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The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

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Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#121

Post by jhhh »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #114
jhhh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 5% of working adults in the US have more than one job. The average worker between 25-54 works 40.5 hours with an average commute of 26 minutes each way.

Does this include 1099 contracting work? Because those aren't "jobs", by a W2 definition of the concept.

It looks like it's a questionnaire through the Current Population Survey (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/technical-docume...) and the wording I found:

(THE WEEK BEFORE LAST/LAST WEEK), did (name/you) have more than one (job/job or business), including part time, evening or weekend work?

So it doesn't look like it separates different kinds of work.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#122

Post by scruple »

RickJWagner wrote: post #120
flahgd wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indians and asians actually earn more than whites on average.

I think some places categorize Indians as Asians. (Not that this changes the earnings stats.)

Sure, of course, and Indians and East Asians will "correct" those people for time immemorial.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#123

Post by Sojuwa »

denverkarma wrote: post #29

It’s really hard for me not to be skeptical of a study that starts with the premise of measuring everyone else against “the most privileged group,” aka. white men, and then calling their metric “health justice.” I don’t know the stats off the top of my head but I’ve heard many times that men’s health issues are under-studies relative to women’s — ie breast cancer versus prostate cancer. I’ve also seen that mental hea…

Have sex.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#124

Post by [deleted] »

hanniabu wrote: post #5
ndiscussion wrote: post #2

Being healthy is cheap as can be, but the gap is indeed increasing. One need only spend 10 minutes at their favorite discount grocer checkout line to see why. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's very sad. Why are we destroying our bodies? edit: this quote is getting at it, but seems to ignore the real problem. > Research shows that health care accounts for only 10% to 20% of overall health outcomes > when patie…

Unhealthy foods are cheaper than healthy foods, partially due to sugar subsidies. This is what happens when corporations run the government. They lobby for things that are beneficial to their bottom line rather than what's better for the well being of the population.

[deleted]

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#125

Post by ericd »

asark wrote: post #88
foxyv wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few friends on the poverty line. They all live in houses and apartments without access to a working kitchen. Many rented rooms don't come with kitchen "privileges." In addition they work 60+ hours a week making time consuming food preparation less practical. The result is a lot of cheap pre-packaged food and fast food.

Cheap, gross pizza is a thing, and you just have to pick it up. IIRC a Costco combination pizza will provide enough calories for a largish adult for two days , and is $10. No oven, no kitchen, no gadgets, no cooking required. It'll even probably still be fine to eat day two without refrigeration. Ditto all sorts of other dirt-cheap gross pizza joints, not just Costco. Math works out almost as good. Or cheap frozen pi…

Rice, beans/lentils, basic veggies, eggs, milk, and chicken are all cheaper than the gross pizza you're describing, and much healthier. Throw in some spices, and it'll taste better, too.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#127

Post by vixen99 »

pkaye wrote: post #23
hanniabu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unhealthy foods are cheaper than healthy foods, partially due to sugar subsidies. This is what happens when corporations run the government. They lobby for things that are beneficial to their bottom line rather than what's better for the well being of the population.

According to a Google lookup, unhealthy foods are cheaper at about $1.50 per day. Also if people cut back on quantity consumed it may be adequate despite being unhealthy food. I think most people eat too many calories per day for the amount of physical activity.

A bit pedantic perhaps but let's bear in mind that with the exception of contaminated products, there are no such things as unhealthy foods. There is such a thing as an unhealthy diet constructed from disproportionate and inappropriate amounts (as you point out) of the essential nutrients we need including carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#128

Post by Giho »

From article: "But, Ramirez-Valles says, the study does a good job of showing that when it comes to health outcomes, "it's not always [immediately] about health." He says the study's findings indicate a need for two broad policy recommendations: a revision of the minimum wage and a rethinking of our current taxation system.

"Income inequality is at the bottom of this," he says. "We need to target and attack [it] aggressively. Not only in this country, but worldwide." "

When I read this I think of Thomas Pikettys research. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_...

This concentration of wealth haven't happened over a night. I don't think the income difference is the only problem but also the accumulation of capital. The article seem to forget the difference between income versus spending in addition to start capital.

How is the health of people with a lot of capital and a low income and high spending? Or is it not possible to have low income with a lot of capital?

The rethinking of the taxation system, I do think Ramez has a point as income has higher taxation compared to capital. The amount of capital matters more than the amount of income.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#129

Post by DanBC »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #90
save_ferris wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistically speaking, white men are far and away the highest income earners in America. They are literally the most privileged group. Until 2008, 44 of 44 of US presidents were white men. White men dominate the Fortune 500, Wall Street, and leadership in the government. The paper also explicitly defined health justice as "a measure of the correlation of health outcomes with income, race/ethnicity and sex; and a sum…

Consider this: Who do you think is more privileged, with "privileged" meaning access to money, support, opportunities and potential for advancement: Will Smith's kids or a white poor guy who grew up in West Virginia? I think the point the parent is trying to make is that at any individual's level income and wealth are a far better measure of privilege than race. Yes, wealth is highly correlated with race in the US, a…

> Who do you think is more privileged, with "privileged" meaning access to money, support, opportunities and potential for advancement: Will Smith's kids or a white poor guy who grew up in West Virginia?

This is a misunderstanding of privilege.

You don't compare Smith to poor people in West Virginia, you compare him to his Hollywood peers. And there are fewer roles for black men, so yes, he is less privileged than his peers.

For poor white people the situation is more complex but anyone providing services knows that poor white men face significant disadvantages across a range of indicators and they're trying to fix it.

Re: The Gap Between Rich and Poor Americans' Health Is Widening

#130

Post by asark »

ericd wrote: post #125
asark wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap, gross pizza is a thing, and you just have to pick it up. IIRC a Costco combination pizza will provide enough calories for a largish adult for two days , and is $10. No oven, no kitchen, no gadgets, no cooking required. It'll even probably still be fine to eat day two without refrigeration. Ditto all sorts of other dirt-cheap gross pizza joints, not just Costco. Math works out almost as good. Or cheap frozen pi…

Rice, beans/lentils, basic veggies, eggs, milk, and chicken are all cheaper than the gross pizza you're describing, and much healthier. Throw in some spices, and it'll taste better, too.

Sure, the Costco pizza's just an example because I happened to be contemplating their calorie-including menu while standing in the grocery checkout line the other day. That's expensive junk food and happens to actually have some vitamins in it, hidden amongst the grease and fat and colon cancer. Check out pop tarts for some real WTF junk food cheapness. Neighborhood of 10,000 calories in a box of 48 "pastries" (24 2-packs), depending on the flavor. Around $11 if you don't catch it on sale and buy the real deal instead of an off brand. Zero prep (can optionally heat, don't have to, microwave's about as good as a toaster so equipment's flexible if one or the other's broken or missing) and keeps forever.

I'm not advocating junk food, mind you. I just don't get why people say it's expensive and so poor people must only be saving time with it, at best. Sure, it can be expensive, if you're running around buying name-brand potato chips or something. It can also compete with bargain-hunter, ultra-penny-pinching healthy cooking, though, on a strictly price basis, while conferring other benefits (health not among them). Depends on what you buy.

Incidentally, the canonical junkfood-diet meat to accompany rice and beans is hot dog, not chicken. Easier to cook, comes pre-ruined so you can't accidentally ruin it during cooking, competitive with even very cheap chicken on price, keeps much longer.

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