It's inflation adjusted wages. As in adjusted for changes in average costs of living. Most people don't spend all their money on TVs. they spend it on food, housing, transportation, clothing and other things that existed in 1973. Furthermore, they adjust the inflation figure to account for changes in the technological utility of things
Judging by Japan's example, a lot more. Though you never really know. It's like trying to predict just how much snow will cause an avalanche. All you can really do is look at it and say 'that looks dangerous.'
Non-discretionary spending is mandatory spending, aka entitlement spending. Implied in the name 'non-discretionary' is that you can't just cut it without major entitlement reform.
The point of the article is that without that entitlement reform it's very hard to balance the budget, even with 100% taxes on the 1%.
So roughly half as much for a continent with over twice the population and 44 sovereign countries? The difference between areas in South Dakota and Colorado is bigger than that between Luxembourg and Moldova
Going by state in the US the difference is 6.3. If you go by all US states and territories it’ll go up to 7.9. The smaller your unit of measurement the greater the range will be. Counties are already prettt ridiculous given that some have populations in the millions and some I’m sure are in the hundreds.
If you want to compare European life expectancies you might be able to do it by Eurostat statistical region but none will have populations in the single digit thousands.
The extreme range in the US is specifically driven by a few counties are either all, or mostly, Native American Reservations with very specific issues around unemployment, alcoholism, etc.
> Native American Reservations with very specific issues around unemployment, alcoholism, etc.
Native Americans typically receive their healthcare from the IHS, which is known for being an absolute disaster. It's not surprising (or news) that life expectancy is much lower for a population which receives its healthcare exclusively through a system which has a track record of neglecting its patients or using them as test subjects without their consent.
Fair enough. Nonetheless I don't think the point of the article is to compare the US to Europe but simply to reflect on the wide range that exists within the US.
You'd need to also do the exact same thing in Europe and look at what kind of spreads exist inside of Europe as well.
Let's see the worst life expectancy areas of Russia for example. You're nearly dipping into the 50s for life expectancy in that case, and you're going to see a 30+ year gap from top to bottom across peak Europe vs the lowest areas. This has recently come to the fore with the Russian Government's move to push the retirement age so low that it nearly clips the average man off of it.
"A stroll around the Zapadnoye Cemetery reveals how few Novgorod men actually make it to old age. It’s easy to find graves of young men who died in accidents, wars or gangster feuds—many with epitaphs such as “came to a tragic end.” For the rest, the typical age of death is around 62. Graves of men who lived beyond 70, however, are pretty hard to find."
