On CBS News Sunday Morning today (2/19) they were discussing a former president, William Henry Harrison. It was an interesting history lesson and the announcers seemed to have their facts right. Except for one thing. After mentioning that Harrison was sworn into office at the relatively advanced age of 68, one of the announcers marveled that the life expentancy then was only 39 years; back then it would have been like a 110-year old was becoming president. NO, NO, NO!
The main reason that life expectancy figures were so low back then (and now, in impoverished parts of the world) was because of the enormously high infant mortality rate, which drastically skewed the figures. Being a human being in the first couple of years of life was very, very dangerous, with fatal illnesses a commonplace, tragic feature. Once someone did make it out of early childhood, they stood a good chance of making it into old age eventually (unless they were sucked into a war not of their own making, that is). So being 68 was NOT some extraordinary feat of longevity, as the TV person implied...
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Here is my post on the life expectancy topic, from 2007.
ReplyDeleteYes, Barry, you sized it up perfectly with your example of the New York Times misinterpretation of life expectancy regarding Supreme Court tenure.
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