A short note on "progress"

Small additions to the unintended consequences of actions supported by the US government:

1. Following the fall of communism and the use of "shock therapy" on the Russian economy (and people) the life expectancy of in Russia nosedived. In 1991 life expectancy for men was 63.5 years; by 1994 it have dropped to 57.6 years. For women the drop was from 74.3 years to 71.2 years.
2. While the life expectancy in Iraq rose from the early 1950s to the late 1980s (from 44 years to 64 years), with the onset of economic sanctions, life expectancy for women plummeted from 65.2 years in 1990 to 60.8 years in 2000 and an estimated 500,000 children died. One can only speculate how far it has declined since the beginning of the Iraq War or what is happening in countries like Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
3. Mexico saw a "decline in life expectancy from 2005 to 2010 among men, mainly from large increases in homicides. It was during this period that the US increased its support for Mexico's military "war on drugs."

On another front, there has been concern about the abnormally high death rate among middle age white American males, due to drugs, alcohol and suicides. Analysis of this trend points to the decline in economic opportunity (due to the skyrocketing inequality in the US?)

"One of the greatest stories of the 20th century was that we doubled the life expectancy of adults," the head of the John A. Hartford Foundation, remarked recently.  It would appear that we are hell-bent on reversing that progress.