Life expectancy in the US is currently dropping for the first time in decades. "line go up" isn't always a valid way of determining quality of life, but in the instance of life expectancy, I would say it is. Also, America is getting worse in basically every metric we can use to measure quality of life. Is "line go down" not a valid way of assessing quality of life either?

[–] Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You beat me to the punch regarding the US life expectancy rate lol, but I kinda agree with both of you right now. Life expectancy can imply quality of certain aspects of life; like medical care and availability, but it isn't the end all be all to a quality life. To me it's just a factor, not a determining factor.

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's more or less what I was attempting to highlight. It doesn't paint the whole picture, but something as big as life expectancy shouldn't just be dismissed so flippantly in discussions like this.

For transparency, I'm not nearly informed enough to have a valid opinion on the greater topic of this thread. I'm still learning about socialism in all of it's varieties

[–] Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt 1 points 1 year ago

Oh I'm so glad with same page. There's definitely a lot to learn with life expectation, especially when seeing a supposedly developed nation dip, that's unprecedented. But don't worry, this is the kind of stuff one never stops learning. I have a degree in political science, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm talking about, but we can try right