REALLY...this is NOT satire!

[serryjw]

quote.....
In the July 30 edition of The New York Times, Gina Kolata reports on recent research findings on the health of modern citizens of industrialized countries. You might expect that this research reveals us denizens of early 21st-century capitalist economies to be staggeringly unhealthy -- our physiques so obese and flabby, our arteries so clogged with cholesterol, our lungs so inundated with pollutants and our brains and spirits so burdened with stress that we are aging faster and suffering more than ever before.
In fact, the opposite is true. The great majority of us today enjoy unprecedented good health
snip.......
And although The Times' report avoids firmly answering the question "why?," the reason for this much-improved health isn't hard to find given that these health gains have been greatest in the industrialized world and that they started within the past two centuries.

The answer, in a word, is "capitalism."
snip..........
So given this fact along with the hysterical language used by the likes of Al Gore -- who, after all, is not on society's fringes -- it's a perfectly legitimate stance for truly reasonable people to conclude that the best policy regarding global warming is to neglect it -- and let capitalism continue to make us healthier and wealthier.

end quote........

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/boudreaux/s_465727.html

[jobycom]

1. There's a candidate for the "Non-Sentient Being" club.

If A = B and B = C, then A must also equal Pi. :wtf:

[serryjw]

2. RFLOL! OMG you're bad

Can you belive this is a professor of a major university?

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. You'd think not, but ...

Looking at the Wikipedia entry, you get:

Mason's faculty boasts Nobel Prize-winning economists James M. Buchanan (1986) and Vernon Smith (2002).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University

Wow, and yet the chairman of the department is a moron who can't construct a basic logical argument? But then you read on ...

Another economics professor, Walter E. Williams, is well-known as a syndicated columnist and occasional guest host of the Rush Limbaugh radio show.

Now it makes a bit more sense.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Sorry, You Lose

Life expectancy has increased in the US from 45 in 1900 to 75 today. It's increased roughly the same in, say, commie Cuba - their life expectancy is roughly the same as ours.

Nobody really knows why virtually everyone on the planet is living much, much longer. My guess is better sanitation and food preservatives (no, I'm not joking).

[theanarch]

10. don't underestimate clean water and pharmecuticals...n/t

[eviltwin2525]

4. of course, what this fails to account for is....

if you take out the data for the USA, the health of the REST of the "developed world" (tm) is significantly BETTER than when you include us. Why? Single-payer universal healthcare insurance: everybody has it but us. duh.

[Dr.Phool]

5. FAIR has done some study of Gina Kolata's reporting

And she seems to have her head completely up her ass, as far as actual science goes.

It's bedtime, but you can probably find the goods at www.fair.org

[serryjw]

6. No doubt

she seems to have her head completely up her ass

[serryjw]

7. I tried finding it

no luck....send me a link when you find it......thanks

[Wonk]

8. I guess my googlefu is better than your googlefu. Took me 10 seconds.

http://www.google.com/search?q=+site%3Awww.fair.org+Gina+Kolata

26 articles

[serryjw]

9. I googlefued

on Fair.org..It didn't have a good search engine..thanks

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. So what's wrong with her article?

It's true that people are a lot healthier than they were in the nineteenth century, on average. This is due to vaccines, antibiotics, and much better nutrition, especially in pregnant women and infancy. And that's what her article said.

It's the moronic right wing economics professor who says that proves capitalism is good for you, and so therefore we should ignore global warming, because it's been caused by capitalism.

[NMMNG]

11. Did she get her degree at the Ayn Rand Institute?

:crazy:

[killbotfactory]

12. Pure Capitalism: It cures what ailes ya!

And if it doesn't, then you deserved to die anyway.

[zbdent]

13. Yeah, sure ... look at the billions earned by selling

the polio vaccine ... if "capitalism" was in charge of making people healthier, then the "polio pill" would be available at all the major drugstores, but at a rather high cost, and you'd be arrested for going to Canada to buy it ...

[izzybeans]

14. Actually two words, Hygiene and Vaccines

These were not turned into capitalist enterprises until the late 60s and on into the 70s.

[kiki]

15. What a fucking cretin.

Just watch - when the environment is truly fucked and we're running out of electricity, he'll blame it on poor people.

[johnaries]

18. What about "Science"?

Oh, that's right. Right Wingernuts don't believe in Science.