LIfe expectancy changes since 1815 in the U.S.

Teaching kindness helps people avoid World War III...

I was thinking about this today after reading about it and blogging about it yesterday. Reading the above article sort of triggered this memory and so I decided to write about it.

In 1815 the war of 1812 was over and the population of the U.S. had doubled since 1790 to about 8 million people. 1.5 million of these were slaves.

If you were a white male and were 20 years old you could expect to live until (On average) you were 39 years of age. If you were a white female and 20 years of age you could expect to live another 18.8 years or 38.8 years of age. The lower lifespan than men mostly was because childbirth killed so many women in the U.S. then.

Flash forward to 1900 when 20 more years were added to men and women. There was better food available, more education was available and the railroads now were coast to coast from New York to Chicago to San Francisco then. Then in 1906 the earthquake devastated San Francisco and so Los Angeles started to become the most important city in California then because most of San Francisco was destroyed. (All windows of every building in San Francisco had been blown out by the earthquake). And when this happened Non-safety glass rained down on everyone below.

However, in 1900 people could expect to live until 60 "Born died 20 buried 60" was a common epitaph then.

Then after World War II 70 became the age people started to live to more. There were always people 80, 90 or 100 but they were rare when I met them as a child in the early 1950s in church mostly.

So, I met people who had ridden across the U.S. in covered wagons and in the trains and on horseback in the early 1950s just after the Korean War as a child. They had been born during or after the Civil War which was from 1860 to 1865. In the 1950s World War I veterans were alive still a lot still too. World War I veterans were often only 50 years old or younger in 1950 for example when I was still a child. So, by the 1970s World war I veterans were in their 70s and World War II veterans were 20 years younger than world war I veterans mostly. So, in the 1970s they were mostly in their 50s.

So, in the 1950s there were many many people from World war I and World War II still alive then because 30 years before 1950 it was 1920. Just like 30 years before now was 1988.

But, to me the point is that by 1950 living to 70 was pretty normal for people. Living to 70 years of age was about as common then as people living to 80 to 100 now.

For example, I'm presently healthier than most people in their 30s and 40s in the 1950s even though I'll by 70 this year. Why?

Because if you are educated you know about diet and exercise. And if you learned about this from either your parents or from college friends or from college then you know about moving towards enlightenment too. So, all these things allow you to live longer because you don't spend your whole life in denial and you don't just stuff everything like my parents and grandparents did because that just makes you die younger and younger.

So, now for the next generations living to 120 to 150 is the next barrier which is coming that will break.

So, in 1815 we could expect to live to be 40 if we were already 20 if we were a man or a woman.

Now, in 2018 we can expect to live to be 90 if we are 30.

This is quite a change isn't it?

So, if you live to be 20 or 30 you already have 50 years on your 1815 ancestors already.

Because 90 is 50 years greater than 40.