Posted on 10/28/2016 1:38:48 PM PDT by Smittie
Death awaits all of us, but how patiently? To unlock the mystery of when we’re going to die, start with an actuary.
Members of this 200-year-old profession who study risk and uncertainty pore over the data of death to estimate length of life. Putting aside the spiritual, that’s crucial information for insurance companies and pension plans, and it’s also helpful for planning retirement, since we need our money to last as long we do.
The latest, best guesses for U.S. lifespans come from a study (PDF) released this month by the Society of Actuaries: The average 65-year-old American man should die a few months short of his 86th birthday, while the average 65-year-old woman gets an additional two years, barely missing age 88.
This new data turns out to be a disappointment. Over the past several years, the health of Americans has deteriorated—particularly that of middle-aged non-Hispanic whites. Among the culprits are drug overdoses, suicide, alcohol poisoning, and liver disease, according to a Princeton University study issued in December.
Click on link for entire article.
But somehow, this is supposed to be bad news.
Actuaries are bats, btw.
Not believing. The chart says I won’t make it to 95. My mom is 95. My grandparents live to 100 or close to it. I am in excellent health, and never smoked or drank, am a fitness trainer and eat health. Nah. Not buying it.
Ezekiel Emanuel is pleased.
Actuaries work for insurance companies. Insurance companies have to base their rates on the aggregates. It’s called “The Law of Large Numbers,” and it lets a corporation insuring hundreds of thousands of lives calculate what they need to charge to pay out on the ones who die, plus pay the company’s employees.
They love outliers who live far past the actuarial average, while they don’t like those who die sooner!
My point in my first post, however, was that if we’re looking at aggregates showing more than 20 years’ survival for 65-year-olds, that’s pretty darn good. Thank the vaccinations, antibiotics, anesthesia, joint replacements, cardiac bypass surgery, etc.
I worked with actuaries in a life insurance company. Loony toons! One believed in astrology. One was a Deadhead and supported Hillary Clinton’s health insurance plan. (Does anyone remember HillaryCare now?) One napped in his office except when Extreme Maths were needed.
Dying faster?
How long does it take to die? With cancer I guess one can linger for months, years.
Auto accident? Many die pretty much instantly, others in the golden hour.
Metaphysically thinking, living to a million would mean little if there’s no afterlife.
The concept of extraordinarily long lives has been kicking around mythology and philosophy for a long time. Most treatments end up with, “Please, just let me die!”
As Christians, when we conceptualize “eternal life,” we have to make sure that we don’t come up with “this life, only it goes on endlessly.” That way lies despair.
There are apps that will calculate this for you, based on your age, your current health, and your life choices. Running these apps can be an eye-opener.
However, aggregates *always* have outliers. Even if you calculate, at 65, that your health history plus current lifestyle is going to kill you by 72, you could be wrong.
Your genes are one of the most important things to consider.
GREAT post.
I’m only 48 and have seen enough heartache (and physical ache :) ) to not want to live to 200 or whatever.
I am very happy for the folk that live to over 100 and are happy.
I just dont want to be one of them.
I’m 50 and pretty worn out. Having observed my mother, I know I can tough it out to 80 or so, but if “eternal life” doesn’t offer us something Totally Different, it’s nothing to look forward to.
I believe in something Totally Different.
Me too regarding the last line!!
I hope I’ll see you there, wherever “there” is.
I grew up having three nineteenth century born relatives (two of them lived into the 1980s and I nearly had a fourth with my 1881 born great grandfather living until 1968, two and a half years before I was born). And many of my other relatives who lived in nineteenth century times lived well into the following one (one great great grandmother lived from 1849 to 1947). So genes and lifestyle do play a good bit in all of this.
We’re all going to die early because of political stress. Hillary may die of it today (one can always hope).
If the whiskey don’t kill me, I’ll live ‘til I die.
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