December 12, 2012

"When you talk about 8.4 million people in New York City living three years longer than they did 10 years ago..."

"... it is just one of the great improvements in life expectancy ever found on the face of the Earth," says Mayor Bloomberg, who is apparently one of the greatest benefactors of humankind ever to emerge in the history of time.
Dr. Tom Farley, the city health commissioner, pointed to declining death rates from heart disease and cancer as primary reasons longevity is increasing.

“The risk factors for those are things we’ve been working on: smoking, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity,” said Farley. “That says that something we’re doing is working.”
See? The nannying worked. Now, shut up. I mean, really, shut up. That's not me saying that, it Mayor Bloomberg, quoted at the link: "People who complain die early, I’ve always thought." So shut up, sip that small soda, skip the doughnuts, and walk briskly and progressively into the new future.

44 comments:

slumber_j said...

I just took a walk--past Bloomberg's house, in fact--as I do most mornings. Then I had a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

rehajm said...

“That says that something we’re doing is working.”

It's not something you're doing- There's survivorship bias in the longevity data.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Ha ha, good thing lefties aren't complainers.

garage mahal said...

Big government knows best for you! Ask GOP governors.

I'm Full of Soup said...

What Erika said.

mishu said...

Nice editing NY Post.

"The longevity of an average New York City woman increased by 3.6 years since 2001, compared to 2.9 years for women."

How does that compare with the female population?

Paul said...

Meanwhile in NYC crime is up, city is going bankrupt, hurricane victims are still without aid, etc...

But Big Gulp is banned and Obamacare will give you the shove to the death pannel!

Gahrie said...

Big government knows best for you! Ask GOP governors

Garage, you are the only person on Earth, including Bloomberg, who considers Bloomberg a GOP governor.

test said...

This is the MO for liberals: pass legislation and then use it to take credit for advances driven by culture and technology. See Title IX for reference, or the "Clinton" economy.

garage mahal said...

Gahrie
Big government knows what's best for you. In that way, Bloomberg is like GOP governors.

MikeR said...

Anyone who takes this seriously is nuts. What does it mean that longevity is up? If you're thirty and just stopped drinking soda, you haven't had time to get to eighty so they can check how long you lived; the comparison was only for ten years. We're taking a tiny slice out of a very big data set. What else changed in the city? Which kind of people moved in, and out? Have there been advances in medical technology that extend life, for neonatals or very old people?

It sounds as if they noticed a small difference (<1%) between the longevity shifts in NYC and the general population, based on who knows how many different random factors, and decided to pretend that they knew why it happened and claim credit. If it had gone down, of course, they would have kept quiet.

Rick67 said...

Bloomberg delenda est.

Figuratively of course.

AF said...

No friggin' way Bloomberg's policies caused this.

Rick67 said...

Bloomberg delenda est.

Figuratively of course.

chickelit said...

What the hell people? Give the man his credit! Just like for Michelle O!

/snark

I'm Full of Soup said...

GOP governors favor big and bigger govt only in Garbage's warped mind.

Tully said...

Makes sense to me. More retired people who couldn't stand the taxes moved out of New York, skewing the figures.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it has something to do with their hatred of babies. NYC has an extremely high abortion rate. If you kill all the sick babies before they are born that would otherwise bring down the life expectancy average then presto the magic math gives you a higher number. Let's find out what that magic number would be if you plug in 19 weeks (or something like that) for all of the babies aborted.

traditionalguy said...

This happened at the peak of new cardiology techniques in medical care and scientific drug research coming on line for AIDS and pneumonia vaccinations.

After Nationalized Obama Health Care has smashed what the last 60 years has accomplished, then all will go into reverse until the visions of Neo-Malthusians calling for an Earth purified of Homo Sapiens refuse are finished.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Now, there's a campaign slogan!

Ask yourself: Are you more alive than you were three years ago?

Anonymous said...

It used to be the oppressive religions that told women to sit down and shut up like good little girls, now it is the religion of government nannies that tell women to sit down and shut up like good little girls. Were women really healthier when they were repressed quiet little sheep? Bah.

Clyde said...

You may not live to be 100 in Nanny Bloomberg's New York, but it sure as hell will feel like it.

Dante said...

"Live free or die."

Also,

That's not me saying that, it Mayor Bloomberg
it is, I assume you meant.

Anonymous said...

Those hipsters don't seem to mind the nannying so much. Maybe being forced to follow a common dream makes them feel closer to the locals in Red Hook.

Anonymous said...

The nanny-State is like a warm blanket while brewing your craft beer, or tending to your rooftop, community garden.

Nomennovum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

A few added years in which to battle that nasty STD you contracted in the big city life.

And what are a few added years anyway when there is no God and any meaning you have in life is utterly self-contructed?

Nomennovum said...

Who cares if Bloomberg's nannyism is responsible for extending the life of New Yorkers? We have the right to live free from government interference over what we eat and drink. It’s really that simple.

Bloomberg is the epitome of Puritanism. He must be from New England.

Anonymous said...

But Quayle, you can join an atheist church.

You can be an artist without really being an artist.

You can double-down on global warming.

You can become a lawyer and move to D.C. and get a gov't job while the gravy train lasts with your parents' money, or you can go for rising tuition and a non-dischargeable loan.

You can read the NY TImes, and believe it!

You can triple-down and believe with all this change comes progress, that the economy's doing great, and politics and liberalism are your friends and engines of change.

Of course, there are other options...but a large part of the culture may be going toward those options.

Drago said...

Biggest single factor in the increased life span stats in NYC due to reductions in deaths from heart disease and cancer?

The % of retired NYC residents who move south to the sun belt and who then experience their "getting near to the end of their lives" conditions in places other than NYC.

I would need to see the demographic breakdown comparison from the baseline year to the current year as well as all the variables examined in the study to determine if the study was even close to being "legit".

This is probably an apples to oranges comparison.

Anonymous said...

Or you can get on board with nanny-statism, because there are rational plans, and 'experts' who know better than you do what's best for you.

Biff said...

A three year change in life expectancy in the span of a decade? To just about anyone with public health experience or a statistics background, that screams one of the following:

1) War, or the end of war, or comparable consequences of a disaster
2) Massive demographic change (e.g. the people who live there today are not the same people who lived there ten years ago)
3) Introducing modern sanitation or medical care to an area where previously there was none at all
4) Statistical anomaly
5) Cooking the books

I figure that three, or maybe four, of those options apply.

Palladian said...

And then, with a self-satisfied smirk, the mayor climbed down off the stack of apple boxes behind his lectern and went home.

edutcher said...

Did they factor in all the transdermal projectile implants?

William said...

Nowadays people routinely--instinctively almost--fasten their seat belts. Smoking is indulged in by only a small, hangdog minority who find the habit burdensome and expensive. Minority teenagers and young adults no longer carry guns as a fashion accessory.....All of these have helped to prolong life. I think on that one last item Bloomberg deserves particular credit. He has really stuck to his guns on the stop and frisk issue......Nagging, including nagging from the Mayor and the first lady, is part of the gestalt and contributes to behavioral changes. It's probably not a decisive factor, but it's a factor.

Skipper said...

At 3 years improvement every decade, I plan on living until 110.

Anonymous said...

So, that's 8.4M people x 3 years x $6,000/year in health care costs we would have avoided. Mayor Bloomberg just cost the youth of today another $151.2 billion dollars.

Or is he going to write the check?

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Hey Garage,

Maybe you should move to NYC, so Nanny Bloomberg can do something about your weight problem.

Forward!

Greg Hlatky said...

Good news: they're living three years longer.

Bad news: they're still New Yorkers.

Baron Zemo said...

It is strictly due to people moving out of state. Older people with money are leaving like they are fleeing the Cossaks. There is a new city. A minority city with a lot of young people. It is normal.

This too will pass.

leslyn said...

This is very confusing. Is death better? Or is living longer only better if it's outside New York?

SukieTawdry said...

No, seriously, Mike is taking credit for this? Really??

test said...

leslyn said...
This is very confusing. Is death better? Or is living longer only better if it's outside New York?


Taking credit for things you didn't do is frowned upon by non-leftists. Your confusion is quite understandable given your indoctrination.

furious_a said...

Lagging indicator of prior-Mayor Guilani's 'Broken Windows' policing approach (he left office in 2001).