The Rich Live Longer Everywhere. For the Poor, Geography Matters.

New York Times ^ | APRIL 11, 2016 | NEIL IRWIN and QUOCTRUNG BUI

[expat_panama]

For poor Americans, the place they call home can be a matter of life or death.

The poor in some cities — big ones like New York and Los Angeles, and also quite a few smaller ones like Birmingham, Ala. — live nearly as long as their middle-class neighbors or have seen rising life expectancy in the 21st century. But in some other parts of the country, adults with the lowest incomes die on average as young as people in much poorer nations like Rwanda, and their life spans are getting shorter.

In those differences, documented in sweeping new research, lies an optimistic message: The right mix of steps to improve habits and public health could help people live longer, regardless of how much money they make.

One conclusion from this work, published on Monday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is that the gap in life spans between rich and poor widened from 2001 to 2014. The top 1 percent in income among American men live 15 years longer than the poorest 1 percent; for women, the gap is 10 years. These rich Americans have gained three years of longevity just in this century. They live longer almost without regard to where they live. Poor Americans had very little gain as a whole, with big differences among different places.

 

[expat_panama]

The title on the graphic seems wrong, I count a 12-year advantage. Anyway, these numbers need to be remembered when it comes to retirement planning...

[PeteB570]

I wonder if the statistics include crime?

[PeteB570]

All I could find in the article was drug use.

[Jonty30]

And Western civilization has come as close to achieving the highest possible quality of life for everybody, but our betters would like to blow that up.

[T-Bone Texan]

This article is merely an attempt by the old grey whore to stoke the fires of class warfare, and racial warfare too.

They espouse communism.

[j.argese]

How wrong it is the impoverished should have shorter lives. It would be a better thing they should live longer, impoverished lives.

[PeteB570]

Dang, got a flash back to Scrooge in a Christmas Carol. :)

[Opinionated Blowhard]

You want to help world hunger? Stop sending them food. Don't send them another bite, send them U-Hauls. Send them a guy that says, "You know, we've been coming here giving you food for about 35 years now and we were driving through the desert, and we realized there wouldn't BE world hunger if you people would live where the FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! NOTHING GROWS HERE! NOTHING'S GONNA GROW HERE! Come here, you see this? This is sand. You know what it's gonna be 100 years from now? IT'S GONNA BE SAND!! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! We have deserts in America, we just don't LIVE in them, _______!"

[R Rogers]

If you know a poor person, help him to extend his life. Buy him a bus ticket to New York or Los Angeles. It’s the least you can do.

[Alas Babylon!]

Gee, if they just mandate the minimum wage to say, $250K annually, then all these poor people would live to at least 85 years old!

Do it for the seniors!

[tbw2]

The working class / lower class has seen:
* massive growth in welfare/disability claims, increasing stress, lowering esteem, encouraging bad lifestyle outcomes of drug abuse and obesity
* the illegitimacy rate for poor whites rivals that of blacks, and when the parents aren’t married, the odds of drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide and crime are 2-3 times higher than when parents are married regardless of income; breakdown of the family in this demographic means more ODs, more suicides, more shot by cops

[cherry]

looking at the map, the big difference is about 6-7 yrs....big deal....everyone seems to be seeing 75 and beyond routinely....