When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that average American life expectancy shortened by a tenth of a year, as it did last year, it's forgivable if the problem isn't immediately obvious. Sure, we might have shaved off a little more than a month from our lifespans, but at the same time, mortality rates for some of America's leading causes of death, including cancer, heart disease and kidney disease, are falling. What's the difference between 78.7 and 78.6 years?
But behind that loss — behind the clean bar charts and crisp CDC estimates — is the core of our country’s most shameful social failures.