Category: In the News

A former co-worker posted the above video about healthcare on Facebook, which brought up some discussions I have been having with people.  Many people have been saying Canada’s healthcare is lacking, and according to the video above that seems to be the case.  I think we instantly look to Canada’s healthcare because it is the closest socialized medicine nation to what we could compare ourselves with (besides, they are our friendly neighbors to the north).  Any time someone has talked about Canada’s healthcare, I point them to the list of life expectancy by country on Wikipedia.  The US is #50 and Canada is #8 (see below).  Obviously, healthcare can’t be the only contributing factor, but what other factors can you think of?

Rank by entity	Entity	Overall life expectancy at birth
1	Macau ( China)	84.36
2	Andorra	82.51
3	Japan	82.12
4	Singapore	81.98
5	San Marino	81.97
6	Hong Kong ( China)	81.86
7	Australia	81.63
8	Canada	81.23
9	France (metropolitan)	80.98
10	Sweden	80.86
11	Switzerland	80.85
12	Guernsey	80.77
13	Israel	80.73
14	Iceland	80.67
15	Anguilla	80.65
16	Cayman Islands	80.43
17	Bermuda	80.65
18	New Zealand	80.36
19	Italy	80.2
20	Gibraltar	80.19
21	Monaco	80.09
22	Liechtenstein	80.06
23	Spain	80.05
24	Norway	79.95
25	Jersey	79.75
26	Greece	79.66
27	Austria	79.5
28	Faroe Islands	79.44
29	Malta	79.44
30	Netherlands	79.4
31	Luxembourg	79.33
32	Germany	79.26
33	Belgium	79.22
34	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	79.07
35	U.S. Virgin Islands	79.05
36	United Kingdom	79.01
37	Finland	78.97
38	Jordan	78.87
39	Isle of Man	78.82
40	South Korea	78.72
41	European Union	78.67
42	Puerto Rico ( US)	78.53
43	Bosnia and Herzegovina	78.5
44	Saint Helena	78.44
45	Cyprus	78.33
46	Denmark	78.3
47	Ireland	78.24
48	Portugal	78.21
49	Wallis and Futuna	78.2
50	United States	78.11

She (my former co-worker) pointed to health statistics on BMI which was smart, I never would have thought to do that.  As you will see below, America is an overweight nation.  The US is #1 and Canada is #11, but I don’t think there is too much of a correlation to show that correlation equals causation (my sociology professor would be so proud) here, which is exactly my point.  If our healthcare is so great, and our BMI levels not that far off from other nations with much better life expectancy, why are we #50?

I’m sending this to a Canadian counterpart to get his take on healthcare as well.  I mean, after all, “Canadians strongly support the health system’s public rather than for-profit private basis, and a 2009 poll by Nanos Research found 86.2% of Canadians surveyed supported or strongly supported “public solutions to make our public health care stronger.”^[4][5]

A 2009 Harris/Decima poll found 82% of Canadians preferred their healthcare system to the one in the United States, more than ten times as many as the 8% stating a preference for a US-style health care system for Canada^[6] while a Strategic Counsel survey in 2008 found 91% of Canadians preferring their healthcare system to that of the U.S.^[7][8]. In the same poll, when asked “overall the Canadian health care system was performing very well, fairly well, not very well or not at all?” 70% of Canadians rated their system as working either “well” or “very well” ^[9] A 2003 Gallup poll found only 25% of Americans are either “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with “the availability of affordable healthcare in the nation,” versus 50% of those in the UK and 57% of Canadians. Those “very dissatisfied” made up 44% of Americans, 25% of respondents of Britons, and 17% of Canadians^[10]

In November 2004, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas, Canada’s ‘father of Medicare'”) the Greatest Canadian of all time following a nationwide contest.^[11][12]

I want to open the conversation up to you.  What other data can we look at to show why the US would have a lower life expectancy than our neighbors to the north if not obesity, or healthcare?  If you send data, please site your sources for everyone to benefit from.  Thank you!

Hi everyone, it looks like this post is getting a ton of interest which is great.  I’m getting some good comments on the post and don’t forget to check out the rest of my posts while visiting (come back and visit me at jeremyperson.com).  I was looking at all of my snake postings and found I have quite a few so if you enjoy this one check these out.  @WilliamsJoseph tweeted this out and I thought it was pretty awesome.  Can you imagine running into this thing?

“A massive python named Deliah was moved by Florida wildlife officials to a temporary home after her chain-link cage near Apopka, Fla., was deemed unsuitable on Friday. The 16-year-old python measures 18 feet long and weighs 400 pounds.”  Source: http://news.aol.com/article/400-pound-python-delilah-seized-from

I just finished watching the President’s speech tonight and I liked it.  I think the first part was a little weak but toward the end it had some real substance.  I don’t know if it had much impact in student’s lives overall but I also don’t think it hurt anything either.  I loved the examples at the end regarding failure.  Everyone is going to stumble at one point in their life and you aren’t always going to be good at everything you try.  I think people give up on things too easily.  I had a preacher in Oregon who didn’t teach me much (sorry but you didn’t) but the one thing that did stick is every Sunday he would tell his congregation to “stick and stay and make it pay”.  What he meant by that is you are going to get your feelings hurt at one point or another but if you let others take you away from your true purpose you will lose out on learning and fellowship.

Let’s take a look at America’s education system:

• American 12th graders rank 19th out of 21 industrialized countries in mathematics achievement and 16th out of 21 nations in science. Our advanced physics students rank dead last.
• Since 1983, over 10 million Americans have reached the 12th grade without having learned to read at a basic level. Over 20 million have reached their senior year unable to do basic math. Almost 25 million have reached 12th grade not knowing the essentials of U.S. history.
• In the same period, over six million Americans dropped out of high school altogether. In 1996, 44% of Hispanic immigrants aged 16-24 were not in school and did not hold a diploma.
• In the fourth grade, 77% of children in urban high-poverty schools are reading “below basic” on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
• Average per-pupil spending in U.S. public schools rose 212% from 1960 to 1995 in real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) dollars.
• In 1960, for every U.S. public school teacher there were approximately 26 students enrolled in the schools. In 1995, there were 17.
• The average salary of U.S. public school teachers rose 45% in real dollars from 1960 to 1995.
• In 1996, 64% of high school seniors reported doing less than one hour of homework per night.

My article with sources at the bottom of the page: http://www.freedomworks.org/

My Notes from President Obama’s Speech:

• Unless you show up, education doesn’t mean anything
• Put in the hard work it takes to succeed
• Education is the responsibility they each have
• Everyone has something they are good at and you have responsibility to yourself to find what that is
• You can’t drop out of school and drop into a good job
• Nobody has written your destiny, in America you make your own future
• You won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try
• Some of the most successful people in the world are those who had the most failures
• You can’t let your failures define you, you have to let your failures teach you
• Asking for help isn’t the sign of weakness isn’t a weakness, it is a strength
• Even if people give up on you, don’t ever give up on yourself

Everyone has been super quiet in “commentland” these days, what did you think of the speech?

Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is best known for many revolutionary contributions in the field of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On his birthday last week, Google dedicated a logo to honor his contribution to the world of science.  In reading through the article, I liked a quote from Tesla about Thomas Edison: “If Edison had to find a needle in a haystack, he would proceed with the diligence of a bee to examine straw after straw until he found [it]. I was a sorry witness to such doings…a little theory… would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.”