I think that the emphasis that the reading puts on child education as a way to improve both health and poverty is very important. Researching for my group presentation and final paper about how education can affect people far beyond simply learning math and reading, I can truly appreciate the education I have received, and understand the importance of the policies discussed in the reading. By keeping children in school, and starting school at a younger age, children are able to develop important skills that they may not be able to master if they are home all day, watching or helping their parents work. Childhood is a key time for development of social skills, emotional health and even physical health. It is important that children work on these skills in the right environments, and that they are encouraged to keep working and do their best. If children are not properly educated, they grow up with higher chances of depression, and anxiety. They have lower self-esteem and are more likely to do things such as drugs. Additionally, by having children staying in school, not only do parents have more time to work and make money, but also children will grow up with an increased chance to do the same.
Archives
02
May 14
Body Economic Part 3
After finishing The Body Economic, I am rather convinced that the authors Stuckler and Basu are right. In each part- in each chapter even- we are given more and more examples of how austerity and budget cuts are harmful to societies while actually helping the people is not. In the third part of the book, we see Sweden’s social protection plan, the Active Labor Market Program, which actively helped the unemployed get back on track. It’s no wonder that programs like this would be beneficial. We have already seen how unemployment/ not making much money can negatively affect people mentally and emotionally, leading to depression and in some cases, suicide. And with people who are already feeling down in the dumps, having someone to hold their hand and help them up can sometimes be the only option. It’s amazing to see that social protection programs were the reason why “unemployment spikes had no correlation with increased suicides in Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, but unemployment was strongly correlated to suicide in Spain, the US, Greece, Italy and Russia”(118). It almost seems too perfect for the authors’ arguments that the economic situation in so many different countries prove their points, especially since for each one, the authors bring lots of statistics, as well as personal stories.
25
Apr 14
The Body Economic Part II
It’s interesting to read about the situations in Iceland and Greece, side by side in part II of The Body Economic, because of the significant differences between them. Basically, Iceland recovered nicely from an economic crisis by listening to the people and continuing to provide them with help, while Greece’s economy continued to suffer as they listened to the IMF, and cut budgets and healthcare. After reading about both countries, the importance of both listening to the citizens and helping them during hard times becomes obvious. However, can it really be that simple? Just continue to help your people, give them what they want, and this will help fix the economic situation? And even more so, it will help the overall health of the people too? The situation in Iceland almost sounds too good. Despite the fiscal crisis, surveys showed that people still showed positive moods, and that they actually began drinking and smoking less and eating healthier. Then again, Iceland was doing really well in terms of happiness to begin with. Social protection programs as well as a high level of social inclusion made Iceland the “happiest” country in the world since the late 1990s. There’s no doubt that this whole nature of the country helped enable it to survive the economic hardships. This is actually why, the authors say, “Iceland was a good place to test our hypothesis that the country’s strengths – notably its democratic participation, social support, and inclusive social protection system- could make it more resilient to an economic meltdown, preventing a public health disaster (59)”.
