Comments on: Newsflash: Poverty is Bad for Your Health

By: AR

AR — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:17:00 +0000

I've long suspected that clean drinking water, food security, and vaccination have done far more for human health than all the rest of modern medicine combined, and the fact that the difference in access to medicine between those in poverty vs. those who are not only amounts to 8.2 years of difference on average in a population with a life expectancy several decades beyond populations without access to the basics I mentioned would seem to support that notion.

By: Sasha_feather

Sasha_feather — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:09:26 +0000

This is a fantastic post! I wish everyone would read it! The fatphobia and obesity scare tactics going on in society right now are filling me with rage; and as you say, those things put the focus on issues of personal choice and ignore institutional problems. They also ignore a lot of issues that involve privacy and respect of people’s food choices. This post rightly frames the issue of societal health in a whole different way.

By: Sadie Kay

Sadie Kay — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:09:28 +0000

Thank you for writing this! It’s a relief to hear it spelled out so clearly. I really appreciate the fact that you’re not just talking about poverty as though it is a personal, moral failing whose only real consequences are a tax drain on the wealthy — because sometimes I feel that this gets said (not here!) and I hate hearing it. I also think you’re right that the consequences of poverty are also about situations and physical environments, and that does go hand in hand with disabilities… why can’t we create universally accessible, healthy environments that don’t cost an arm and a leg to build or buy? (That might be a rhetorical question.)

By: kaninchenzero

kaninchenzero — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:57:07 +0000

To pick a very specific thing–utility assistance alone would save thousands of lives annually and improve the health of I have no idea how many more. People are injured and sickened and die in cold weather when they try to heat their homes with space heaters or charcoal grills or wood fires. We all know this. What’s less publicized is the same thing happens every year in the summer without air conditioning to thousands more. Most of the people who die are older people and people with disabilities.

But for so many in USian society the higher priority is making sure that someone isn’t getting something for nothing. So we have programs that are supposed to provide help around the home for disabled people burdened with punitive, humiliating, and expensive fraud-prevention measures. The IRS puts more effort into investigating Earned Income Tax Credit fraud than corporate income tax fraud. This is required by law passed by Republican-dominated congresses and is not a coincidence. The Social Security Administration denies nearly every application for disability income the first time–it’s difficult and humiliating as a way of keeping people off the rolls even if they qualify for benefits. And we don’t help people live in homes that are healthy and won’t make them sick. We get upset when a child dies from an untreated cavity because dentists don’t want to take Medicaid/CHIP patients but the upset passes soon enough and the system that killed that child doesn’t change.

I’m bitter today. I’m disappointed in my country. I want to think we be better than this but so far it hasn’t happened.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:18:27 +0000

Wow, this post totally blew my mind. I can’t believe I never thought about poverty this way before. Can’t wait to bring it up the next time my right wing uncle brings up “the lazy poor.”