Harvad Study: 1 American dies every 12 minutes due to treatable illnesses due to lack of insurance.

[giblets]

I found a figure of 107 Deaths Per Minute total in the US. One every 12 minute due to a lack of insurance would be 43,800 a year dying unnecessarily. Or about 14.5 9/11's if you prefer.

107*60*24*365 = 56239200

So, uh, 56 million deaths a year in a population with only 307 million? Yeah, I'm sure the average lifespan is only five or six years. Or maybe Americans are almost all senior citizens and our population is rapidly dwindling.

[Hauldren Collider]

"1 person dies every twelve minutes due to lack of health insurance." "Lol I don't understand statistics or mathematics"

Okay, let's hear you defend these cookie-cutter statements that fail to impart any real meaning on the listener, unless he happens to have memorized the number people who die in {specified region} in {specified period of time}?

[kentonio]

107*60*24*365 = 56239200

So, uh, 56 million deaths a year in a population with only 307 million? Yeah, I'm sure the average lifespan is only five or six years. Or maybe Americans are almost all senior citizens and our population is rapidly dwindling.

My bad, I trusted a weak source. I just added it up too and went 'duh..'.

[loinburger]

Okay, let's hear you defend these cookie-cutter statements that fail to impart any real meaning on the listener, unless he happens to have memorized the number people who die in {specified region} in {specified period of time}?

Weren't you the same poster who said that 20,000 was an insignificant sample size? Because if so, no amount of mathematics will convince you of anything.

[kentonio]

Okay, let's hear you defend these cookie-cutter statements that fail to impart any real meaning on the listener, unless he happens to have memorized the number people who die in {specified region} in {specified period of time}?

Why does it matter how many people die in other ways? Isn't it enough to know that nearly 44,000 people lose their lives when they don't need to?

[Hauldren Collider]

Weren't you the same poster who said that 20,000 was an insignificant sample size? Because if so, no amount of mathematics will convince you of anything.

Um, no? And if I did, I'd like to hereby take that statement back, because it's stupid.

[loinburger]

In that case, anybody with an ounce of mathematical sense could calculate that 1 death every 12 minutes equates to around 44000 deaths per year. Whether you consider this insignificant is your call. (You considered 2400 deaths from malnutrition to be insignificant, so who knows.)

[Hauldren Collider]

In that case, anybody with an ounce of mathematical sense could calculate that 1 death every 12 minutes equates to around 44000 deaths per year. Whether you consider this insignificant is your call. (You considered 2400 deaths from malnutrition to be insignificant, so who knows.)

So let me get this straight--you're arguing that the only important thing is that the absolute number of people who die. It only matters if that number seems high and tugs your heartstrings. It makes no difference whether there's some other problem to focus our resources on that kills more people and would be cheaper to solve. It doesn't matter if the number is 44,000 out of 7 million or 44,000 out of 7 billion--only that it's 44,000 a year? Simply knowing that 44,000 people die a year of something is enough to tell you everything you need to know about whether you should worry about that particular problem? That's very interesting, loin.

[giblets]

That seems to be the basic logic behind the invasion of Afghanistan and the War on Terror. Oh, and those retarded 9/11 threads that seem to come every year.

[loinburger]

So let me get this straight--you're arguing that the only important thing is that the absolute number of people who die. It only matters if that number seems high and tugs your heartstrings. It makes no difference whether there's some other problem to focus our resources on that kills more people and would be cheaper to solve. It doesn't matter if the number is 44,000 out of 7 million or 44,000 out of 7 billion--only that it's 44,000 a year? Simply knowing that 44,000 people die a year of something is enough to tell you everything you need to know about whether you should worry about that particular problem? That's very interesting, loin.

Are you saying that 44000 deaths per year is insignificant? It's a yes or no question; I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

[Hauldren Collider]

Are you saying that 44000 deaths per year is insignificant? It's a yes or no question; I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

I'm saying that I don't know if it's significant or not just from the number. It's high enough to trigger the "sad face" nerve, if that's what you're asking, but I'd advise against designing government policy over what makes us feel sad instead of what actually makes logical sense.

[loinburger]

I'm saying that I don't know if it's significant or not just from the number.

Approximately 0.1% of the US population and you don't know if it's significant? What the ****?

[Hauldren Collider]

Approximately 1% of the US population and you don't know if it's significant? What the ****?

Well what percent of the population dies per year? Give me that and then give me how cost effective it would be to solve this and then the cost effectiveness of solving other major killers and then I'll know if it's significant. It's almost as if deciding where to allocate resources is a complex affair...

[loinburger]

Well what percent of the population dies per year?

[Hauldren Collider]

The point I am making is that these statistics are not intended to get you to think critically about how many people have died. If you told one room full of people that "3,000 people die per year of satan-soul-devouring syndrome" and another room "2 people die per minute of spontaneous lung explosion" and another room "40 people die every month of hyper-rabies" then I would guess that the reactions in all three rooms would be roughly the same. It has nothing to do with what the disease is, how many people die, and over what period of time. It's just a stock phrase used to make people upset about something. And it's meaningless.