Inequality in the US. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is not an accident. It is the policy of the corporations and their capitalist system, (see the change they made in taxation) and their two parties, the Republicans and Democrats.
Anybody with half a brain knows it. When the majority live in poverty, when a small elite lives in extreme wealth, there is no way that the majority can have anything like good health. A recent book has been produced called "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger." which provides proof of this. The authors are Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson two British epidemiologists. Their book is full of facts and examples of where greater inequality and poverty in humans and also amongst other primates leads to increased levels of disease, violent crime, drug use, teenage birthrates and also heart disease. They state: "If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police. You will have to deal with higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problem."
The authors explain that humans are social animals and that in highly unequal societies the ones at the bottom suffer from a wide range of pathologies. The refer to a long term study of British civil servants which found that messengers, doormen, and others with low incomes and status were much more likely to die of heart disease, suicide and some cancers and have worse health overall.
The authors also referred to studies of other primates. The macaque monkeys are, like humans, also highly social animals. Scientists put them in cages and taught them how to pull a lever to get cocaine. Those at the bottom of the monkey hierarchy took much more cocaine than the high status monkeys. Other experiments showed that low status monkeys suffered more physical problems, including atherosclerosis in their arteries and an increase in abdominal fat. And as with monkeys, so with humans. Researchers found that when people become unemployed or suffer economic setbacks they gain weight. One 12 year study of American men found that when their income slipped they gained an average of 5.5 pounds.
Internationally the link between greater drug use and greater inequality is strong. But with a few exceptions that prove the rule. Countries such as the Netherlands which have more relaxed drug laws than other advanced industrial countries have low drug use. This would seem to be because inequality in these countries is much much less in these countries than in countries such as the US.
The authors of this book provide the facts not only for countries but also for US states. Amongst the advanced industrial countries the most unequal in terms of wealth have more mental illness, infant mortality, obesity, high school dropouts, teenage births, homicides and so on. They show the same with the US when they compare the states. States with the greatest inequality like Mississippi and Louisiana do poorly by these social measures compared to states such as New Hampshire and Minnesota where there is less inequality.
The authors of this book provide useful information. But their analysis and conclusions are confined within the capitalist system. And they are meant to make US capitalism stronger relative to its rivals. This blog is interested in promoting the interests of the US and international working class not the US capitalist class. The only way that any kind of increased equality will come about in the US and internationally is when the US and international working class moves into struggle like the 1930's and the 1960's and even then any gains they might make will be temporary unless they sweep away capitalism altogether and replace it with a democratic socialist society.
Capitalism in the US and internationally rules out any kind of sustained equality. To think so is to think you can tame a tiger. The capitalist offensive of the past forty years has been determinedly taking away all that was gained by the working class in the great revolutionary upswings of the previous decades. Bush said his task was to take away all the reforms that were made in the 1930's and 1960's that Reagan had not been able to take away. And of course world wide, capitalism keeps the majority of the world living in increasing inequality as it steps up its looting of the former colonial countries.
No matter how you look at it, capitalism does not work. This is the guiding principle on which our blog operates. We are committed to fighting for societies in which there is equality. This means fighting for democratic socialist societies. We would ask our readers to give us more help with this. We need more readers and also more writers. Send us your thoughts. Pass the information on to your friends about our blog. Send us a donation. .
Before ending On this second day of the new year let us remind ourselves again to keep up the struggle to defend Bradley Manning, Assange and wikileaks. All of us by now should be participating in this struggle in some form. We must not stand idly by and let capitalism crush wikileaks and Assange and Manning. Use your imagination. On this second day of the new year Bradley Manning remains in his box in solitary confinement. Defense of Bradley Manning, Assange and wikileaks is part of the struggle against inequality also. The capitalists and their agents have the information and we do not. There is inequality in terms of information also. Capitalism wants to maintain this inequality. Inequality is not just material. Knowledge is power. Power is necessary to fight inequality. Power is necessary to have a better life for all.
Sean.
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