Life expectancy in the United States is plunging. Multiple studies are pouring in with the same overall data.
This may not come as a surprise with the Covid pandemic taking a toll on worldwide mortality, but one of the more striking issues is that the U.S. does not seem to be showing the improvements that other nations are exhibiting going forward after the pandemic depths. Mortality among young Americans in particular is showing horrifying increases in entirely predictable ways given the lack of attention given to their basic needs.
Perhaps one of the more ghoulish of those commenting on the situation would be perennial economic prognosticator Larry Summers: former Secretary of the Treasury, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, the common clay of the new West, you know, moron. Larry Summers has heaved his pasty ass on the fainting couch to bemoan “the most disturbing set of data on America I have encountered in a long time.” He flutters his lacy hand fan and adds “this is especially scary remembering that demographics were the best early warning on the collapse of the USSR”.
Why would I be so hard on a man simply expressing concern about a worrying trend? The shortest answer is that you don’t get to be an arsonist and then bemoan the fire. This man has never failed to shoehorn an invented economic philosophy to always fit the needs of the ruling class. Summers was nauseatingly vocal in regard to limiting assistance to individuals during the pandemic, slobberingly indicating “there must be a limiting principal”. Well that limiting principal seems to have landed on the very lengths of American life spans. Summers is among the neoliberals who never want large financial institutions to have to feel similar “limiting principles”. They are always gentle and generous lovers to their needs. Summers was instrumental in pushing for the dismantlement of depression era safeguards as well. They harm the self esteem of these entities. Summers periodically makes a comment that sounds less than fascist giving him an in with the sensible pundit class, the likes of which make the rounds on NPR and PBS Newshour. They don’t embarrass us with horns on their heads and dewormers, but they are a lot like the respected and trusted cub scout master who was molesting all over the place with a veneer of respectability. So much damage can be done if you just look the part of Respectable.
It’s a definite as above so below situation —entities like the World Bank “help” a nation into debt servitude and young America is given the same path. They’ve just gone so far with the parasitism that the host is literally dying.
The jobs don’t pay a living wage, there is no coherent healthcare system, price gouging corporations are bleeding Americans dry, a militarized police state is at the ready to ensure legitimate protests are stamped out…. tangible drops in a clear measure like life expectancy—what a shock! There’s not enough room on that fainting couch for all the individuals who brought about this dystopia but will still expect you to listen when they offer confused rationales and empty gesture solutions. It’s a plunder and take mentality— all with an insulting heaping of institutional gaslighting (if you only knew how to manage and develop your own lithium reserves and if you’d stop eating avocado toast).
We have allowed a price to be put on everything, including our humanity. We’ve been raised with this mentality from birth…steeped in it. The control mechanisms are absolutely incredible, but the key to their enduring success will be for us to continue seeing ourselves and one another as commodities, not extensions of our self with interlaced needs. The first step will be the clarification of what we are as humanity and knowing we are not simply here to serve and bolster the sociopaths. Enough of the fainting couch punditry and giving any credence to their worthless sophistry. People are dying by design.