Welcome to 2013. When I was born in 1961 I never dreamed that 2013 would look like what it is. Between My Favorite Martian and Star Trek, the future - which included 2013 - would be akin to Captain James T. Kirk's world. Certainly, we now possess the computer technology which Lieutenant Uhura and Spock used unsparingly when informing the Captain of details of Romulans and geological formations encountered in the vast galaxies of space. Even some medical diagnostic devices, although much larger than the hand-held size used by Dr. McCoy, are meeting the "magical" definition employed by the future healthcare model presented on Star Trek. What is not jibing is the state of poverty and the diseases promoted by poverty that I expected, by 2013, to be adequately managed.
The last 45 years have seen the population double to seven billion. This is certainly due to advances in medical sciences whereby people with chronic diseases live longer. The incidence of infectious diseases has decreased due to vaccines and prophylactics. If chronic diseases and infectious agents are being better managed, isn't poverty just a different problem? The answer is no.
The effectiveness of health management is dependent on access to services. Those in poverty or with a low SES (socioeconomic status) have less access to those disease-fighting services, are more inclined to mental illness, are less likely to have health insurance and less likely to finish high school; they are more likely to be undernourished, more likely to be exposed to violence in the household, and have an overall higher rate of morbidity and mortality.
To account for the disparity, many studies exist which document and outline the factors globally which lead to these unacceptable trends. With such vast wealth across developed countries, the means of creating remedies certainly does exist. But it is the lack of will of those wealthiest nations, corporations and individuals to prioritize poverty and exercise solutions which blocks sufficient advancement on this front.
Inherent classism and inequitable labor practices are the touchstone of democratic capitalism. The rich cannot be served if the poor do not serve them and the CEO cannot be respected if the workers make as much as he does. Making the job of a floor sweeper as important as the advertising executive seems absurd, but paying the floor sweeper $7.00/hour and paying the advertising executive $70.00/hour seems like economic rape. Are the financial needs of that advertising exec so much more that they require ten times the pay scale? I think not.
Empowerment is an important by-product of executing stopgaps to low SES. It is the reason why unions were created. It is an essential ingredient in the human psyche to be viewed and to view itself as a part of the wheel of production and creation - of making life better and advancing oneself. Without the participation of the entire of humanity though, the present statistic of 2.4 billion people (more than 1/3 of the population) living in poverty (below $2/day) is unfathomable.
In the U.S., those of the extinct middle class are feeling the tremors of poverty, and some have definitely hit the mark as social services funding, the housing market, and employment statistics have caused millions of families to plummet financially. This last two years in the Eurozone have also taken their toll on families. And yet, still the richest hang on, hide behind meaningless philanthropic endeavors, and invest offshore to avoid taxation which would help their fellow citizens.
The likes of Bill and Melinda Gates and others of their class who are contributing to the eradication of malaria, AIDS, and other communicable diseases through their foundations would find better use for their funds by sponsoring the education of families, thereby creating empowerment within individuals who can themselves then create the means to "pass it on" through their own endeavors.
This will, eventually, bring to an end to SES as a barrier to true equity, of which the statistics of health management can then be extended across the entire socioeconomic spectrum.
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