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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:aeq
From: aeq@pucc-h (Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Red AND Dead
Message-ID: <404@pucc-h>
Date: Thu, 15-Dec-83 13:38:45 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.404
Posted: Thu Dec 15 13:38:45 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Dec-83 03:05:20 EST
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 15

U.S. News & World Report this week quotes a study which shows some curious
facts about the Soviet empire.  The life expectancy at birth in the USSR
actually dropped between 1965 and 1980.  I don't have the figures in front
of me, but I think these are accurate:  The life expectancy of females dropped
only slightly, from 74.1 to 73.5 years.  But the life expectancy of males
plunged from 66.2 years to 61.9 years.  Much of this increased likelihood of
death is due to heavy alcohol consumption; at least 50% of fatal accidents in
the USSR are alcohol-related; 80% more alcohol was bought in Latvia in 1980
than in 1970 (as an example); the average Latvian spends more on booze than
on clothes; and (the real zinger) the death rate for alcohol poisoning in the
USSR is 88 times that in the USA!

I'm glad my grandparents left Lithuania (next to Latvia) early this century.

-- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq