Live Longer In a Depression

Last today, cheer up… this economic malaise we’re suffering will probably make you live longer. “According to a pair of researchers from the University of Michigan, a depression does more for longevity than diet or exercise,” reports Bill Bonner in his latest Daily Reckoning missive. We promise this is not a cruel joke.

“Life expectancy during the worst years of the Great Depression increased from 57.1 years in 1929 to 63.3 years in 1933, says the report by Jose A. Tapia Granados and Ana Diez Roux. It didn't matter whether you were a man or a woman, black or white. And it didn't matter if you were in the U.S. during the Great Depression or in Spain, Japan or Sweden during their economic downturns. The results were the same.

“As CNN reports, ‘By contrast, life expectancy declined during the boom years. For most age groups, mortality tended to peak during years of strong economic expansion (such as 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1936-1937).’

“Conventional wisdom holds that recessions are times of stress. People do not eat as well. They skip medical checkups. They should drop dead earlier. Instead, they live longer. Perhaps it is because the economy slows down, allowing people to live at a more comfortable pace. Maybe the unemployed get more sleep. We don't know. But if you want to live an extra six years, nothing works like a slump.”

from Agora Financial