Hard facts about demographics

NPR reported this morning on a new report that says that by 2030, the United States will have the lowest life expectancy of all the developed nations.  The reasons?  In no particular order:

• Obesity
• The murder rate
• Lack of universal healthcare

Those are the big three.  While American men and women can look for seventy something on average, a baby girl born in South Korea this morning can hope to hit 90.

Meanwhile, I keep listening my way through Thomas Friedman's Thank You for Being Late.  The chapter I just completed concerns the mushrooming of populations in  failed or nearly failed states in Africa and Latin America.  The most fascinating , and disturbing, fact I hear on the way home last night was this:

In countries where drought, desertification and climate change have destroyed agriculture and the economy, most people's solution is --- get this --- to have more children.  Lots of kids are seen as their insurance policy.

And so the pressure continues to build at America's and Europe's southern boundaries.  Dare I ask: is Trump definitely wrong to want to build that wall of his?

Bringing this post full circle, one thing we will soon have in common with Mexico, wall or no wall:  our life expectancy. 

Considering the causes of the decline in American life expectancy, is it not truly remarkable that fat, gun toting voters elected the party that wants to repeal Obamacare?  Is that or is it not social darwinism writ large?