Life Expectancy Hits 78; Good Or Bad News?
Americans can now expect to live about 28,470 days as long as they’re white and male now. If you’re female, you get to live longer; if you’re black, shorter.
The improvement was led by a drop in deaths from heart disease and stroke — two of the nation’s leading killers, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the new life expectancy report Wednesday.
My question is: is this a good or bad thing? Logic says “definitely a good thing! Let’s all live to be 100!” So let’s take a look at it.
The Good:
- Living longer and healthier.
- Americans seem to be making progress in health care and medicine.
- Quality of life is probably improved as well.
- As one book says, if we live long enough, we can live long enough to experience technology that prolongs our lives even more.
The Bad:
- We’re already going to have to take up the tab for Baby Boomers’ Social Security. Now that everyone’s living longer, we’re going to pay Beatles-level taxes just to keep up.
- More people living that long just means more old people. Do we really need more old people? This doesn’t apply to old people you or I know.
What’s your opinion?
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