The Health of a Nation

by liberal japonicus

The last thread on the VP debate didn't take off, and I don't blame you, I threw up in my mouth a little to hear Vance lay out his plans for Lebensraum. But rather than talk about that, I wanted to talk a bit about another topic, health insurance. I read somewhere that in the UK, Labour wanted to follow in the footsteps of New Zealand in tobacco policy. An explainer is here, and it was subsequently taken off the books. One of the main drivers was said to be the reduction in medical costs. By having progressive legal age increases, along with requirements for reduced nicotine, as the population ages, you remove smokers from the mix. I'm not a smoker, so I could support this with little problem, but I could see how complaints about the heavy hand of government would be raised.

When I first came to Japan, smoking was really common. If you walked through a smoking car in the Shinkansen, it would be like walking into a solid fog, and riding on highway buses would often leave you smelling like an ashtray. But about 10 or 15 years ago, there was a big push, similar to other developed countries, to make facilities non-smoking, and force smokers into small areas. Japan would never, I imagine, try progressive legal age increases, the tax revenue is too much (which is the reason why New Zealand backtracked on their attempt). But because Japan excels in public shame, while you have smokeless electronic cigarettes, you don't have people vaping like I say the last time I was in the UK, where they seemed to be surrounded by huge clouds.

Anyway, the idea of dealing with the health of a nation in this way came to mind when I read this article about Tokyo Verdy Beleza, a Japanese womans' football team that has sent a huge number of players to overseas teams. The article tries to explain why this is, and one point is this:

Writing in an academic publication in 2019, the doctorate sociologist Osamu Takamine referred to the rapid increase in sports participation that occurs as children approach junior high school age, the years most commonly associated with the development of technical skills.

Which got me to thinking, one of the interesting features of secondary education here is that the majority of students participate in sports teams as part of their schooling. There are also ther options, 'brass band' (i.e school band), drama, speech etc. But I'd say that a lot of kids end up playing a sport.

I know that it is taking a long time to get to the point, but one of the interesting side effects is that I think happens is that this is another reason why the Japanese population is much healthier than the US or UK. The obesity rate in Japan is 4.2%, while in the US, it is 42.7%. Of course, it isn't just getting in some sports in JHS, it is diet, it is public transporation, walkable cities, and probably a bunch of other reasons. But it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that a government might want to set up regimes that target getting people in better shape, with the payoff being that people need less medical care. But I'm sure that would be a non-starter in the US.

Anyway, feel free to talk about any concepts of a plan that you might have.

Comments

[Hartmut]

Smokers die early and thus consume less social security (or the equivalent in other countries). This far outweighs the increased health costs, so from an economic POV, smoking should be made mandatory to solve the SocSec crisis.
Alcohol on the other hand causes far more costs than are saved by reduced life expectancy, so prohibition should be a matter of course (I am sure there will be no negative side effects).
Of course senicide also has a long and honored tradition in different cultures worth reviving.
Tiny amounts of methanol in the public water supplies* have also been proposed in the past for a lowering of the budgetary disastrous rising life expectancy without rising to the level of direct perceptibility (i.e. no directly noticable difference in quality of life, just dying about 5 years earlier.)

*that was before bottled water became common. Manufacturers would have to be included in the program.

[wj]

Back in the middle of the last century, "physical education" classes were required throughout high school. You didn't have to be good at it, and lots of us weren't. There was certainly no expectation of participating on one of the school teams. But you did have to spend an hour every day out running around.

My sense is that this requirement got dumped (at least here)** in favor of allowing kids to take more "academic" classes, in order to help kids get into increasingly competitive colleges. Totally ignoring, of course, the detail that getting out and moving around produces significantly better learning outcomes. But then, the point wasn't more learning but more box checking.

As for smoking, these days it is very strongly class-correlated. Poor and minority kids are far more likely to start smoking. And, nicotine being rather more addictive than heroin, to keep the habit for life. But among the middle class and wealthy it isn't really socially acceptable these days. At best, marginally tolerated. The cigarette companies are trying hard to make vaping as cool as smoking was once as. Not sure how successful they are being. Hopefully not very.

** Very much parent-driven.

[nous]

Vaping is so 2018.

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/nicotine-pouches

This is the stuff that Tucker Carlson is pimping, and it's easier for kids to sneak. It's like dip, but no spitting, and it can be flavored like a vape.

Lacks the cool factor of a huge puff of exhalate, but the stealth factor may win out.

[wj]

Vaping is so 2018

I only know what I see in the papers see online (and on TV). Which (perhaps a reflection of my browsing habits) is still mostly about vaping. Not surprising, however, that the country's longest running drug cartel is moving to something harder to detect/control.

[liberal japonicus]

Smokers die early and thus consume less social security (or the equivalent in other countries). This far outweighs the increased health costs, so from an economic POV, smoking should be made mandatory to solve the SocSec crisis.

I'm pretty sure this is flippant, though the tabacco companies made this exact argument in the 90's

A study commissioned by the US tobacco company Philip Morris published in 2000 examined the economic impact of smoking on the Czech Republic. It concluded that tobacco smoking provided a net benefit to the economy, largely because of “reduced health care costs” and “savings on pensions and housing costs for the elderly” that would not have to be paid since smokers die earlier than non-smokers. In fact, the smoking costs were shown to be 13 times greater than the ‘benefits’
https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/the-economics-of-tobacco

However, unlike countries that have national healthcare, the US has a system where individuals and companies subsidize the healthcare costs, so that linkage is weakened.

[Hartmut]

Of course that was not a serious proposal (on my part). But unfortunately, there are influential people that see the increasing longevity (at least of commoners) as the prime problem to be 'solved' but won't (openly) resurrect the term 'useless eaters'(some come close though). Be 100% productive and then drop dead without an extended period in-between (and with as short a period before entering the workforce for that matter).

[Michael Cain]

Also in the category of non-serious proposals, don't live in Florida. First, Helene. Milton is forecast to hit somewhere around Tampa as a cat 3 storm on Wednesday. The models that were starting to suggest two weeks ago something like Milton are starting to hint at another storm in a couple of weeks.

[wj]

Saying "Don't live in Florida" isn't going to achieve much of anything. But if you live in Florida, and your house gets trashed, you may well have to relocate. At least temporarily. And, unless you can afford to rebuild (assuming the land is still there) or buy another house, that temporary may become permanent.

Medium term, much of Florida is becoming unlivable. Those who can, and who can see the writing on the wall, will go. Those who refuse to face reality will get to live with the consequences.