How Long Are You Going to Live?

A couple weeks ago, John had a great Vlogbrothers video on racism. It was fantastic, and I assume all of you already watched, but if you didn't, you should. One of the things he mentioned is that differences in life expectancy can be evidence of potential differences in how people of different races are treated.


John Green -- Executive Producer
Stan Muller -- Director, Producer
Aaron Carroll -- Writer
Mark Olsen -- Graphics

[yuri.tkachenko]

I don’t care how long I live. All I want is for my parents and grandparents to live longer

[JosephBeckWW]

Dr. Carol, I usually agree with you, and this video is no different. I just wanted to thank  you for continuing to make videos based on data, not on pathos. People with preconceptions will always throw insults and what not in the comments, but I for one appreciate what you're doing. I trust your reporting and I really hope you keep doing it.

[ptarleton]

The premise of this show: be the opposite of Dr. Oz.

[KnightRaymund]

In Canada our stupid government recently increase the retirement age for Old Age Security to 67 cause people are living longer, making it more sustainable, yadda yadda. Which is idiotic. Who needs that money the most? The poor. Who live the shortest lives? The poor. I'm pretty sure the old age security amount isn't fully clawed back until you make more than like 120k a year or something like that. So rather than lower that curve or something they bumped up the age. Rather than hurt the richer people who don't need it, he hurts the poor who do.

[DanThePropMan]

If you mention another video in one of yours, it would be good to include a link in the description box, or even better, a clickable annotation.

[augustorvz]

The main question is that how long can we live in good health. Who cares the life at age 86 if you are already blind and deaf??

[josearellano]

The reason for the life expectancy not going up so much in the United States as in other developed countries is obesity. We have more fake food, sugar, plant based and going sedentary than before. We all have the means to increase our life expectancy, in being happy and optimistic, having more animal food to eat, being in pleasure to do thIngs and abstaining from smoking and alcohol. I do wish to live to be 120, in being able to do so much. I'm 32 right now. And I'm Hispanic, which is with a higher life expectancy than the United States national average.

[Lee-ish]

I intended to live for ever, so far so good

[lynn]

My question to anyone...why does a person WANT to live beyond ( ex. 80 yrs.). SERIOUSLY...even if you have family that certainly do not mean that said family members are going to help you.

[steveh]

These are all really good points Dr. Carroll makes. One way of looking at Life Expectancy at age 65, when comparing the US to other countries, is that there doesn't seem to be much of an overall difference. But that's not taking into account the tremendous resources we spend on health care. We spend far, far more on health care and even after age 65, we don't seem to be getting more or healthier life out of it.

[cuddlebear]

I'm black and my grandmother is over a hundred. only god knows when my journey ends.

[SyntekkTeam]

I'm sure the video is easy enough to find but for the sake of us who haven't seen John's video could you put a link in the description?

[jondstewart]

Life expectancy is so rated wrong! My uncle died at 78 from cancer, long time smoker and drinker and many family members thought he died young, yet his wife, a longtime non smoker and non drinker died 4 years later at 82 and nobody thought she died early. It seems that 80 is the magic age to live a long life.

[michaelsjoquist]

im glad you covered this. Theres a whole documentary series called Unnatural Causes that talks about just this. Im currently taking a sociology class in health disparties so this topic has been of great interest to me as of late. Environment, Socioeconomic status, and education are huge determiners of health and i dont think many people realize it (I know i certainly didnt until i enrolled in the class).

[TheNoobSensei]

I'd be careful how you interpret the fact that high school dropouts aren't living as long as they did in 1990. This isn't necessarily a sign that things are getting worse for that group. Since overall education levels have increased, it's possible that economically better-off people who would have dropped out in 1990 were actually finishing high school by 2008, thus leaving the overall cohort of high school dropouts with the poorest of the poor.

The same is true of the map. Maybe the wealthier, better-educated people in the Deep South and Appalachia were simply more likely to leave that region between 1990 and 2008 and head for better opportunities elsewhere. If this is the case, then it wouldn't actually mean health outcomes are getting worse for individual poor people. It would just mean that the category of "high school dropouts" or "residents of Appalachia" tends to be comprised of poorer people than it was in 1990.

[qwikstep]

Super interesting! PLEEEEAASE KEEP MAKING THESE!

[GachaKittyOG]

1.pregnant
2. Baby
3.toddler
4.kid
5.big child
6.teenage
7.young mid old adult
8. old person
9.older person
10. Die

[fiachraduffy]

I find it fascinating that the map at 6:19 - red where life expectancy fell and blue where the life expectancy rose - has a strong correlation to maps of republican states vs democratic states..red and blue.

[jnzkngs]

This is is just personal responsibility. When people grow up being told that their less than average lot in life is the fault of someone other than their parents and themselves they stop trying to better themselves because they are told they can't do anything about it. If that's your future why wouldn't you binge yourself on junk foods and fried grease? If you are told every full time employer is just trying to suck the live out of you why would you get a full time job that provides insurance? Why would you try at all if you live in a country where you can't starve?

[Mozza]

I think the chart at 5:20 may be flawed. Does it control for socio economic status somehow? If not the <12y education group should be shrinking in size, and the smaller size in 2008 is likely to have a lower average socio economic status. In other words, this downward trend may be related to people becoming more educated, leaving the ones left in <12 representing only those who are most disadvantaged, who had a lower life expectancy already. It doesn't mean life expectancy has gone down for any individual.