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Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

  they're just "prematurely" tired and worn out.

Forgive me if I tread on a difficult subject, but your father passed away at an age somewhere between average and old for every generation before his. 40+ years of physical labour has and will always take its toll and there would have been nothing premature or unusual had he been an Elizabethen shipwright.

Were this still the norm, then the focus would still be on working life health checkups and realising we cannot lift into our 70s. I think perhaps we are missing something there.

I suspect it might be worth linking retirement payouts to total calories burnt over a working life. Sitting at a desk might not be such a good career move :-)

Please again - I saw your point about your father as noteworthy and I wanted to recognise that - no offense or other comment meant

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I have to object this comment.

Previous life expectancy levels were based on poor public health levels and tended to be solved by improvements in public health. It is entirely reasonable to claim someone dying at fifty today is dying prematurely due being overworked.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Life_expectancy...

    "Life expectancy increases with age as the individual
    survives the higher mortality rates associated with
    childhood. For instance, the table above listed life
    expectancy at birth in Medieval Britain at 30. A male
    member of the English aristocracy at the same period
    could expect to live, having survived until the age of
    21

    1200-1300 C.E.: 43 years (to age 64)
    1300-1400 C.E.: 34 years (to age 55)
       (due to the impact of the Black Death)
    1400-1500 C.E.: 48 years (to age 69)
    1500-1550 C.E.: 50 years (to age 71)."

That was not the intent of the comment

Interesting table though thank you

There is a vast difference in comparing live expectancy at 21 and 0. In that none of the 21+ population is going to die at 0.

Guess farm life doesn't count as taking a heavy toll. Anecdotal to be sure, but I never recalled any farmers dieing young except to accidents. The other early deaths were from undetected abnormalities that just get you one day.

Its more than the type of work you do, that simply adds risk - some you see and some you don't. If anything it can be all the idle time shift workers have off work that kills them faster. Inactivity doesn't help the body age. I am quite sure a good number of people I work with will not live to a ripe old age and all they do is sit at a desk... and then go home and sit on a sofa or desk again

I have to chime in here. Physical labor itself is not necessarily wearing. When I was growing up, our next door neighbor in his 80s was constantly gardening and doing projects around his house. He was in incredible shape for his age. He used to shovel coal for steamships as a young man. He died in his 90s.

Physical labor can become debilitating when there is injury that is not allowed to heal completely or when there are excessive hours compounded by stress. Aside from that, it's probably very good for you.

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