On life expectancy changes...

[LeftishBrit]

I tried to post this in another thread, but the thread was locked by the time I did. I don't think this post is very controversial; the mods can lock it if they like:

The life expectancy of past presidents is not that good an example of how long the rich could expect to live, because a lot of 19th and early 20th century mortality was due to death in childhood. By definition, no president could have died in childhood, so that automatically increases their average life expectancy by quite a lot. It would be more appropriate, as an example of life expectancy in the upper classes, to look at the life expectancy of presidents' children. I have no idea what that was; but for example, Abraham Lincoln had four children of whom only one survived to adulthood.

I suspect that the life expectancy among presidents and other upper-class people has also increased - given that of the last 5 ex-presidents, 2 died at 93 and 2 are still alive and active at the age of 84 (Clinton is still relatively young).

Among the British Royals, Queen Elizabeth is well into her 80s, and her mother famously lived to 101. But 19th and early 20th century monarchs tended to die in their late 60s or early 70s, with exceptions in both directions: Queen Victoria lived to be 81; George VI, the Queen's father, died at 56. Certainly they lived longer than the average for the time, but they seem to be living longer now. Note that the succession crisis that led to bringing the Hanoverians over from Germany in the early 18th century was precipitated by the fact that not only did Queen Anne die at 49, but none of her five children, who survived birth, lived to adulthood.

[Mind_your_head]

1. I really don't "get" what you are driving at. with this post

I believe it is "acknowledged" that one would live longer when given access to the best healthcare available at the time. This would include past presidents, senators & members of the US Congress, and the monarchy of other nations.

What does that mean for "me"? Joe/Jane 'average'.....

Marry well? :shrug:

[LeftishBrit]

2. Sorry - I realize this would be confusing out of context. Here's context

On the other thread, someone said that modern medicines and vaccinations are bad. The reply was made that average life expectancy has increased in America from 45 to 75 in the last 30 years. The first person then said that this is only the case because of poverty in the past, and that better-off people lived longer: e.g. look at the presidents in the 19th century.

My reply was pointing out that (a) even the upper classes live longer now, though the change is not as great as for the rest of the population; (b) the change in all classes is to a large extent based on much greater chance of survival in childhood - which is to quite an extent based on modern medical advances.

Poverty kills. But so does lack of access to modern medicine - and the two often go together.

And what this means for Joe and Jane Average - and their kids -is: "Do not make excuses for depriving people of access to modern medicine on ideological grounds! We should be fighting to make modern medicine accessible to ALL; not fighting against modern medicine."