"The ZIP code shouldn't predict how long you'll live."
No factor in itself can determine the life span of any human being.
Once again, liberal pundits and think tanks have posited an empty campaign touching on the peripheral of a significant statistic.
It is not where I live, but the shared cultural experience of a region that influences the length or diminution of a person's health.
Regions where there is a high incidence of crime will induce more stress, if not ending the lives of individuals more readily. Greater poverty does not necessarily mean that there are fewer options for purchasing sustainable foods. Rather, a culture of dependence which enables individuals to live off the dwindling coffers of the welfare state diminish the incentive for recipients to save, invest, and properly allocate resource.
The greater the presence of the state in the daily affairs of people's live, the greater the likelihood of deviance, dysfunction, and ultimately early death.
A more analytical review of those ZIP codes in question may reveal communities where the state's presence is far more prominent, where there are a greater number of dependents expecting remuneration from the state in some form of subsidy.