Get Rich, Live Longer: The Ultimate Consequence of Income Inequality

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/more-money-more-life-the-depressing-reality-of-inequality-in-america/360895/

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Brookings economist Barry Bosworth crunches the data on income and lifespans for the Wall Street Journal, and the numbers tell three clear stories.

1. Rich people live longer.

2. Richer people's lifespans are growing at a faster rate.

3. The problem is worse for women than for men.

First, let's look at the guys. A rich man (top decile) born in 1940 can expect to live 10 years longer after he turns 55 than a poor man (bottom decile). That longevity gap grew by four years in one generation.



Women live longer than men, overall. But their inequality gap getting worse. A rich woman at 55 can expect to live a decade longer than a poor woman, too. But this gap grew even more between the Silent and early Boomer generations, by six years.

[CFLDem]

1. Living longer may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Especially if one develops a degenerative disease.



Anything over 80 is a good long life to me.

[yeoman6987]

2. I agree

I always wondered about these folks who want to live forever. I would not want to live in an elderly care facility sitting in a wheel chair not knowing what was going on due to dementia or worse. Sorry but that is not living to me.

[MillennialDem]

7. No one wants to live forever if it means living a very unhealthy life forever. There are people who

are old geezers at 60 and there are those who are still relatively young in mind and body at 85 though!

I'm not sure I want to live forever but give me a couple thousand years to think about it. I'm signed up for cryonics. I have no misconceptions about whether it will work or not, just hope that when I do lose consciousness I instantly wake up in the future healthy. If I don't, well I'm dead anyway.

[pipoman]

3. It is about diagnostic physicals

My insurance will pay for a physical every year. I get weighed, a 13 point blood test, visual examination, prostate check, and that's about it.

The wealthy are often self pay. Their physical takes 5 days over a 2 week period. They have full body CT scan, annual or biannual PET scan, diagnostic test after test. Thousands of dollars worth of extensive tests I can't get unless I have symptoms or can self pay.

If I have pancreatic cancer my physical will not reveal it unless it is pretty advanced. ..probably I will be experiencing symptoms. ..by that time it's too late for effective treatment. A wealthy person's physical is more likely to catch it very early while there are still effective treatment options.

How many times have we heard this wealthy person was diagnosed with this disease or that, but the good news is we caught it early and should be able to treat it? It is often caught early because of tests not available to most people without symptoms to justify the cost of the test...

[Jgarrick]

4. I was diagnosed with stage III kidney cancer two years ago when my annual physical revealed it.

Kidney cancer often has no symptoms until it's very advanced, and this was the case for me as well... I didn't have the slightest clue until the doctor gave me a call two days later.

Had I not gotten annual physicals it would've killed me.

[pipoman]

5. I'mnnot saying that the physicals we are allowed by

Our insurance or that are within self pay ability aren't going to save lives, or are a waste of time. Image the example of pancreatic cancer given. Now consider the probability of a physical encompassing 5 days discovering something your 1 hour physical couldn't. ..

[Jgarrick]

6. I don't disagree with your larger point.

I was just pointing out that even "regular" physicals are enormously useful. Much more extensive physical such as you describe would be even better, granted...but the vast majority of us will never be able to afford them.

Being rich does have its perks...always has, always will.

[PasadenaTrudy]

8. My sister

died of pancreatic cancer. It was discovered at stage 5 and she died a month later. Only good think was, she went fast. She was feeling pretty good up until two months before the discovery. She even did a good 18 mile run. She was 62. Personally, I don't want to go past 75 or 80. Too much deterioration at that point...

[pipoman]

10. my sister died of it a year and a half ago.

The reason pancreatic cancer is almost always a death sentence isn't because it's untreatable, it's because early diagnosis requires expensive diagnostic tests not allowed by most insurance without symptoms to justify it. By the time the symptoms occur, it is usually untreatable.

[PasadenaTrudy]

12. So sorry...

My sis died in 2010, and I'm just barely feeling myself again. She wasted away so fast. By the time it was discovered, it had spread everywhere. I was so angry at Kaiser for not testing earlier. But, she really did feel okay up until the last few months.

[yeoman6987]

9. True but not everyone rich is ok

For example, for all the money in the World it did not save Patrick Swazy. Second and worse is Linda McCartney....this woman gave up meat to stay healthy (and to preserve animals) but she deprived herself of steaks and worked out etc, but still with all the money in the World, ended up dying much younger than the average.

[pipoman]

11. Nobody lives forever

As the op clearly shows. This is about statistical probability of longer life with wealth. My point is that one glaring reason for that is the health care system. See post 5.

[daleo]

13. Health care policies are important, obviously

But this trend is also seen in countries with excellent public health care. Researchers are still trying to tease out all the factors involved.

Statistically speaking, the rich in the U.S. Don't live as long as the rich in more egalitarian societies. It seems like living in a society with high levels of inequality is hard on everyone, possibly due to the constant low level stress entailed in all social relations in unequal societies.