Once again a new report about the life expectancy of the average American. Apparently many of us will live to age 78 and the rest of us killed by car accidents, drunkenness, murder, heart disease and so on and so forth. Of course the media has been quick to point out that while we are living longer than ever, we lag behind a number of countries…

Does this sound familiar?
http://www.thephalanx.com/2007/08/woe-is-melife-expectancy-in-us-lags.html

Look at the statistical difference between America’s 78.2 and France’s 80.7 or the UK’s 79.4, is this earth shattering. How would these stats differ when comparing Americans and Brits or Americans and Frenchmen with similar lifestyles, are we to believe that it is somehow an inherent weakness of are fee market system that so many Americans embrace poor health habits?

Thanks to Wikipedia, we do have the list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy


Is it one’s imagination or does the media actually get a thrill from denigrating the United States or manipulating and distorting the facts at every turn?
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-12-voa35.cfm