Life Expectancy Follow Up
You’ll recall, from a couple of weeks ago, the commentary of Robert Barber, a retired Cranston police captain eight years into a retirement that he began at 50. Well, PolitiFact has looked into his very specific claim that “law-enforcement officers die 10 years earlier than the general population” and found it wanting:
Whether a person was age 50, 55, 60 or 65, the life expectancies of the police officers were slightly higher than for other workers. For example, men age 60 who had taken regular retirement were projected to live to age 82.7, versus age 81.9 for workers who were not in the public safety field. (Firefighter rates were close to those for police officers.)
Even when CalPERS added in all the men who had retired as a result of work-related injuries, the life expectancies of the police officers were essentially identical to other public employees. The life expectancy for someone age 60, regardless of why they stopped working, was 81.8 years, just a tenth of a year lower than for regular workers.
According to other research cited, public safety officers appear only to have shorter life expectancies than other public-sector employees. (Apparently, nobody lives longer than female public-school teachers.)
Why Barber’s statement is only “false,” not “pants on fire,” I’m not sure.
Single women live longer than married women. Traditionally, many female teachers were unmarried, and their mortality rates still show up in the longevity of female teachers. Now that many teachers marry and have children, I doubt we will see any differences between female teachers and the rest of the female population.
Why doesn’t PolitiFact head over to RIFuture? There are enough progressive “factoids” over there to keep them busy for the next 6 months.
Did you know that 1 out of every 4 women is raped in the United States? And that women earn 75% of what men earn for the same work?*
*Anyone challenging the above statements hates women.
“Single women live longer than married women.”
Q: Why do married men die earlier than their wife?
A: Because they want to.
This article is another example of how many people don’t understand statistics.
Over the last few centuries, human life expectancy has been increasing. And why? Back in the 1600s and 1700s, we still had people living to 100. So why is it? Healthier lives? Cancer detection? Other preventative medicine?
Maybe, but all that hasn’t changed the life expectancies from the 40s of hundreds of years ago to the 80s of today. What’s the biggest difference? More babies live. Back then, more babies and small children died.
If you have an 80 year old and a baby who both die, the “average” life expectancy is 40. Get that baby to live to 60, and now that person and the 80 year old changed the life expectancy to 70. Gained 30 years.
So the officer in the article has seen cops get killed, known of 40 year old officers dying. Yeah, that happens and it is tragic, but it doesn’t move the needle much with regard to statistics and life expectancy.
I wondered how long it would take for someone to mention this article. I figured Sunday night at the latest. Attacking Politifact for its liberal bias is quite popular amongst the conservative blogs, to see it relied upon to push an agenda on AR is quite humorous.
Research “healthy worker syndrome”.
I’m alive at 49, if I live to be 80 although I feel 90 already my life expectancy is 58, thus proving that firefighters do not live as long as the general population.
Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.
Tom Kenney – Research “confirmation bias.”
You mean they’re really not heroes???
More like legends in their own minds.
“You mean they’re really not heroes???
More like legends in their own minds.”
Mike Capelli
I am reminded of a quote, “It is not how these officers died that made them heroes, it is how they lived.” These words of a survivor are carved into the wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in DC. That and the names of almost 19,000 officers who have died in the line of duty since the founding of this country. Its a powerful, sobering monument to see, particularly during National Police Week when the previous years dead is added.
MC-you’re just a bomb throwing asshole whose never added anything of value to these comment sections. The next time you print a reasonable, articulate, intelligent post will be the first.
Don’t hold your breath, Sierra1, but remember, the people who matter understand.
Wahhhhhh! What a bunch of whiny little girls.
We’ve just been shown proof that you’ve been living the lie. Not that we didn’t know it all along.
“Wahhhhhh! What a bunch of whiny little girls.
We’ve just been shown proof that you’ve been living the lie. Not that we didn’t know it all along.”
Thank you MC for proving my point again. Yet another in a never ending line of posts with zero intellectual merit. You type and the stupidity flows.
Hey sierra,
As you start getting all misty-eyed pondering your greatness, remember one thing – there are literally thousands out there willing and able to do your job for a lot less pay and benefits.
That’ll give you an idea of just how f’n special you are. Not very.
MC-you seem angry, what’s the matter, you realize you’re not one of the thousands that could do my job? Please point out for me where in any of my posts you’ve gotten the idea that I find myself “great” or “f’n special.” As usual the more you post the more you prove my point. Thanks for the comic relief.
A lot of people would take our jobs for less. Not many would do it.
More propaganda…”not many would do it.”
Not only would they do it, they’d do it without the crying.
You union dopes all act so tough, yet the truth is you’re a bunch of pansies who couldn’t make it on your own.
MC,
I know I’ll probably regret chiming in but there maybe thousands that want it but there aren’t thousands that can do it and even more that don’t want it. Sorry but any job that requires strapping on multiple weapons every shift is pretty special. Surely there are more dangerous jobs but how many of them suffer fatalities as a result of intentional criminal acts and sometime just because of the clothes they wear.
Just my two cents.
Mike thanks for proving the point from the previous post about no one being anti union. What’s next?will we be told that no one on here is anti gay either. Mike what is it that you do to earn your living?
Max and Sierra – Not to provide fodder for the troll, but you know that martyr-complex law enforcement rhetoric is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Objectively, it doesn’t matter if a drug dealer shoots you, if you die under a fishing boat, or if you fry in an elevator shaft. Dead is dead, and there are lots of less sexy and more dangerous jobs out there that don’t have multi-million-dollar memorials dedicated to them. Life isn’t fair, I guess.
I want cops to come home safely to their families each day as much as anyone – which is why I want them to stop enforcing the war on drugs and acting as glorified tax collectors on the roads. Let’s get officers back after real criminals and make their job as safe as possible by not exposing them to needless risk.
Dan-I’m not reaching for the “martyr-complex” thing. The fact of the matter is, as I’ve pointed out before and Max mentioned above, you may be statistically more likely to die as a commercial truck driver or garbage man but you aren’t going to be murdered because of it. That is the point of the NLEOM in DC.
And I’ve pointed out before that it doesn’t matter whether you die in a police cruiser or in a big rig. Dead is dead. One might be more “dramatic” than the other, but that’s all. I’m not knocking the sacrifice that many police officers make, but a lot of fisherman, electricians, truckers, and loggers make those sacrifices too. They just don’t benefit from the same cultural fascination. I think that’s wrong.
“I’m not knocking the sacrifice that many police officers make, but a lot of fisherman, electricians, truckers, and loggers make those sacrifices too. They just don’t benefit from the same cultural fascination.”
Off the top of my head
Fisherman-Moby Dick, Life on the Line, Perfect Storm, Deadliest Catch, After the Catch
Truckers-Ice Road Truckers, Convoy, American Trucker, IRT Worlds Most Dangerous Roads, Trick My Truck
Loggers-American Logger, Ax Men, Paul Bunyon, Extreme Loggers, Swamp Loggers, Heli-Loggers
Electricians…well you got me with that one!
Died in the line of duty. It means something. Something a lot of people choose not to understand.
And yet few ever call those people heroes, Sierra, or thank them for their “service.” Why is that? The world needs food, and wood, and electricity as much as it needs law enforcement and fire protection.
Michael – The sanctimonious mindset that only uniformed work qualifies as “duty” is exactly what I find so distasteful. Every man killed doing an honest day’s work dies doing his “duty.”
It all comes back to public union rule 1: All workers are equal, but some workers are more equal than others.
It all comes back to public union rule 1: All workers are equal, but some workers are more equal than others.
Posted by Dan at August 17, 2011 10:00 PM
Like the little punk that receives the protection of a union but refuses to pay the dues. And spends an inordinate amount of his work day writing to this blog.
Again, wrong on the facts, Phil. This is becoming a recurring theme with you.
The union that haunts my Agency made it very clear that if I didn’t pay dues to them, then they would never lift a finger to help me. Federal Courts have ruled that this is allowed (they hand out the decisions as a scare tactic during orientation). After I witnessed the “representation” it provides to its miserable, un-promotable members (the median age of whom has to be around 65 now), I was more than happy to accept this trade-off. I need them like I need another hole in my head.
And to be accurate, I spend none of my work day on here. More libel from Phil. I’m a salaried employee and I don’t work a fixed schedule. Many of my comments are posted before I even arrive at work and uploading with a smart phone takes a few minutes. My also non-union supervisor is happy with me and that’s all you need to know, Phil. Just got a promotion, actually, and no, the union doesn’t negotiate pay. They mostly complain about telework, or as their members would identify it, sleeping at home with the phone next to them.
And to be accurate, I spend none of my work day on here. More libel from Phil. I’m a salaried employee and I don’t work a fixed schedule. Many of my comments are posted before I even arrive at work and uploading with a smart phone takes a few minutes. My also non-union supervisor is happy with me and that’s all you need to know, Phil. Just got a promotion, actually, and no, the union doesn’t negotiate pay. They mostly complain about telework, or as their members would identify it, sleeping at home with the phone next to them.
Unions are nothing more than parasites, latching onto employees, driving up costs, while providing a net negative benefit to those who have to pay for them.
Mike Capalleni you sound like a unemployed basement dweller who was made fun of and wedgied mercilessly during your younger days. What is it that you do all day besides express your rage through your keyboard?