To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 16:07:39 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Re: lifespan of Presidents, and feeling old
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

On Tue, 2 Apr 2002 15:56:53 -0500 "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
writes:
>         Actually, Presidents of the United States tend to die about 5
> years
> before their actuarial peers owing to the stress of the job.  As
> John
> Kennedy said, "When it comes to nuclear policy, I have to be right
> 100% of
> the time."
>

The observation about stress is a good point, but I think there is more
to it.  Throughout most of history, people of wealth and high status
tended to live much longer than the average person (again, discounting
accidents, murder, duelling, etc.), presumably because they ate better
and had more comfortable living conditions and better medical care.  This
was true up to about 1900, though since about 1900 the overall average
lifespan has tended to equalize with the average lifespan of rich and
powerful individuals.  So, in the early history of the U.S., prominent
individuals probably averaged much longer lives than the average person.
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, who lived into their eighties (I
think) would be examples.  Surely the average American died much younger
than that in those times.  That's what I had in mind when I opined that
presidents live longer.

It is probably true that the stress of being president shortens the life
of one who has held that office, all else being equal.  But all else is
not equal.  Presidents tend to be strong-willed individuals, and that
probably includes having a strong will to live.  That might balance out
the effect of presidential job stress.

But if, as you say, it is a statistical fact that U.S. presidents on the
average die five years before their actuarial peers, then I bow to the
facts and concede the point.

Feeling old: The last living veteran of the Civil War died in Kentucky in
1958, age 112.  It is mathematically possible that I could have met that
veteran.  And since he was born around 1846, it seems at least
mathematically possible that he in turn could have met a veteran of the
Revolutionary War.  My guess is that there may be thousands of persons
alive in the U.S. today who have actually met someone who in turn has
actually met someone who fought in the Revolutionary War, making for two
degrees of separation.

Ron Kean

.

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