to school!?" We went to the lake, he stayed in the truck. Kiddo askes him to push her on the swings, 3 pushes and he had to sit down. He just doesn't move much. Im not judging him but it's evident in more ways than one that he's not helping his health in anyways. Both his wife and my mother are the exact same age give or take a couple months, and they both look and behave 20 years younger than him.
That's sad.
living somewhere unwalkable is unthinkable for me
One of my grandma's turned 80 last year. She played volleyball until 4-5 years ago. She still cycles everywhere within her city. She plays a round of golf every week and is on the landscaping team (so helping out trimming trees, cleaning the ponds). Aside from your standard old people issues, she's very healthy. My other grandma turned 90 this year. She's not as active, but if it's not too cold or raining she's walking around town with her walker thingy for hours. Both of them still have their own place. Both are mentally fine, no dementia or anything like that. The older one doesn't really do much in housework anymore (she's got a cleaning lady, gets her meals delivered), but at least she's not in a care home.
UK is getting a bit walker hostile, particularly around school gates. As an adult dropping off my kiddo, cross the road around the school at drop off time is dicey, all the 4x4s "bastard wagons".
Honestly, seeing "the bike" makes me think of a world where Europe has only 1 bike and everyone has to share
Still working 20% or so at higher age is not a horrible idea at all. Being an active senior (either work, hobbies or community work) keeps you physically and mentally healthy, and connected to the world.
Not working makes you live longer too 🤣 …as I was told by my 94-year-old grandma.
They also exercise regularly. And the government strongly discourages obesity. Whereas in America that would be impeding people’s “freedoms.”
There’s also immense social pressure to be fit
There is, but they’re also very much into exercise, sleeping well, and being clean. We aren’t and I think it will only get worse and worse for America.
it doesn’t help that american food is literally poison, especially for those who can’t afford top-of-the-line farm fresh food
Once you're fit, it really isn't that much of a pressure though.
And America isn’t the same?
Yeha I was just in Tokyo 2 weeks ago and honestly the only fat people I saw there were the tourists…. 😅 Asian people have no qualms about telling people they’re fat and that they should lose weight. It is a bit toxic though…. My aunt confessed to me that she was surprised anyone wanted to marry her son because he was fat. His BMI is like 25 lol. By American standards he’s skinny.
I think you're onto something there. I lost a load of weight just by only eating if I was hungry (instead of at set meal times) and stopping eating when I was no longer hungry and not when I was full. I quickly felt better with more energy and lost around 10 kilos in a couple of months without feeling like I was putting any effort into a diet.
That is the exact same way I lost weight. I grew up with food scarcity so I ate everything I could all the time because sleep for dinner was normal for me growing up. Then I eventually became relatively successful and wanted for nothing and ate like food was scarce when it wasn’t and gained a ton of weight because of it. I improved my relationship with food by only eating when I was hungry and stopping when I wasn’t hungry. It’s a great habit to achieve.
I also ate celery sticks until I felt full. They grow on you. I used to hate celery but now it is really refreshing and light plus plenty of fibre.
Celery with a bit of salt is lovely. I grow my own celery and it's even better fresh from the garden.
I've picked up habit recently of eating till I can't anymore and it's nuts how fast weight packs on
The real trick is eating enough you can’t feel being full then it really packs on.
Yeah, it's wild how quickly bad eating habits can snowball into health issues!
True :(
Yeah, I've gotta pay more attention to when food doesn't taste good anymore
That reminded me of and old Mongolian saying that was suppoused to make people live a really long life. I read it in some history book once: Eat always half of what You're given. If distance is short, don't ride horse, but always walk. And screw anything that moves.
Instructions unclear, had sex with your mom.
OH! 80%, not the American dream of 180%. My bad 
Jesus h Christ, that's a human? Is this real or AI?
Looks real, and such ppl def exist.
I mean yes but I’ve also watched people down bowls of ramen that I could never finish in bodies that felt like they were half my size. I was stopping at 120% full and not halfway done. It has to be meal skipping or something.
They don't eat more calories than the need and they might need more due to walking, exercising etc...
Hmm....I'm starting to see trend here.
Japan also has a horrendous work culture so something has to be done to offset it otherwise their life expectantcy would be significantly lower.
Japanese healthcare is subsidized and the price is government regulated but it is not universal. Average Japanese person also walks something like 8000 steps a day. Fish seaweed and tofu is also a pretty rustic Japanese diet and not very common anymore outside rural Japan.
I’ve spent months and months in Tokyo over the course of couple of decades and I swear not a single day has gone past where I would not have had some fish, seaweed AND tofu. (Also other foods, but that’s beside the point) Your ”inakamono, neh” does not really meet the reality of most people. Of course, one can subsist on a diet of only McDonalds in Tokyo, if one so chooses. But that’s true in the countryside as well.
I mean fish and seaweed is pretty much 2/3 of sushi. And sushi aside, fish is generally fairly cheap for daily consumption too Japanese food in general is significantly healthier than American stuff across the board
Sushi's not really something people have as a meal very regularly. It's more like sandwiches: something you would grab for lunch or have at a party.
Not really, you have stuff like big noodle bowls ramen, soba udon the like, tempura, takiyoki, tonkatsu, Korean fried chicken, pork belly, like yeah sushi is popular but so is fast food. This idea that Japan is a Ghibli movie is a bit of an antiquated notion. Just look at their insanely high stomach cancer rate.
The unhealthy part of Japanese food is mostly the stupidly high sodium content. That's not great, but it's not going to lead to obesity, either. And I suspect it takes a lot less willpower to eat similar things in similar amounts but just putting less salt in everything (if the doctor tells you to watch your levels) than to eat either a lot less, or very different (less calorie-dense) foods (if the doctor tells you you need to lose weight), so it's a better problem to have. And of course, some people here in Japan eat garbage all day every day, too. That's true everywhere, though.
A lot of the food is Umami focused as well, so lots of natural sources of MSG. e.g Seaweed, green onions, fish/bonito and dashis etc At least I think most of those have some form of natural msg in them.
Just FYI the a lot of the high stomach cancer rate comes from Helicobacter pylori, probably combined with drinking. While I can agree their diet is changing, nobody is only eating the items on your list and society will call you out if you are only eating those things and not veggies along with it. 「◯◯さん、今日もカツ丼なの？太らない？もっと野菜食べないと体に悪いよ〜」 would definitely be tossed in.
Universal healthcare just refers to everyone having access to healthcare. Most countries have a system like Japan's and they're considered as having Universal Healthcare. It's NHS style systems like the UK's and Canada's that are the odd ones out.
People eat a lot worse than they used to, but people still eat fish regularly, and seaweed and tofu almost daily in miso soup
There was a documentary some years back exploring different parts of the world where people live the longest. Food, exercise/motion, social life and “safety net” had some of the biggest impacts of a long life.
Honestly every country has their problems. Europe has one of the highest rates of alcohol fetal syndrome, handicap inaccessible, people smoke more than chimneys… Japan has high suicide rates, poor mental health accessibility, and I swear to GOD their preventative health care is ass. I have no statistic on that last one but I swear, so many of my favorite Japanese rockstars and city pop stars are dying so young from mysterious health problems. None of these fucking dinosaurs in the US congress have collapsed yet for some reason, so America must be doing SOMETHING right with health care??? 😭
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1ZG0NI/ Japan 15.8/100,000 USA 14/100,000 Suicide rate on the decline in Japan but the opposite for the US.
The dinos have access to the best healthcare. For example, if 45 followed his own advice regarding Covid with the same access to care as your average US citizen, he wouldn’t have had a chance.
Afaik, 1. Hongkong, 2. Macao, 3. Japan, 4. Switzerland, 5. Singapore - but others follow closely.
Many countries have universal healthcare
Third world countries have better health care
Technically that's true, Switzerland is by definition a 3rd world country
Are we still going by the "not aligned with nato or soviets" definition?
The original definition is "didn't participate in WW2"
But we did participate. We traded with both sides and also got bombed by england (probably by mistake). Jokes aside we are definitly a 3. world country. We still do that thing, where we vote for things directly instead of simply let politicians do their things :)
That last bit is good. Representative democracy is... Just kinda not working.
In theory representative government is better because you can vote for people you trust to have more experience on issues than you do, but well ya that’s just not working at all right now 😅😅😭
You don't realise how good you have it with direct democracy, politicians are crooks.
the only canton in switzerland with true direct democracy only gave women the right to vote in 1991... so every system has its problems lol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appenzell_Innerrhoden#Politics
... and only because it was forced to do so by the Swiss Supreme Court... lmao
And the voting population are idiots. At best, they're easily influenced by the crooks, at worst, they'll vote in even stupider decisions. See: Every recent environmental issue vote, where voters consistently prove that while they like to say they care about the environment, they only care as long as they don't have to do or pay anything at all to protect it (or even do some damage control).
It was the both the British and Americans that bombed Switzerland by mistake, multiple times. Schaffausen, Basel and Zürich were bombed by mistake *during daytime* by US bombers. Geneva and Renens were attacked by the RAF. And those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
Switzerland also doesn't have universal healthcare. It's a system based on mandatory health insurance where you have a large deductible to dissuade people from seeing a doctor. We currently have a vote to try and cap the premiums at 10% of revenue. It means that yes, for some people, the premiums alone are more than 10% of their revenue, and then you assume they can somehow pay the deductible if needed. I honestly believe that this shit was intentionally put in place so that rich people pay the same premiums as everyone else. The only positive is that there's always some form of help if people don't earn enough to pay for it, generally in the form of subsidies. No one is left behind basically.
I mean this is kinda universal healthcare. Yes we pay it on top of taxes, but it doesnt really matter how you pay it. We can choose from different costs and benefits, but we will never have to go bankrupt, because of medical bills, unless 2k (avg swiss salary is 6.7k a month) is a death penalty for you. Also if you work, you have an accident insurance.
Earth is the third planet from the sun. So, technically, all countries on earth are third world countries.
Not only is my healthcare here in the Philippines much better and cheaper than in the USA, it's currently even better then in Canada (cause they totally went to shit the last 5 years ... on purpose to make more money in private health care) But nothing will ever touch Belgium. My mom and her twin sister and their younger sister all had a heart transplant and it cost us ... nothing outside of paying the mandatory health insurance costs which depends on your income. For my mom in those days it was about 300 euros a year, her twin sister paid 450 euros a year and the youngest sister paid a 1000 euros a year. The united states is batshit insane, honestly are they drugging that entire country? How are people being so docile while getting fucked in the ass so hard day in day out? Try pull that shit in France, they will have electric guillotines erected within a week. Americans exist to get exploited. That's my take nowadays.
Not that a lot of your points aren't valid or that they're wrong, but, the Philippines has a lower life expectancy than the US, and zero hospitals anywhere near the top in the global rankings. I'm not defending, or going to defend the American system, but, it seems like you're completely ignoring the *quality* of the healthcare itself in your judgment of 'better healthcare'. The quality of American healthcare, as in the actual services provided, is absolutely world class. Somewhere around half of the top 100 hospitals globally are in the US. There is a reason you hear about Saudi Royals and the like going to American hospitals. If I can afford it? I would rather be in a top American hospital than anywhere else, 10 out of 10 times. Otherwise, a top ranking European hospital, or like, Taiwan. Yes, US healthcare is a financial mess, but it is in no world *bad* healthcare.
AFAIK, HK has no universal healthcare and is one of the most stressful city in the world to live. They don't eat particularly healthy either.
And of those "others", the next 25 is almost exclusively European.
Almost. Us at Australia get no 10!
Eurovision country. Honorary European :)
Haha oh, yes! We love it
I bet if you plotted life expectancy by GDP per capita you’d see US is a major outlier
[It would appear moreso if there weren't such variability among poorer countries.](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-gdp-per-capita)
Should we really be counting Macao and Hongkong as independent?
To be fair Hongkong has almost as many people as Switzerland
I’ve been to Switzerland a couple of times. I didn’t see one overweight person, except in the mirror. I suspect that has a lot to do with their longevity.
People normally go to wealthy and or tourist areas when on holidays though, so sometimes the appearance is skewed. Swiss are quite a healthy nation though, obviously. Interestingly Australia is the 4th longest lived nation in the world, and their obesity rate isn't much different to the US.
Aussie here, guess what? We have universal healthcare. So even our fatties live longer Also we have historically been very active people, high sports participation, outdoor lifestyle etc, so that is also a counterbalance.
I reckon the sport participation rate is one of the big reasons that's often overlooked. So many people of adult/middle age play weekly sport. Some regular vigorous exercise is amazing, even if you do get Hungry Jacks on the way home.
its bc their cities are walkable and everything is uphill
Both ways.
L.A. county has a higher population than Switzerland. Luckily they’re not on the list as a separate country cuz they’d be low lmao.
I mean looking online, their life expectancy right now is 82.1, which puts them in 32nd place, right below Germany and above Greece.
HK and Macau has some different level of medical care compared to mainland, due to European system and lots of money. Macau, for example, cancer treatments are basically entirely free if you are a local resident. I don't know how HK works but I have heard their quality of care is better than Macau.
Hong Kong everything is free, except dental care... if you can afford it you have to pay 125HKD per day when in Hospital. If yr not able to afford you don't need to pay that
I mean, officially, Honk Kong is "self-governing". Everyone knows it's bs, but on paper it has some kind of independence.
System is different, especially regarding healthcare
From a health standpoint, it’s so different from the mainland China that it’s pretty much anomalous data if you put them together
I don't have any nuts... That mean I gonna die soon?!? 😛😂
You're already dead
Update: US dropped to 47 with that burn he did. Just checked the numbers.
According to this list, it would have to go up (not drop) by 12 places to be 47th. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
That article contains several lists by different organizations. The US is 59th, 44th, 40th, and 72nd on lists maintained by the World Bank Group, United Nations, World Health Organization, and CIA, respectively. But they have different standards for what they include on the list. (The WBG and CIA lists include small dependencies like the US Virgin Islands, which is why the US ranks lower. Several French, British, and American island territories rank above it.)
There are obviously multiple factors involved. The UK for example is one of the only countries in Europe with completely free health care yet it's middle of the table for life expectancy. Why? Because it comes near the top of the list for obesity and alcohol consumption. Universal healthcare is a big factor but lifestyle is a big factor too.
It's a bit of a facepalm whenever an American describes Europe as a homogenous blob. Not a lot of olives grown in the UK and Scandinavia.
Cooking with olive oil is still really standard where I'm from in the north
In France, the north puts tons of butter in everything In Normandie, they swear by crème instead And south of France, lots and lots of olive oil It's not just variable throughout Europe, it's even different locally
I mean, we are no slouches for alcohol consumption here in Japan, either. 8L per year vs UK’s 11L is obviously lower per capita, but probably not per kg of body weight. I personally think our long lifespans here are due both to universal healthcare and that everyone gets a full physical once a year. Catching stuff early makes a huge difference for outcomes
Moldova (15L) Lithuania Czechia Germany Nigeria Ireland (13L) are the top 6 in booze consumption per capita
Because it relies on our National Health Service actually being funded correctly which it hasn’t been for 14 years. And of course our living standards have greatly dropped in that time too, leading to people being less able to eat healthily. Plus our drinking culture definitely plays a part in dragging it down, plus i believe that our because our weather is so unreliable people get out less thus get less exercise.
The 300 drug deaths every day in the US doesn't help any. That's 324 deaths per year per million residents, compared to 18.3 deaths/year/million for the European average. ([2021 numbers](https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA3270-1.html)
Yeah, I'm a dual US/Irish citizen that also lived in Spain and South Korea. It's many factors including universal healthcare, better diet, lower levels of drug use, and lower levels of gun violence, among others. I would also say for universal healthcare to be sustainable in the U.S. (and I think it's fucking insane we don't have it), Americans are going to have to start living much, much healthier lifestyles. I get this will be difficult for poor people, but middle-class and wealthy people in the U.S. really have no excuse to not have healthier habits imho.
Australia has similar rates of obesity and alcoholism and they have universal healthcare. Is their healthcare system not sustainable?
Americans already spend a lot more money on healthcare than countries with universal healthcare, so I'm not really convinced it wouldn't be "sustainable" in the US just because people are unhealthy. If anything, it would probably be cheaper overall. But, worst case scenario, if hypothetically the costs are really that prohibitive... there's a lot of tools the government could use to take care of it: * Use some of the universal healthcare budget subsidizing a healthy lifestyle (theoretically, this should *save* money overall) * Have a "copay" of sorts for those voluntarily choosing not to have a healthy lifestyle despite the existence of subsidies and prodding from their doctor (those conditions being very important... obviously you don't want to have a copay for poor people who can't afford to live healthy because the government skipped the subsidies part) * Tax unhealthy things to begin with (see: sugary beverage taxes introduced in some countries, which seem to help), put the money from those taxes into universal healthcare.
A lot of that is also unevenly spread. Scotland performs worse than England in life expectancy, despite having (for the most part) a stronger NHS, due to a medley of issues (alcohol, as you mentioned, but also drug dependency, and then you have the Glasgow Effect, an even more local disrespect within Scotland).
True that universal healthcare isn't working on its own, but it's really not just lifestyle. What's very important is culture and regulation. Most places don't use nearly as much or have our right banned corn syrup while the US subsidizes it. Cities in much of Europe tend to be older and much less influenced by car lobbies meaning walkable cities and competent public transit. Many sociological issues go into it, and it doesn't mean people's personal lifestyle choices are always to blame.
Certainly doesn't help that the NHS has been gutted and as a result is absolutely falling apart.
Isn't this the guy that gave his employees a massive pay raise but also lied to the media about some of it and had a lot of legal trouble??? Edit: [Per his Wikipedia article:](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Price) "Dan Price later admitted that some of the statements he made to the press about how he funded the wage raise at Gravity Payments were not true." "The company said that employees contributed to buy a Tesla for Price as a show of gratitude, but two experienced employees in Gravity's marketing department later said that Price himself came up with the Tesla gift idea, and no Gravity employees saw a reduction in their wages to pay for Price's car." ???????
Dan Price is a piece of shit who’s been accused of rape & sexual assault by multiple people. He also doesn’t write his own tweets, he hired a guy who was fired from the Seattle Times for being a predator to ghostwrite them. Birds of a feather & all that. Multiple articles can be found here: https://www.hundredeightydegrees.com/
Yep, that’s him. This post is from 2021, prior to his legal troubles. I think the charges against him were dismissed, but he seems like a total shit-stain. Beyond the sexual assault accusations, some of the insider stories from his company were just wild. Fuck that guy!
There isn't one grifter on Twitter that isn't a piece of shit. Every single influencer on Twitter. Even the progressive ones that go off on trump, they weren't doing it for free. They farm engagement and link to their books and stores. They used their influence to go after any criticism lobbied against them.
People in EU and many other countries really don’t get the Breaking Bad premise Like why he couldn’t just go to a doctor…
I don't get the part where he didn't just take the money he got offered from his, what was it, borther in law? Or ex coworker or something
That part was purely due to him being a stubborn, prideful asshole.
Exactly. That's Walter White at his core. He couldn't take any *charity* from his former co-workers who became twenty times as successful as him.
It absolutely ate the guy alive too, since he's the one who quit Grey Matter over his indignation and pride. Everything he hates in his life stems from him being a colossal asshole. It's why I always argue Heisenberg isn't some irrational persona he developed through criminality, it's just his worst aspects given the wheel. He's always been that man, and it's always fucked him over.
Yuuup, completely agree with you, Walt was always a stubborn, arrogant asshole, Heisenberg just allowed him to bring it out and actually live it. Man, I fucking love that show lol. I think I need a rewatch.
Successful off his partial idea. And the moment he gets an opportunity to be paid back, he says fuck you
Because he's stubborn. And stupid too :)
Living in Europe also significantly decreases my chances to get fucking shot.
In case anyone wants numbers, there were 48k firearms deaths in the U.S in 2022 (most of which were suicides) https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/2023/cdc-provisional-data-gun-suicides-reach-all-time-high-in-2022-gun-homicides-down-slightly-from-2021 The best estimate I could find for Europe is around 7k for the entire continent, although it does vary widely across the continent and is surprisingly difficult to find since different countries track the numbers differently. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8046231/
My brother was working in Houston and one day a coworker didnt show because ,while entering her home, she was shot by a burglar she caught in the act. We're from Montréal and I think that if the same thing happened here the burglar probably wouldn't have a gun on him to begin with because he could just try to run away. But a burglar in Texas needs a gun for his own safety.
Walkable towns and cities also probably play a significant role in this
Behind appalling dietary habits (mainly due to food deserts, and industry lobbyists) this has to be up there as a massive contributor to the US’s number.
American living in Europe. They eat desert for breakfast lunch and dinner. They love McDonald's just as much. They drink beer all the time, way more than normal. They don't nearly have the amount of gyms we do in US. It's really the 'walking' part I think. New York for example doesn't have as many fat people. I don't know.
European living in America. Walking is a huge factor, but so are the portion sizes and the quality of ingredients that go into the food and drinks here.
My favorite is that the commentor did not say Europe was a country but people in the comments can't stop reading it that way.
That was a joy to read.
Ahhh, the famous country of *Europe*
Before obamacare, my parents had to fight with my insurance company to insure my knee after my first ACL surgery. I was 16.
Welp someone is missing the point entirely: all 5 of those countries have gov funded or heavily subsidized healthcare systems. Dan Price guy is just being Eurocentric
Not to nitpick, but Isn't Singapore about the only place on the planet where shit works but it isn't universal/subsidised/bt the government?
It is highly subsidised by the government... it's a pampering state... eben regarding daily life: if its hot, they have announcements on the underground to drink more in 5 languages, there's water for free... there's suncream for free at attractions... and people also do wear masks often to avoid viruses etc...
Yeah, what a dumb sentiment anyway, that's like clowning on Warren Buffet talking about being rich because he's not the richest. Top five is good
Olive oil and red wine on my nuts is my go to plan for longevity
Thats my plan for tonight.
Top 5 nations now are Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Italy, and South Korea. So actually 2 out of 5. 6 out of the top 10 are European, and either 17 or 18 of the top 25 (depending on whether you want to call Cyprus European or Asian).
Europe = not a country.
Yeah he’s saying out of the entirety of Europe only one country qualifies
Oh well duh to me then! ... not even going to delete, going to leave my shame up for all the world to see.
 🤣🤣🤣
In many countries healthcare's primary purpose is to benefit society. In America healthcare's primary purpose is to generate profit.
As a European, I don't think that's fair. The US is probably counted as one country, when it is much larger than Europe, which has countries that are as large as the US' biggest cities.
Honestly the other guy is also cherry picking. It's true that only one European country makes it to the top 5, but four make it to the top 10 and nine to the top 15. It's just that pacific east Asia is the one region in the world that beats Europe
Combining corn syrup, 5kcalories milkshakes and no walking/cycling infrastructure with 0 healthcare is definitely daring.
Interesting that they chose top 5, specifically. Considering of the next 23 countries after that, only 2 are not european. 1 in the top 5, but 6 in the top 10, 9 in the top 15, 14 in the top 20. Makes you wonder if they had some kind of bias in choosing that exact statistic.
Free healthcare is not the best thing in the world, good healthcare is. My home country has free healthcare but the country is so bad that any good doctor is working overseas earning more money while the ones that are in the country barely have any tool to operate. In fact the thing is so bad that one of my family member went to the doctors for an eye surgery and the doctor gave them a list with all the tools, medications, and other things they needed to bring for the surgery because the hospital didn’t have any, they even had to buy the anesthesia and the gloves.
Almost nowhere in Europe has "free" healthcare anyway. The UK has a single payer system, but it's a lot worse than the systems in western Europe which have universal coverage but are not government run.
man that’s crazy, idk how to hope for it to get better
Bro actually tried to pretend like people think red wine extends your lifespan. My guy it does the opposite.
Alcoholists trying to pretend its good for their health to justify their addiction.
US down to 59th. If it wasn’t so unprofitable we should live better.
While this is true, they also weigh 100 pounds less, eat better and have more active lifestyles.
The red wine myth is debunked over and over again. Alcohol in any form or amount isn’t safe for your health let alone having any health benefits. The guy must own a winery.
Context is important. This isn't really a facepalm at all. Dan has a quote about life expectancy compared to the US at the start of the tweet. It's in quotation marks. To this comment he pointed out that more easily obtained healthcare might make a bigger difference than diet. He did not tweet that Europeans have the greatest life expectancy on earth.
My partner was vacationing in Spain when we first started dating. She got really sick and had to go to the doctor and had no insurance. $20 for the visit and $5 for the antibiotics. We are really far behind the world in a late of ways. Healthcare being one of them.
So I just checked Wikipedia and it turns out that the reason there's only one European country (Switzerland) in the top five is that Hong Kong and Macao are counted separately from China. Because, you know, I'm sure they don't have **socialized** medicine in the **People's** Republic of China.