Chamblee54

PG found a delightful film, which is embedded above. Tim Minchin has been a favorite since “The Pope Song”, which sets a new standard for f word usage. (HT to Sola Ratione. )
The film is narrated by a poem, about a dinner party gone awry. A lady named Storm says a few goofy things, and sets Tim off. He makes a little speech about science, and how he gets to live twice as long as his great great great uncles and aunts. It is interesting that his belief is in science, and not in the statistics that purport to measure science.
PG heard something once about life expectancy, which smelled like the truth. There have historically been plenty of old people. The increase in life expectancy  is because of reduced infant mortality.
There is also the nature of statistics. The word “average” is a red flag. It can be either the mean, median, or mode. Any one of these measurements can be significantly different from the typical number, and yet can be called average. You can lie with numbers just like you can lie with words.
A co worker of PG heard on the radio that people in China live an average of ten years longer than people in the USA. His next statement was, “Why do you think this is?”. PG had a lot of questions, none of which were answered. Even if there were accurate statistics for the estimated 1.2 billion people, how would you crunch the numbers to get an “average”?
Getting back to Mr. Minchin, there is the chance that he is correct, that he can expect to live twice as long as his long ago relatives. There is also the chance that he would have been someone who never saw his first birthday. In times gone by, a typical family had ten children, but only four of those would live. The life expectancy of those who survive, until five, is very close today to the old times.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The pictures today are soldiers and sailors, who typically cannot expect a long life.