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The PIIGS Get to Live Longer
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
Germans work longer hours and retire later than many of their brethren in Europe, and after many years of shrinking real wages, they don't even get paid that much anymore. But it succeeded, at least temporarily, and the dour mood of yore has been superseded by exuberance about their superior economic model (for more, read.... “German Success Recipe” or just a Blip?). And what do Germans get for their hard work and strive? Well, probably a lot—but the one thing they're not getting is extra time to live.
At least according to Eurostat. The statistical office of the European Union, which tries to put numbers on absolutely everything that is going on in its bailiwick, just released a study with two indicators: healthy life years and life expectancy at age 65. And in a nasty twist, some of the economic losers came out on top, and the big economic winner, Germany, well...
A 65-year-old German woman can look forward to 7.1 years of healthy life and a life expectancy of 20.9 years. For men, that number is even lower—a worldwide problem, and one of the greatest iniquities that should be addressed with the global imposition of equal-age amendments with quotas and all. Until that happens, a German man at 65 has only 6.9 years of healthy life ahead of him. And, despite all his efforts, he only gets to live another 17.8 years.
Woefully inadequate, compared to those of the leaders. In fact, they’re even below European averages: a European woman gets to enjoy a healthy life that is 1.7 years longer than that of her German sister; with men, the difference is 1.8 years.
What is it with the hapless Germans? Maybe they don’t eat enough olive oil and fruit or can’t resist the temptation of their pork products. Or they work too hard and don't smile enough. Whatever. One thing is for sure, they don’t just fund the bailout of Greece with their hard-earned euros, but they’re also paying for it physically.
Because in Greece, a 65-year-old woman can expect a healthy life that is one year longer than that of her German sister, while a Greek man gets a whopping 1.9 years over his German brother. No wonder Germans are drawn to Greece like ferrous scrap to an industrial magnet. However, Germany manages to keep its elderly women on life support for an extra 6 months, though German men get shortchanged by about 5 months against their Greek counterparts.
Perhaps confirming all the hogwash about the Mediterranean diet, France, Spain, and Italy offered their women the longest life expectancy as part of their Latin fringe benefits package. For men it was France, Spain, and ... oh boy, I hate to tell you Germans this ... Greece!
And then there is another bailed-out PIIGS country of note: Ireland. A woman at age 65 can look forward to a stunning 11.2 years of healthy life, and a man to 11.1 years. That’s a mind-boggling 4.1 years and 4.2 years more than what Germans can expect. The unfairness simply doesn’t let up. And Ireland is certainly not on the Mediterranean diet. Of the PIIGS, only Portugal is worse off than Germany.
But here is a stunner for Mediterranean diet freaks: The healthy-life indicator maxed out in Norway with 15.7 and 14.5 years respectively for women and men, followed by Sweden with 15.5 and 14.1 years, followed by bankrupt Iceland with 14.8 and 13.4 years. So, what about the Nordic Diet? I do love fish for breakfast, and Swedish potatoes are out of this world. Whatever these people do right, they stay healthy longer but then die more quickly. Not a bad deal.
Compare that to Slovakia where a 65-year-old woman only has 2.8 years of healthy life ahead of her and a guy only 3.3 years—one of the few cases where men have the advantage. Finally a place that’s even rougher on its people than Germany.
Germans have enough problems. Take the Target 2 mechanism of mundane credit flows between central banks. In 2008, as capital flight from peripheral countries heated up, credit flows became one-sided and mushroomed with each outbreak of the crisis. Long swept under the rug, it has now mushroomed into a fiasco of astounding proportions that is threatening Germany and deepening the rift between the Bundesbank and the ECB. Read.... Escalation in Euro Rift: Bundesbank Gets Sued for Perfidy.
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Acording to OECD data, ( http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS ) Greeks work 2109 hours a year, the longest in the world except S.Korea, while their German brethen 1419. We take much less vacation than Germans and have much lower household debt. From what I can see around me, people in utmost poverty still find ways to enjoy life. That is what being Greek means to most of us. You do not need money to be happy. Hard work, little money, love for life. A Greek has no way to understand affluent misery, but we can surely understand how it can kill the afflicted.
i dont know where all those hard workers are hiding! i certainly did not see that when i was there a few years ago. i saw plenty of sleeping and eating though. maybe u and your kin live out in the country where i saw that the farmers and village folk seemed more industrious than their urban counterparts. but i dont buy those numbers you're touting. where did you get them anyway?
OECD data. I placed the link. Sorry but that is the reality. Germans work much less than most of the southerners wether it suits your prejudices or not. Greeks work the most hours in Europe. It has allways been that way.
The Netherlands leave the Euro?
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/03/report_shows_the_netherlands_c.php
In addition to all this inequality the Germans are going to host two Spanish teams in Munich for the UEFA championship after one of them defeated the home town side!. Talk about injustice. The Germans are giving their earnings to the Spanish to lose on the football pitch!
The Mediterranean diet + leisure is easier on your body than sausages, liver wurst and hard work - who knew?
good to know Eurocrats are being paid to compile this data
of course it's of no use to anybody but then nor is the EU
I beg to differ, there is a very long list of boons we europeans have from the EU
including the comic relief at having the British (and their powerful media) huffing and puffing against it...
It's the System!
Or a high level plan!
Or both!
... and Germany leads in a special competition: german retirees are european sucide champions ...
Good that there are so many Italians, Greeks and Spaniards committing suicide lately. This way the EUSSR can have their convergence also in this area!
Good that there are so many Italians, Greeks and Spaniards committing suicide lately. This way the EUSSR can have their convergence also in this area!
It's the bradwurst bitchez!
My impression with the German medical system is that doctors here are terrific in emergency situations (like a heart attack), but not as good on preventitive medicine. Further, doctors are underpaid under the socialized medical system, and so don't have the time or motivation to spend a lot of time talking to their patients. I am privately insured, so I always choose the doctor I want, and we sit down and discuss everything. I also have several of their private cellphone numbers. This was of real value during the treatments of our 4-year-old twins for kidney reflux and sleep apnea caused by hypertrophied tonsils (respectively).
Couple the stress of long work hours and ever shrinking salaries and disappearing job security with widespread smoking and fried and smoked pork products, and I think you have a recipe for shorter life spans. I would not underestimate the value of that Mediterranean diet, either.
But Ireland? You got me.
Ireland - it's all about the potatoes...or so my Irish grandmother always told me. Brassicas, potatoes, root vegetables, and fish. Not so much wheat. And don't forget the whiskey - it kills off a lot of pathogens from the inside out.
We Gemans drink a lot of beer. Not that English way of binge drinking, rather low amounts, but constantly.
I don't know what to takeaway from this post other than ENJOY LIFE NOW. I'm inadvertantly eating "healthier" foods but doing it without sacrifice.
Not giving up coffee but finding an affinity for oolong which can be consumed literally all day long if you have the patience to steep it.
You don't need to go gluten-free. You can go spelt flour and evaporated cane juice. Or better yet go with coconut oil and coconut sugar. Sure it's not cheap but then you dont need to eat so much. I wouldn't start a biz right now without a gun to my head but toe-in-the-water with a biz model that can be drop-shipped anywhere in the world without the IRS and the capital control shit is an inexpensive sweet spot. But now with SB1813 all bets are off.
I think we are on the forefront of a culinary wave. FUCK the Progressive Stew. They are pathetic. Cutting edge culinary adventure is here and now. And you don't need to extrapolate beyond Swedish Hjortron jam to know where to find the party.
SB1813 sucks all kinds of donkey dick and elephant balls. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like some kind of mad McBurglar who breaks into your house to steal your stuff and then sues you cause he cut himself on the broken glass of the window he popped to get in, Rabid Wolf Ritcher once again tosses logic and facts up into the air and in fast-talkin FOGHORN LEGHORN fashion blows up a tornado of hot air to sweep them away...
to be replaced by the worst concoction of lies, distortions, and misrepresentations that this jive talkin juggler can spin in front of the jury hopin that they cannot see what is right before their own eyes.
Fail, n fail agin. Simple OECD statistics show workers in Greece actually are working more hours than their German counterparts - while the legal retirement age is 65, cept for the public sector, where due the great overcreation of useless bureaucratic positions thanks to the imposition of the Eurozone, a stupidly large number are paid to work less and retire earlier, just like in the rest of Europe, including the sacred soil of Germany! Make a bundle selling the southern rubes your shiny modern stuff, then complain when the parties over and there's no more piggybanks to break open! Hypnotic hypocrisy in the finest Goebbelian tradition by our very own sub-gaultier of guff!
No matter how many times honest commentators here post statistics showing the PIIG-stickers for the dishonest bullies they be, their crimes against truth are allowed to hold sway: enough already!
The truth about health and longevity and their cultural comparisons is that bug-eyed bullies like the hapless Wolf demonstrate the disadvantages of huffin and puffin bout other folks houses whilst refusing to put in order their own....somethin no amount of paid holiday down time(for which the Germans are infamously known!?!?!)can seemingly offset - they die off early from apoplexy and indignation!
Just wait, U.S.S.A. FED donating to the European "cause" using our citizens future as collateral, and longer hours, and adding two years to S.S., and no healthcare is in progress already.
QE3 will be as much to bail out European banks as it will U.S. Banks.
This will all end in generational societal upheavel as the proletariat (plebians, citizens, regular folk) give up on their nations and governments and live in the day. I understand why Greek citiizens don't pay taxes; it goes straight to the bankers and their bonuses.
... interesting stuff WolfR ... thks (to you & ZH for posting this)
truly adding insult to injury: work longer, live less
life is suffering
.
-hitler
People in Norway generally finish work at 16:00, take 5 weeks holiday a year, don't smoke or drink excessively (due to the exhorbitant price) and exercise regularly (skiing, hiking)
Not everything is about money
They should fire Leon Panetta and get their own army.
This old horse already has 14 years past 65 of good health and going strong. Of course we have been waiting for a shoe to drop but hasn't happened so far. When one looks at longevity, the only one that really matters is 'ego' (Greek for me).
How did you figure out how to use the internet?
"Logan's Run" had the answer decades ago. Eliminate people before they have a chance to collect pension or medical benefits. It does wonders for a government''s balance sheet. If the Germans could just find a way to export that model to the PIIGS, the European financial crisis would be solved.
Use all those old phone booths... convert them to YOUR PATH TO INFINITY.
usher grandma into one and ZAP ... 10K v, 240 amps ... a pile of dust and NEXT!
ta da... age problem solved.
and while we are at it... at airports... how about a bomb proof booth. all step into it... any explosive is detonated by remote. No blow up? Your seat on the plane awaits
man o man, the ideas are coming at 3 am! (or were those old Family Guy episodes?)
There might be an important message here.
The German government ensures that every German gets a good transportation system, excellent health coverage, 8 weeks vacation, safe streets, a great educational system, early retirement, and excellent retirement benefits.
Here in the good old USA we get Warren Buffet, Obama, aircraft carriers, warfare in the streets, colon exams in the airport and SWAT teams. What a deal.
and soon nationwide bankruptcy. It might be good not to be alive to see such an event.
Woe is Zee.
So. One year less of druwling
Dumb Kaufs!
The Swedes probably live longer because they eat a lot of ultra-healthy kroppkaka
I think those figures in favour of some of the pigs will soon change as statistics relect the new austerity measures, cutting down on pharmaceuticals, pensions etc as well as the resultant depression and suicide. In five years time those statistics will reflect the toll of the good life coming to an end in places like Greece.
Low temperatures slow down the metabolism in the nordic countries-hence the greater number of healthy years? Works in the lab. Starve and freeze and you'll live a long, but miserable, life.
Germans work longer hours and retire later than many of their brethren in Europe, and after many years of shrinking real wages,
they chose a cat named A. Hitler to run things. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the best choice.
Vote Merkel
Minus 9 all ready??? Ja Ja - lernen ze korrekt das rules fur efery day wis zee next schteps for you is to praktice sie das rules as often as you kan. Ja Ja
Only after much praktice vill you attain zee schpecial schtatus of "voten ze Merkel." NEIN NEIN!!!
I hope zat zis instruktable vas helpful to you and, as alvays, I velcome komments.
Ze Beir unt schnitzel ist good today, ja? Guten Tag!