Posted by
Ed Lilly on Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:17:59 PM
Mark Steyn over at National Review Online has an excellent column on the life expectancy / health care topic.
Here's a taste:
“Life expectancy”
is a very crude indicator. Afghanistan has a life expectancy of 43.
Does this mean the geriatric wards of Kandahar are full of Pashtun
Jennifer Lopezes and Julia Robertses? No. What it means is that, if you
manage to survive the country’s
appalling infant mortality rates, you have a sporting chance of eking
out your three-score-and-ten. To say that people in Afghanistan can
expect to live till 43 is a bit like saying the couple at No. 6 Elm
Street are straight and the couple at No. 8 are gay so the entire
street is bisexual.