-Health gap between rich and poor as big as it was in 1900 - Mortality rates are 1.4 times higher today in places that were the most deprived areas in the 1900s, compared with the least deprived. Despite all the improvements patterns of poverty and mortality and the relations between them remain the same.
-Income inequality in the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States
...and let's not forget the dramatic rise in the number of beggars and homeless people on the street, closely correlated with the adoption, by governments, of 'trickle-down, let the poor be damned' economics across the globe. When I was young back in the 1970's, there were precisely zero beggars on the streets of Melbourne. No one was homeless there. Now, it looks like Bombay, you fall over them as soon as you get off the train.
Let us not also forget the steep increases in the cost of just about everything, especially essential services like the provision of utilities (electricity, gas, and water). Until 1994, here in the state of Victoria, we had the SEC - the State Electricity Commission. It was cheap, effective (no blackouts), and the cost was stable due to the fact that it was not subject to 'market forces'. Then our wonderful (right-wing) State Government decides to sell off the SEC to private concerns, arguing that 'competition will lower the cost, improve efficiency, and give you choice' (like we needed 'choice'). Anyway, the exact opposite - predictably - happened; costs went up (and up, and up, and up), we started to experience blackouts, people lost their jobs, efficiency deteriorated, and now we have pesky Indian telemarketers calling up and asking, 'Would you like to switch to XXX Company to provide your electricity for you...'.
Then of course there was the dramatic rise in job insecurity, bankruptcies, family breakdowns/divorces, crime, gambling addiction, obesity, small business closures (ex. small street shops replaced by ugly, impersonal American-style 'malls' - yuk), small towns becoming ghost-towns (because there is no work)... All within the last 30 years. Life was better when the Government owned everything.
So, to sum up: It's been a DISASTER where I live; Cuba is Paradise by comparison!
-Health gap between rich and poor as big as it was in 1900 - Mortality rates are 1.4 times higher today in places that were the most deprived areas in the 1900s, compared with the least deprived.
ReplyDeleteDespite all the improvements patterns of poverty and mortality and the relations between them remain the same.
-Income inequality in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States
No political slant or hidden agendas behind that wikipedia propaganda, is there?
ReplyDelete...and let's not forget the dramatic rise in the number of beggars and homeless people on the street, closely correlated with the adoption, by governments, of 'trickle-down, let the poor be damned' economics across the globe. When I was young back in the 1970's, there were precisely zero beggars on the streets of Melbourne. No one was homeless there. Now, it looks like Bombay, you fall over them as soon as you get off the train.
ReplyDeleteLet us not also forget the steep increases in the cost of just about everything, especially essential services like the provision of utilities (electricity, gas, and water). Until 1994, here in the state of Victoria, we had the SEC - the State Electricity Commission. It was cheap, effective (no blackouts), and the cost was stable due to the fact that it was not subject to 'market forces'. Then our wonderful (right-wing) State Government decides to sell off the SEC to private concerns, arguing that 'competition will lower the cost, improve efficiency, and give you choice' (like we needed 'choice'). Anyway, the exact opposite - predictably - happened; costs went up (and up, and up, and up), we started to experience blackouts, people lost their jobs, efficiency deteriorated, and now we have pesky Indian telemarketers calling up and asking, 'Would you like to switch to XXX Company to provide your electricity for you...'.
Then of course there was the dramatic rise in job insecurity, bankruptcies, family breakdowns/divorces, crime, gambling addiction, obesity, small business closures (ex. small street shops replaced by ugly, impersonal American-style 'malls' - yuk), small towns becoming ghost-towns (because there is no work)...
All within the last 30 years. Life was better when the Government owned everything.
So, to sum up: It's been a DISASTER where I live; Cuba is Paradise by comparison!
Peter