Why Is America Such a Deadly Place?

Lancet pretends to be scientific but is a political tool.

 

So much negativity.......Hey we are the most powerful nation in the world, we are also in the top 15 on the happiness index, we are #8 on the wealthiest per capita list.

I'd much rather be rich, powerful and happy. Hell I made this very decision 50 or so years ago. I eat what I want, I was a 50 year smoker before my recent illness. To hell with health if I am not going to enjoy life. I've got 73 years of enjoying life behind me, I wouldn't trade that for 100 years of miserable healthy living.

 

it’s footnote 11 in the live link of the op. Here is FN 11

https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)32545-9/fulltext

 

I wonder where America ranks in opportunity?

 

Dude
As we are repeatedly reminded by certain posters …this is clearly a crap hole country…

 

When did the left become the new John Birchers ?

 

Ranked 15th happiest here….
Ranked: The 20 Happiest Countries In The World In 2023

19th here…
Happiest Countries in the World 2023

16th here….
Happiest Countries in the World 2023 - Wisevoter

And for wealth need to also factor in purchasing power.
With that consideration we’re ranked 14th here….
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/real-gdp-per-capita/country-comparison/

9th here….
Countries with the largest GDP per capita at PPP | Statista

 

Happiness is subjective. What makes one happy is another's nightmare and so on. To a large degree, happiness matters not upon where an individual lives, but how an individual interprets events around them. Happiness isn't a statistic.

 

thanks for posting the op. I try to read what people post on topics that interest me. This was a good topic.

 

Happiness can be measured. It's a subjective measure but it can be put into statistics. All feelings can.

By the way, to an earlier comment you made, there's this fascinating website--Opportunity Insights (run by researchers at Hahvud) though not about ranking opportunity between countries, but nonetheless a great source of research on opportunity and social mobility. Some number of years ago, one of their studies likened opportunity in several regions of the US as basically akin to third world countries and that opportunity in the US has been stagnant.

 

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln

 

Agree its a quirky item to index. However there is a relationship between income/wealth and happiness up to a point. Can one afford food, housing, medical care, employment -need multiple jobs, etc for their family. But after a point just adding more and more wealth brings diminishing happiness returns.

 

US products contain high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar because of a concerted marketing effort of the US Feed Grains Counsel, a nonprofit industry group closely supported by the US government, whose purpose is to open markets and outlets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products.

 

If you look at the causes of deaths in this country, a lot of them are related to how we live our lives, and take care of our bodies.

Number of deaths for leading causes of death

• Heart disease: 695,547
• Cancer: 605,213
• COVID-19: 416,893
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 224,935
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,890
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,342
• Alzheimer’s disease: 119,399
• Diabetes: 103,294
• Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis : 56,585
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 54,358

FastStats

We are the 10th most overweight country in the world, however, I bet most of those ahead of us do a lot more exercising.

1. Nauru – 61%
2. Palau – 55.3%
3. Marshall Islands – 52.9%
4. Tuvalu – 51.6%
5. Tonga – 48.2%
6. Samoa – 47.3%
7. Kiribati – 46%
8. Federated States of Micronesia – 45.8%
9. Kuwait – 37.9%
10. United States of America – 36.2%

 

Legalized Marijuana Linked to Decline in Opioid Emergencies (upmc.com)

Legalizing Marijuana Decreases Fatal Opiate Overdoses, Study Shows - DrugAbuse.com

 

Not that I am arguing the top ten list here. But who?

 

Europeans walk a lot more, at least in the major metropolitan areas