FW: fourscore...

[Frank Abate]

Sorry if this is getting off-topic, but again, in reply . . .

Beverly F said:

>>I suspect rural areas in the U.S. today have longer lifespans than urban
areas.  Minnesota has some of the longest-living people in the country, and
it's basically rural, cold, and dark. . . .  And even Minneapolis doesn't
have much urban smog!<<

Do you have any evidence to support this?  I would actually **suspect** the
exact opposite.  At least, if we are talking about farmers who actually work
the fields and such, and not folks who happen to live in the country or the
exurbs but actually work in buildings (not including barns and chicken
coops).

Farm life (from what I have seen; I have never actually done any to speak
of) is very hard, and very taxing on the body, not just because of the
physical effort and long hours involved, but also the exposure to chemical
fertilizers and such, and the high occurrence of fatal and debilitating
accidents (farmers are in the top 10 of most hazardous occupations in the US
today -- not as high as lumberjacks, but right up there, per a story last
month in the WSJ).  And, as a business, farming is pretty awful, for the
small farmer.  That is why there are so many corporations doing so much of
it now.  It is very hard for the small farmer to compete, and many of them
fail in running their own family businesses.  What often happens then is
that they stay "on the farm" but work as tenants for a corporation who buys
them out.  Kinda like feudalism for the 21st century.

It would be very interesting to see the life expectancies of tenant farmers,
farm workers, and farmers who own and work their own farms, compared to
folks who work in offices (wherever they might live).  I don't know if such
data is available.  Others?

It is important also to note that a solid majority of Americans (including
Minnesotans) live in areas that the US Bureau of the Census designates as
"urban".  Stereotypical views of the Midwest -- of waving grain and fruited
plains -- are very misleading.  There is much non-urban space in the Midwest
and the Plains, to be sure, but not a large number of people actually live
and work in those areas.  Just as in the eastern coastal plain of the US
(from roughly Boston into N Virginia, plus coastal and fall-line cities into
the South, and much of the FL Atlantic coast), in the Midwest and Great
Plains states people mostly live in cities and larger towns, and these are
classified as urban, even if they don't all have famous museums and symphony
orchestras.  And "urban" folks, wherever they live, tend to have longer life
expectancies, owing (in today's US) to better working conditions and shorter
hours (compared to farm work), good nutrition, and quick access to quality
medical care.

People have been leaving rural areas for the city in droves, and for
decades, for a very good reason (and not just in the US, of course, nor just
in this century) -- to live a longer and easier life.  Not the same
spiritually, perhaps, but the work is better, and the pay is steady, if you
can keep your job.

Frank Abate