The lives of each person brought up in episode 1 represent a different career, income bracket, district, and corresponding level of control. Just as wealth determines the amount of control and stressors each of these individuals faces, it predicts rates of disease per district. This differing prevalence of disease in each district can easily be explained by the individual-level differences of wealth and income and resources. That with each downward step in wealth individuals, in turn, begin to lack the control, resources, and environment to lead healthy lives. In response Dr. Adewale Troutman’s statement on individual responsibility in episode 1, individual Responsibility is important only within social context, without social determinants …show more content…
Tim Takaro’s statement in episode 5, capitalism and free-market forces are based on exploitation and profit yields, a system that privileges profits cannot, in turn, ensure values like health and often times exploit it. Healthy homes and neighborhoods for an affordable cost does not have the best profit margins and does not merit as much as a home apropos for one’s class that ignores health entirely. And many times, healthy housing initiatives, reinvention, and reinvestment are shady gentrification movements that hurt as many, if not more of, the impoverished that it says it will help. Like the gentrification movement of East Liberty in Pittsburgh that destroyed 22,000 affordable housing units and replaced only 7,000 in hopes of creating a “mixed income” neighborhood. Many black impoverished residents that once lived in East Liberty were pushed back to Northside and Homestead. The argument for the gentrification of East Liberty was pitched as a purely economic argument. However the policy to create new, healthy, affordable housing for the displaced tenants was there, it just wasn’t enforced. So beyond new policy, we need strong, uncompromising backers to create successful nonmarket solutions for these …show more content…
So while it’s possible to triumph over fate, it’s so difficult we shouldn’t even expect citizens to perpetuate this. However, ideally, individuals should be able to determine their own fate because then individuals can be judged by the integrity of their character and not the forces that shaped them. Because we see all American movements, constructions, and actions as inherently individualistic or stemming from the inhibited work of the “individual,” we treat corporations as individuals and give them rights as such and believe that government should not infringe on our, or our states’, autonomy in any way. Meaning both corporations and Americans receive aid and support on a case by case basis rather than in an equal fashion. Despite the inequality of aid and because we believe that America’s legal conception of freedom, liberty, and rugged individualism works in practice and in reality, we think that poor economic and health outcomes are a product of personal responsibility. Instead of evaluating social forces, we challenge and blame the individual, and thus America becomes one of the only developed countries to deny their citizens universal health care, comprehensive unemployment
From this film, the key points that were mentioned about how socioeconomic backgrounds and race impact one’s health is something that is not as emphasized as it should be in the public eye. Especially how health and wealth are intertwined with each other is particularly frustrating since health should be a human right and people should receive the health they need regardless of their economic
In addition, they endure more stressful family and work conditions which can lead to unhealthy lifestyle characteristics, such as excessive use of alcohol and may…(reword) poor nutrition” (19). In other words, the more prestige/power one has within society, the better their chances are of living longer. Scott’s article Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer; provided many examples that showed the inequality between the classes. For example, Jean Miele’s case; he had a heart attack and because of his social class—and connections established through his status—he was surrounded by two knowledgeable colleagues that knew something was seriously wrong with Miele, therefore; immediately calling an ambulance. In addition, because of the neighborhood Miele was in during the heart attack he was given a choice of where we was to go to receive medical care; within minutes of arriving at the chosen hospital, he was in line for an angioplasty to unclog the affected artery. After the heart attach Miele entered a cardiac rehab which was covered through his insurance. As Scott showed in her article, Miele never once considered the amount this operation cost or the price for his cardiac rehab treatment.
One example of social differentiation that Bradley and Taylor address is that people who are poor tend to be unhealthier than those that are wealthy. Although a lack of access to health care is one reason for poor health, there are other factors that play a large role in overall health. Some of these factors include the neighborhood one lives in, occupation, clothing, food, and other social factors. The first chapter of the book begins with the striking example of a
The Health and Wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of themselves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor clinical outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, poor healthcare, on stable employment, and uncertain physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is a somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have sufficient funds to pay for said resources will, unfortunately, have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
Those who cannot afford the high prices of housing are often forced out into the streets where they face a very uncertain future due to the number of abuses they encounter daily from all walks of life, with the most damning being the vagrancy laws that come into vogue in areas that are getting gentrified, which many cities have passed to “protect” their newfound assets and tax base from the “lowering” of property values. Furthermore, when cities such as Los Angeles demand that property developers set aside affordable housing for lower income people, they get sued in court, such as in 2009, when real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer successfully sued in order to overturned an ordnance which required that. This was also the same man who also proposed building a footbridge connecting two of his buildings to minimize contact with people he deemed undesirable (Davis).
In addition, to the first book review our second review analyzed the lives of people class distinctions. In Class Matters as stated in my initial review the book focuses on the negative and positive factors of people’s lives. During a section of the book just to recap the experiences of three people of different social classes experiencing heart attacks. The first guy that had a heart attack was of the upper middle class. This man had the luxury of giving multiple options of attending the best hospital and care for his health. In chapter five heading the Hierarchy: Upper Class or Superclass? The conclusion states, “Best positioned within the class structure to obtain high-quality financial capital and also social capital…” (Doob, 142). The first guy with the heart attack has a better advantage because of all of the necessities and benefits he has to offer. The second person with the heart attack was of the middle class. This man was issued with fewer options, but still a good hospital he had the same surgery, but with no additional information as the first person. In chapter six it discusses how some middle class people have difficulty financially. The expenses of health insurance have become much greater for middle class American’s. Doob states, “The harsh reality involving healthcare is that left on their own, many middle-class people can afford only very limited or no
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick, clearly explored the relationship between socioeconomic status and health, it was said that college graduates live 2.5 years longer than high school graduates” (California Newsreel, 2008). This documentary illustrated how one’s level of education not only impacts their quality of life, but also impacts the duration of one’s life.
First, there is Jim Taylor, Hospital CEO, District 16; second, Tondra Young, Clinical Lab Supervisor, District 24; lastly, Corey Anderson, Floor Technician, District 21. The population of each district decreases in average income, education level and life expectancy than its preceding district, beginning with district 16, Jim Taylor’s district. District 16 has an average combined household income of approximately $120,000/ annually. In this district, 65% of the population has a college degree and the life expectancy in this district is 82 years. Whereas, Tondra Young’s district, district 24, has an average combined household income of $70,000/annually and 15% of the population has a college degree. The life expectancy of district 24 is 75 years, that’s 7 years less than district 16. In district 21, Corey Anderson’s district, the average combined household income is less than $50,000/ annually and only 5% of the districts population have college degrees. Consequently, the life expectancy of district 21 is 70 years, 5 years less than district 24 and 12 years less than district 16 (Adelman 2008). The results of this study are indisputable: there is an obvious correlation between social/economic status and health status. As each districts average income and education level decrease, average life expectancy coincides. This leads to the next question: why does social and economic status so greatly influence health status?
The Health and wealth connection distilled is our health will most commonly reflect from our amount of wealth. The wealthy can afford the cost of quality care and the time to take care of them selves. Within the textbook, Dimensions of Human Behavior Hutchison writes. Public health experts have long noted the association of poor health outcomes, in all body systems, with low income, low education, unsanitary housing, in adequate healthcare, on stable employment, and unsafe physical environment (Hutchison, 2015). Easily demonstrated throughout American society the rather dubious and is somewhat perplexing phenomenon of the Health-and-Wealth connection theory. The gap between the haves and have-nots are ever expanding. Those who have the funding to pay for resources will pay to get those resources. And those who do not have adequate funding to pay for said resources will unfortunately have to stand in the long lines to receive seemingly, deceptively, scarce resources.
“Gentrification” captures class disparities and injustices created by capitalist urban land markets and policies. This in turn can cause an increasing house expense encumbrance for low-income and working-class households, and the associated personal catastrophes of displacement, removal, and homelessness, are symptoms of a set of institutional arrangements (private property rights and a free market) that support the creation of urban environments to serve the needs of capital accumulation at the expense of the social needs of home, community, family. Displacement from home and neighbourhood can be a shattering experience. At worst it leads to homelessness, at best it impairs a sense of community. Public policy should, by general agreement,
Gentrification or displacement is not something that I thought about that often. It was a vague and distant thing that I heard about on the news sometimes. But it isn’t a vague and distant thing; it’s a real process happening all over the world that has real consequences. The OneDC tour of the Shaw neighborhood that my class and I went on made me realize that more clearly. In the media, gentrification is overwhelmingly depicted as a positive thing, very rarely is the displacement of the preexisting residents discussed. They don’t really talk about how the population that continuously gets the short end of the stick when it comes to gentrification is low-income black people. And it just isn’t right to push out long-term residents for the sake
The specter of homelessness creates a psychological burden, and trauma created by physical displacement has influence over health. The benefits of gentrification are only distributed to a few residents, the demographics of which skew affluent white professionals, lower-income residents (often people of color) mostly remain cut off from the “good” of neighborhood revitalization. There is an undercurrent implication that a better neighborhood is one without them, exemplified by Section 8 voucher discrimination, like Lynda’s story. Landlords, private building owners in California currently have the right to deny voucher recipients housing on the basis that decreases the desirability of neighborhoods. While laws have been proposed to criminalize such discrimination, pro-business attitudes and advocacy have ultimately won out in the past, prioritizing the needs of few under private business over human interests.
(Scanlon, 1998, 258-9) One way to avoid the problem of holding people accountable after they have harmed themselves is to assign responsibility on the basis of the initial decision-making. Alexander Cappelen and Ole Norheim (2015) distinguish between holding people responsible for their choices and holding them responsible for the consequences of their choices. They argue that people should be held responsible upfront at the moment of choice by introducing taxes on unhealthy choices. However, in the case of
This essay will discuss ways in which a person’s socioeconomic class and his/her social situation can have an impact on his/her health, using examples. We believe that there is a direct link between socioeconomic/social class and health (Adler et al. 1994). I will be defining the key terms: socioeconomic and health, social class then proceed to discuss about how poverty, income, employability, environment and housing can impact on a person’s social situation and their health.
The aim of this essay is to examine the influence that socio-economic status has on an individual’s health.