Earn More, Live Longer

Writing for Bloomberg View, Orszag and Lee find that people who make more money live longer. I'm not sure why anyone should be surprised by the fact of this finding, its magnitude is perhaps more than one might guess.

Among men born in 1930 who survived to age 50, those in the highest of five earnings categories could expect to live five years longer than those in the lowest category, our analysis found. For men born in 1960 who survived to age 50, the lifespan differential will ultimately amount to almost 13 years. And the picture for women is similar.

More specifically, the lowest earners in both generations had roughly a one-in-four chance of surviving to age 85. Among the higher earners, however, the share of those reaching 85 is rising from less than half in the older generation to two-thirds in the younger one.

The authors express concern about a result which is that higher earners end up getting, in retirement, more government benefits (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) than the shorter-lived, lower income cohort.

They find this worrisome, I don't. In each case the benefits last the person's whole life, and if they live less long, they need the benefits for fewer years. What Orszag and Lee report are averages, clearly some poor people live to be quite old and collect much government money, just as some wealthy individuals die young and get little.

If poor people, on average, make lifestyle choices which result in them living fewer years, the key thing is that the benefits last as long as they live, they cannot outlive them. If affluent people, on average, make wise lifestyle choices and live longer, again the key thing is that they cannot outlive their benefits.

The affluent may get more total dollars in benefits, but that is primarily the result of many of them stretching their lives out to more years of benefit eligibility. The option of not smoking, not drinking overmuch, not using street drugs, not drunk-driving a car into a power pole, that option is as available to the less affluent as it is to the more affluent.

As we reported just over a month ago, smarter people live longer. It is likely that, on average, they make more money as well. And they make better lifestyle choices. This isn't strange or peculiar, it is exactly what one would expect.

People are not created equal; we believe they should receive equal treatment by the government. It isn't logical to expect equal outcomes, it is enough to try to create equal opportunities.