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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/22/us-leading-cause-death-poverty-crisis>
"Can you name the top 10 causes of death in America? Without too much trouble,
most Americans could likely come up with some of them: cancer, heart disease,
stroke, accidents. But it would come as a surprise to many to know that poverty
is right up there with these other dreaded scourges – much higher, in fact,
than many ills that have inspired investigative committees, major policy
investments and sustained attention from the public and private sectors in
American life.
A recent study by one of our colleagues shows that cumulative poverty over many
years is the fourth leading cause of death in this country. Current poverty –
just being poor right now – is seventh on that list, and it alone causes 10
times as many deaths as homicide, close to five times as many deaths as gun
violence, and 2.5 times as many deaths as drug overdoses. Cumulative poverty
that lingers year after year is associated with approximately 60% more deaths
than current poverty, putting only heart disease, cancer and smoking-related
deaths ahead in the number of Americans it kills.
But if this is true, why do we hear so much about crime rates, opioids and gun
violence in America, but so little from our elected leaders about the crisis of
poverty? Why is there no “Surgeon General’s Warning” on low-wage jobs? The
relationship of poverty to disease and death is a well-established fact
detailed in reports by the World Health Organization, the World Bank and our
own government. But we as a people have become numb to the unnecessary deaths
that are normalized by the ways we often think and talk about the economy in
public life.
Sadly, the United States is the leader in poverty among the rich countries of
the world. As of 2019, the US had the worst poverty rate overall (17.8%) and in
children specifically (20.9%) among the other 25 wealthy countries that are
part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)."
Via Doug Senko.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
