How long has this been going on?

Afternoon quiz!

Between which pair of countries did United States life expectancy rank in 1999?
a) Japan and Australia
b) Israel and Cyprus
c) Spain and Italy
d) Norway and Belgium

The answer is (B), like "bad." Life expectancy in Israel is 70.4 (23rd on the list), in the U.S., 70.0 (24th), and in Cyprus, 69.8 (25th) By contrast, all of the other countries listed rank higher than the U.S.: Japan, 1; Australia, 2; Spain, 5; Italy, 6; Norway, 15; Belgium, 16). The food there is nice and all, but don't you think we oughta be beating countries like Spain and Italy, which only recently joined the first tier of industrialized nations?

Anyhow, the Times today published a good op-ed on how America's idiotically short-sighted reliance on market forces actually impedes our ability to get good health care. Useful background reading is the World Health Organization press release on the 1999 life-expectancy rankings, which lists, among other reasons, "Fairly high levels of violence, especially of homicides, when compared to other industrial countries" as one cause of America's relatively low life expectancy. Well, tooooo-shay!