According to a new study, life expectancy for whites, especially women, plunged between 1990 and 2007. If this keeps up, the average person without a high school diploma will be stillborn by the year 2319.
Less Than Zero
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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«Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux». Barack Hussein Obama as Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie – would could be better (pun intended) ?…
Henri
Ted,
A clarification please. I’m not trying to be cutesy here, but “whites without a high school diploma have shorter lives” makes the diploma sound magical, like some life-extending version of Frodo’s Ring. What, specifically, is causing the shortened life expectancy? (Also, is it reversible?)
If the HS diploma is some sort of shorthand for stable earning ability, well, won’t we all pretty much be following the HS diploma-less down that rabbit hole? That would be a very effective way to stifle dissent: premature death due to lack of access to food, shelter, etc., and a commensurate increase in stress.
@Alex, Apparently demographers have found that educational attainment is a close substitute for class in the United States. So what they’re really finding is that working-class whites are getting hit hard. Major causes of mortality are said to be drug overdoses, lack of affordable healthcare, and obesity. Obviously all of these are reversible, but they’re symptoms of class status in an increasingly bifurcated society.
I expect the attainment of the high school diploma is considered to confer a higher level ability to understand the tools available to EASILY answer any question one might have?
I guess someone has to ask the question: why the heck is Obama in the cartoon? The dialogue could have been between anybody, but what does Obama have to do with it?
@Albert: Maybe you missed it, but Obama has been saying in speeches that America is NOT in decline.