Iceland best place to live, Africa worst: UN

Miscellaneous Topics
21

There is no reason (other than diet or lack of exercise) we can’t have a life span like the Japanese currently 5-7 years longer than ours.

Actually, if you had bothered to read the link I gave: other nations do not actually have better health than us.

By the way, you do not have to give up your insolent chariot (and its eight cylinders). Just park it a half mile or a mile from where you work and walk a bit (weather permitting, of course).

Listen, Bob, brass tacks here: I already told you that there are other forms of exercise than walking or biking. And not everybody likes those things as much as you do. I will be doing no such thing as you suggest and whenever I get a physical, the examiner asks me if I am an athlete. And I drive everywhere and eat fatty meats. The key is that I do get really good exercise and I control my caloric intake.

A healthy lifestyle can be achieved in many ways, and while I am sure that your methods work for you, I am saying that they do not work well for most people and it is by no means necessary for most people to live your wacky lifestyle.

I like my ground-shaking, tire-shredding muscle car and I often sing its virtues. But I don’t go around trying to sell it to the general populace. I know that I live an odd lifestyle with it and that most people wouldn’t tolerate it.

By the way, for short trips during the rush-crush, I make better time on my 19th century toy than you do with your insolent chariot.

Yes, maybe you can do that in places that are completely hostile, either by density or insidious design, to the car.

But not in my city, you don’t. I’d like to see you try that in Pheonix, AZ where commutes are 20+ miles each way and temperatures are 120+ degrees. It’s a city built by and for people who like to travel by car and like the suburban lifestyle that it makes possible. Guess what Bob: some folks just don’t like to live like you do. And it is fully possible for them to be healthy with it, too. So how about you just absorb that and stop preaching your personal tastes as if they were some kind of Universal Good?

22

Actually, if you had bothered to read the link I gave: other nations do not actually have better health than us.

Actually the article you linked offered no numbers, merely a vague sentence along the lines of “we have better health care than nearly every other industrialized countries”. While perhaps our health care is not as bad as the UN makes it seem (37th in the word), there are CERTAINLY other countries that have better health than us.

In fact I would bet money that Bob is probably right about Japan having a higher life expectancy than us, regardless of how you tweak the numbers. They simply have a healthier cuisine, while America on the other hand have a 50% obesity rate.

23

While perhaps our health care is not as bad as the UN makes it seem (37th in the word), there are CERTAINLY other countries that have better health than us.

You are correct that my phrasing was less than ideal. As it said, “U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.” This phrasing (“nearly”) means that there is at least one other nation out there with higher life expectancy. However, without knowing more we really can’t say what that means.

However we can say that the statistical lifespan of the Japanese is distorted by non-medical factors and so it is inappropriate to claim, as Bob did, that “There is no reason (other than diet or lack of exercise) we can’t have a life span like the Japanese currently 5-7 years longer than ours.”

So the drive of what I was getting at remains correct, despite the mistake in the technicality of my phrasing.

And furthermore, all this talk of obesity… of what relevance is that to the non-obese?

24

And furthermore, all this talk of obesity… of what relevance is that to the non-obese?

It’s a natural consequence of the kind of collectivist thinking that is required to care about whether it’s better to live in Iceland or Africa. You look at collective statistical trickery about “life expectancy” and being “AIDS-infested”, and in no time you’re on National Average Obesity. The whole nonsense about short lifespan is irrelevant to anyone who’s survived to adulthood.

25

How do you all think we can improve education in the US? People say education in the US isn’t as good as it is in some other countries.

26

How do you all think we can improve education in the US? People say education in the US isn’t as good as it is in some other countries.

I think that question might deserve a thread of its own. Have you tried searching. I’m sure there is some discussion already out there.

27

How do you all think we can improve education in the US? People say education in the US isn’t as good as it is in some other countries.

Education in the U.S is so god-awful that it does deserve it’s own thread.

28

Education in the U.S is so god-awful that it does deserve it’s own thread.

(emphasis added)

Its difficult two disagree when you say it like that. :ninja: