I’m actually not a cynic, an attitude mostly lazy and unthinking, but straight up ignoring conventions and laws is what the right has normalised.

Trump didn’t go to jail for Jan 6th, and never will. The paycheck mob did tho.

“Go out there and fight like hell”.

Isn’t that cute? They think that laws apply to billionaires.

I can’t compare the US or German situation in any depth because I’m neither American nor German. Like you I can only go by appearances when viewing the other. I think that big pharma has got you guys around the balls to a larger extent. For instance, insulin medication has never been expensive over here and we have a thing called the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) that lets Australians get necessary prescribed medicines without paying full price. The scheme began in 1948. Some medicines which costs thousands in the US are subsidised to the tune of about $10 a month here. That is the extreme end, but drug subsidy is a thing and is tax payer funded.

As to why other rich western countries don’t do as well, I’m not sure. I speculate that social policies probably have a great deal to do with it. The US seems to treat socialised anything with a degree of contempt, at least according to the horror stories we hear about. You know, patients without sufficient insurance being refused treatment or massive bill shock after an operation. I’m sufficiently ignorant about this matter to be confident about the detail.

All I can say is that something structural is at work that might explain why the Aussie medical experience is better, and I doubt that it’s better or different fast food.

I don’t understand the points of this post.

Australia is very urbanised with the vast majority of the country clinging to the coastal rim. The interior of the country is vastly unpopulated.

Australia has a much better health outcomes than the US. Our fast food culture, although not great, cannot be compared to Americans.

The ‘everything can kill you’ thing is a meme. Yes, we have tons of venomous creatures but as we mostly live in the cities the rare deaths cause headlines and are not common place. Plus we don’t experience mass shootings every week, let alone single gun deaths.

The single biggest benefit for Australian life expectancy is socialised medicine. It’s not perfect, and insurance is encouraged, but a poor person in need of major medical intervention has almost identical access to health care as a fully insured person, and mostly with no financial outlay. In fact, an insured person may lie side-by-side in a hospital bed next to an uninsured person getting the same treatment.

Medical insurance is not tied to employment.

All this is under threat. Conservatives are attacking our health system and underfunding it. It is only a matter of time before we start tracking downwards like the US. The secret to a longer life expectancy is government regulation and social responsibility, a healthy personal lifestyle and not feeding the corporate medical parasites that sit between the patient and the required healthcare.