Al’s Emporium is a regular column on the syndicated Wall Street Journal weekend pages that appear in newspapers across the US. Yesterday’s column, Dead by 50? Thank you! is right on so many points.

“In our free-market economy, you are free to die.

“America is the land of the free, and its citizens live the shortest and sickest lives of anybody in the world’s most-developed nations, according to an extensive analysis released last week.

“If you want to live past age 50, your odds are better in 16 other developed nations, according to the 378-page study by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, titled ‘U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health.’

“In 2011, babies were born in 27 other countries with higher life expectancies.

“The study calls this ‘the U.S. health disadvantage.’ It lists cars, drugs and guns among the leading causes of death for those under 50.

“Firearm homicides are 20 times higher in the U.S. than in the other wealthy countries studied, the report said.

“We don’t just sell guns. We sell assault rifles with 30-round clips. Nuts who go on rampages only send gun sales shooting higher. The solution is always more guns. Just ask the National Rifle Association.

“The solution for every problem is always more. This is why we kill ourselves trying to get more of everything.

“We are the land of plenty, which means an average intake of 3,770 calories a day, obesity, diabetes and heart disease, according to the report.

“We have a higher infant-mortality rate and lower birth weights. We have more teenage sex, more HIV/AIDS, more chronic lung disease and more disability.”

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[NOTE: The full report, U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. is available for download for $72.00; a report brief (summary) is available here at no charge.