David Stuckler makes a good argument about the detrimental effects of government spending cuts on public health.” When the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy.” The case with Kierren’s dad dying the day after being deemed “fit for work” by Cameron is an example of how budget cuts can lead to slowing down the economy. “During the late 1920s, the US super-rich—the Fords, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Rockefellers—were the masters of the country’s financial markets. This top 1 percent of the population held over 40 percent of America’s wealth.” Given that this time was the period right before the stock market crash and the Great Depression, having such a large wealth gap is not economically stimulating. Today’s figure of wealth inequality in the United States is completely analogous to the numbers of the late 1920s. David Stuckler writes, “As public health researchers, we were shocked and concerned at the illogic of the austerity advocates, and the hard data on its human and economic costs. We realized the impact of the Great Recession went far beyond people losing their homes and jobs. It was a full-scale assault on people’s health. At the heart of the argument was the question of what it means to be a society, and what the appropriate role of government is in protecting people.” The initial threat to health was the increased suicide rate after Black Tuesday. Similarly to the Great Recession of recent years, Stucklet finds that the suicide and fall-in traffic death rates have increased. Stuckler compares the New Deal, Shock Therapy in Russia, and the IMF programs in Asian all show how the most vulnerable members of economy feel the worse effects of austerity programs with large budget cuts, intended to improve economic health but actually hurt it while also hurting human public health.
04/11
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Apr 14
On Austerity
“The Body Economic” is an eye-opening piece about the role that government finances and the onset of economic depression plays in access to health and health benefits, and about the lasting effect that it can have on the social determinants of health as well. I found the passage in Chapter 1 where Stuckler discusses governmental debt and its difference from personal debt. Knowing now that it’s not possible, nor is it sensible, to try to alleviate governmental debt overnight since money goes back into an economy when it’s spent, it’s refreshing to read a piece that looks at “austerity advocates” for what they are – people with privilege who lead offensives against people without. To blame welfare recipients for economic drain when there are so many other contributory factors is nothing short of class warfare, and as we’ve explored, it most definitely affects access to public health services and the general quality of health. I think it’s safe to say that austerity is counterproductive; it does the opposite of what it’s intended.
The “post-communist” mortality crisis in Russia was interesting to read about. It was an example of a political-economic decline resulting in immediate, extreme, severe mortal consequences. I was curious when reading about it why I’d never heard about this part of the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s as if the USSR’s decline was a consecutive chain of unfortunate events that would eventually result in death. It’s saddening to imagine that an unemployment rate can jump from zero to twenty-two percent in only a matter of years because of a regime change; even more harrowing, conditions in a town can change to such an extent that men begin to die off by the millions. The rise of alcoholism as a cause of death only furthers the depressing image of post-fall Russia being painted in this chapter.
It was good to read about Malaysia’s strides in public HIV treatment and prevention, especially the mother-to-child prevention program. It’s unfortunate that health declined to such an extent in other countries in Southeast Asia. The IMF appears to have done more harm than good in terms of the spread of HIV and disease in these areas. It’s another example of the pitfalls of austerity and how it harms rather than heals.
