“Think of people you know who have passed away before reaching age 65. Statistically, half of them would still be alive if the US had the mortality rates of our peers. The US is experiencing a crisis of early death that is unique among wealthy nations.”
Let me take a few shots here:
- Guns and gang violence
- Rampant obesity
- High suicide rates thanks to hyper-liberal capitalism
- Horrific healthcare thanks to hyper-liberal capitalism
- Overworked workers thanks to hyper-liberal capitalism, might coincide with suicide
- Environmental desasters not being handled properly (or, god forbid, prevented)
Feel free to add to this list, I’m sure there’s more
- abortions prohobited, even if medically necessary
It’s unfortunate… although… there is a certain age bracket of people who actively vote with the intention of making these problems worse for everyone. One can only hope the problem is self-solving.
- Food standards being a lot lower (as in more dangerous things allowed in foods) than in other developed countries thanks to hyper-liberal capitalism
- higher incarceration rates
- Fewer financial government safety nets
I’m sure those all contribute, but a lack of universal healthcare is almost certainly the biggest issue. Even with most Americans having some kind of health insurance, we are discouraged from seeking care, our system favors treatment of problems over prevention of problems, and we often receive the legal minimum of care instead of the best possible care so that insurance companies can make more money.
Medical issues are by fair the biggest risk, many of which is related to obesity and poor health choices on top of a lack of healthcare. Or it’s just cancer or covid. Suicide might make the top 10 which again relates to a lack of healthcare.
Accidents of any kind make the top 4 or 3 but violence or murder isn’t that high on the list. The subset of gun violence is even smaller. There has been a downward trend in violence for decades now. It doesn’t feel that way with the news but people are generally less likely to be murdered than they were in the past. For a lot of the social issues failures with the economic system and a lack of social programs is the root cause for a lot of things.
Cars, like 20% of child deaths are car related.
Then there’s the indirect deaths caused by chronic lack of exercise, brought on by car dependent suburbs.
Not Just Bikes argues it’s the trucks (ever larger SUVs and light pickups) that are doing a lot of the killing. I saw an interesting diagram recently showing you can see a child out of a main battle tank more closely to the front of the tank, than you can in front of most American pickups and SUVs.
Yeah, there’s a ton of issues with cars and car dependency, especially in the US but also elsewhere and the US are exporting their huge death machines…
