japan, the world's most egalitarian society [thanks to gen macarthur], has the highest life expectancy, 82.2
the usa, the world's most unegalitarian society, has life expectancy of only 77.5, and 30th ranking [and falling],
DESPITE SPENDING AS MUCH ON HEALTH AS THE REST OF THE WORLD
[in 1970, when american society was much more equal, it ranked 12th in life expectancy]
i suggest that the high cost of health in the usa is because unlimited fortunes has pushed health providers to pump health prices astronomically
the figures mean that inequality is killing us off 5 years before our egalitarian time, with stress and violence
in the 1970s [at the end of the midcentury 'great compression' of incomes-range], when usa ranked 12th in life expectancy, the top 500 ceo's got 'only' 28x as much as the average - now it is 369x the average - costing every one of 300 million americans 5 years of life, on average - 15 billion years of life
what do we think of this?
2006-11-15
09:48:33
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4 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Economics