[lbo-talk] NYers living longer than other Americans - who knew?

[Carrol Cox]

What needs to be calculated (and I think but am not sure it can be) is
not life expectancy at birth, which is what this study gives, but life
expectancy at various ages -- e.g., at 35, at 50, at 65. It's been a
long time since I read anything on this, but if I remember correctly,
someone in the '60s or '70s calculated that the gain in life expectancy
from 1900 to 1960 came almost entirely from reduction in infant
mortality. That is, a 60-year old male in 1895 had about the same life
expectancy as a 60-year old male in 1970. And there is a problem at the
other end -- people being kept alive 'past death' as it were in nursery
homes. Without that kind of care, seriously disabled or demented persons
die from bed sores.

Carrol