Life expectancy in the U.S. drops

Is this what MAGA means?
Trump says we have the best economy EVER.
But if things are so good, why are so many people dying?

Life expectancy in the United States has declined for a second year in a row, driven in large part because increasing numbers of Americans are dying from drug overdoses, suicides and chronic liver disease, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It’s the first time in decades that U.S. life expectancy has fallen for two straight years. Final life expectancy data for 2017 is not yet available, but preliminary figures released last May by the CDC suggest that the downward trajectory of the past two years is continuing.

A major factor behind that disturbing trend is the rising death rate for young adults between the ages of 15 and 44, which climbed by about 5 percent each year between 2013 and 2016.

It's really, really hard to believe that America is being made Great Again while Americans are dying at an accelerating rate at the same time.
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Nearly half of all renters are cost-burdened, and the trend is getting worse.

“The index of housing affordability has worsened substantially since the start of the year,” says David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

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The U.S. poverty rate in 2016 was between 12.7 and 14.0 percent, depending on how you measure it.
But there is more to poverty than just lack of income.

The United Nations describes America as a nation near the bottom of the developed world in safety net support and economic mobility, with the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world, the world’s highest incarceration rate, and the highest obesity levels.
...
Part of the definition of poverty is "the state of being inferior in quality." The extreme level of inequality in the U.S. is battering the poor with a sense of inferiority. It's ripping apart once-interdependent communities, and it's triggering a surge in drug and alcohol and suicide "deaths of despair."

I can't stress enough that this is happening before the crash hits. What will people do when things start to REALLY implode?

According to CareerBuilder, 3 out of 4 American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, unable to meet any major expense in health care or home and auto repairs. Charles Schwab says 3 out of 5 Americans live paycheck to paycheck. That's 60 to 75 percent of us.

The United Way ALICE Project has calculated that 43% of U.S. households can't afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone. The Federal Reserve concurs, estimating that 42% of U.S. adults are experiencing a high likelihood of material hardship.

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2013 - 2016 was on Obama's watch. Expct things to really get bad soon.

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On to Biden since 1973

The Aspie Corner's picture

@doh1304 to help the situation.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner
by kicking poor people off of Medicaid and food stamps.

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edg's picture

@The Aspie Corner

But in the interest of accuracy, we at c99 should stick to the facts, one of which is that data is only available through 2016, the last year of Obama's presidency, and the slope started its downward trend in 2013, the 2nd year of Obama's 2nd term.

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@edg

Final life expectancy data for 2017 is not yet available, but preliminary figures released last May by the CDC suggest that the downward trajectory of the past two years is continuing.
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edg's picture

@gjohnsit

Your first 3 sentences lay much more than that at Trump's feet. Why are you defending your misleading characterization of the data? Why did 5 people like your comment? Ya know, sometimes the cliquishness and sycophancy here is really annoying. I generally like your essays and appreciate your contribution but it really sucks that you don't admit mistakes and that people slavishly support you even when you're wrong.

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@edg
I'm so deep in the Deep State that QAnon wishes he had my connections.

You've seen through my disguise Edg.
You'll regret foiling my evil plans.
You will soon by visited by men in dark sunglasses. Don't resist.

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dervish's picture

@edg that a mistake was made.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

@dervish
to edg that it wasn't just life expectancy.
It was also housing affordability, wages, poverty rate, debt levels, etc.

But why bother to argue?
I've got more important things to do with my time.

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wendy davis's picture

@edg

things were so Aces for the rabble under Obomba.

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From Australians living longer but life expectancy dips in US and UK

Australians are outliving their British and American cousins.

A study of how long men and women are living in 18 wealthy countries has found that life expectancy is on the rise in Australia but declining in Britain, the United States and several other nations.

Australian women had a life expectancy of 85.5 years in 2016, while for men it was 81.5 years, the study by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Southern California found.

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WoodsDweller's picture

Life expectancy dropped in the Soviet Union during and after its collapse. Our American society is in serious decline. I would argue that it has been since 72, in any case for some time. We are already compromised in our ability to deal with extraordinary challenges, such as climate change.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Lily O Lady's picture

the red wine the French drink during their two hour lunches, but instead the lunches themselves as well as less time spent in cars than those of us in the US. Our pressurized lifestyle is resulting in more frantic, desperate behavior. Chris Hedges Truthdig article, “American Anomie” explores the disintegration of the American psyche. I’m no good at links on my tablet, but you can find Hedges piece at Truthdig.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady Not to mention the French health care system, paid vacations, pensions and the ability to marshal the gumption to go on strike when the PTB piss them off.

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dervish's picture

@Lily O Lady You can find it here.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Well THAT'S a twist.

My first guess would be that "whites"* are being dragged down by the Southeast, where canned-pig-brains-in-milk-gravy is something you can buy in grocery stores without a prescription from Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

* = A term that, along with its counterpart, we ought to stop using, given the recent groundbreaking discovery by Nobel-nominated kindergartenese crayonologists that what had long been agreed upon as "black" was, in fact, "brown". Not that it wouldn't be cool, but there is no such thing as a human chess piece.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat now you're talking

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@QMS I might have a hard time resisting..

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