Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:32:56 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: lifespan of Presidents, and feeling old
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 04:07 PM 04/02/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>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.

Oh wow.  What a concept.

Candy