Re: NYers living longer than other Americans - who knew?
On Aug 17, 2007, at 4:33 PM, Paul wrote:
Thanks to Doug for posting this. The article takes up much of the
same message that the Bloomberg Administration has tried to peddle since
taking office (sadly, since as a private donor Bloomberg had given tangible support to public health).As a reminder, here is a key quote:
In essence, there is a health gap emerging between our massive
metropolis and the rest of the country—some X factor that’s improving our
health in subtle, everyday ways.I know we have all seen this before and despite the source (NY Magaz), somehow I still become aghast at how the well off in America have
moved into self-congratulatory class bubble. They manage not to even
know about the majority - those pushed out or just passed over by the new
economy.New York City has swapped populations to a surprising degree.
It’d be interesting to redo this work with, say, the population of
NYC in 1990 applied to 2005 ACS data. Still, have things changed as
much as you say?
The point of the article is that New Yorkers now live longer than
other Americans. As of 2005, New York was less white than the rest of
the U.S. (44% vs. 75%), twice as black (25% vs. 12%), almost twice as
Latino (28% vs. 15%), and three times as Asian (12% vs. 4%). Our
poverty rate is half again as high (19% vs. 13%). All those things
suggest we should live shorter, not longer, lives than the national
average. We may have swapped pops, but we’re still darker and poorer
than the average.
And we’re less white than in the 1990 census - it was 52% then. The
poverty rate then was 19%, vs. a national of 13% (yeah, the same as
2005). So given that we’re less white and just as poor, why’d we
surpass the U.S. average?
Doug