Tag: death rates

Icebergs in the midnight sun, Ilulissat, Greenland

Rich people live long lives, and poor people die early.  This pattern has major implications for the costs and progressivity of the Social Security program.  Even if both high and low earners claim at the same age, low earners receive their relatively small benefits for only a few years, while high earners will get larg…

Pile of newspapers

Life expectancy for 65-year-olds in the United States is less than in France, Japan, Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. Fifty years ago, we ranked third. First, some perspective: during that time, the average U.S. life span increased dramatically, from age 79 to 84. The problem is that we haven’t…